Supper Club Meals
Inspired by an article in Southern Living, several friends and I tried a monthly supper club. We started with six people. Since I was the home economics major, I was given the task of making a quick fact sheet about what types of foods you should not freeze. All of us shared websites with good recipes. We decided each person in our group would prepare one frozen meal each month, but make it six times. Finally we determined a date for our swap.
This worked great for the first couple of months, but then several people got overwhelmed by the schedule. We then dropped to four people and four different casseroles or meals per month. This was still beneficial since you still had a really delicious meal at least once per week.
We found out that assigning each person a type of meat was helpful. With this determined, we did not have so many casseroles or meals with ground beef. We also found a need to distinguish the type of cuisine we were preparing- i.e. Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc.
Summer rolled around and two of the final four moved. We have not started back, but I learned a great deal from the swap. Husbands and kids got tired of casseroles. Some begged for McDonald’s, Huddle House, Taco Bell, etc. Quiche was a good addition to the meal rotation and so was a monthly frozen soup.
I don’t know that I could find enough people in my new neighborhood to start the swap again, but I do utilize some of the things I learned along the way. I try to chop up all of my onions if I need just one. The extra goes into the freezer for a later date. This is also something I do with peppers and celery. If we have leftovers of fruits and veggies, I try to puree and freeze. These purees are great in quick bread recipes. There are several popular cookbooks recipes utilizing purees. Fall and Winter are great seasons for the weekly soup recipe. My family alternates between potato, chili, vegetable and jalapeno cheese soup.
If you research Make-Ahead-Frozen Meals, Once a Month Cookie, or Supper Clubs, you will find most of the recipes are high in fat due to the use of creamed soups and cheeses. I think this is why our husbands and kids got a little worn on the meals and craved something different. One solution is to use low-fat versions of the soups and cheeses (even though I am convinced that stuff isn’t real food). Most meats can be cooked ahead and reheated. Make sure you add plenty of liquid (broths, sauces, and vinegar/oil) in the reheating process to keep the meat from drying out. I like to enclose the meat and liquid in aluminum foil for reheating. Do not freeze any recipe with mayonnaise (forget the hot chicken salad, seafood salads, veg-all casseroles and many broccoli casseroles).
My younger sister is an avid Sunday cook. She and her dedicated husband grill fish and chicken once a week. They also boil dozens of eggs (only eats the whites). On several occasions I have seen her steam large amounts of fresh veggies for the week. She packs her lunch everyday. Most of the time she carries a lunchbox when she goes out to dinner. The lunchbox contains salad dressing and grilled chicken. She usually attempts to order from the menu, but sometimes just adds chicken and salad dressing to a house salad if needed. Just in case you are wondering, my sister is a professional all natural (no steroids) figure competitor (bodybuilding). She also eats a gluten free diet as part of her therapeutic treatment for Crohn’s disease.
I hope you gain something from my experience with make-ahead-frozen meals and supper clubs.
Here is a list of my favorite freezer friendly dishes:
Quiche (create low-fat versions by using one whole egg and egg whites)
Meatloaf
Soups and Chili
Pancakes (create whole wheat versions with those purees)
Baked Spaghetti (Paula Dean recipe)
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce w/ground beef (at least making this ahead allows you to heat and serve with noodles.
Grilled or Baked Boston Butt (cook, shred and freeze—Just wrap in aluminum foil w/liquid to reheat)
This worked great for the first couple of months, but then several people got overwhelmed by the schedule. We then dropped to four people and four different casseroles or meals per month. This was still beneficial since you still had a really delicious meal at least once per week.
We found out that assigning each person a type of meat was helpful. With this determined, we did not have so many casseroles or meals with ground beef. We also found a need to distinguish the type of cuisine we were preparing- i.e. Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc.
Summer rolled around and two of the final four moved. We have not started back, but I learned a great deal from the swap. Husbands and kids got tired of casseroles. Some begged for McDonald’s, Huddle House, Taco Bell, etc. Quiche was a good addition to the meal rotation and so was a monthly frozen soup.
I don’t know that I could find enough people in my new neighborhood to start the swap again, but I do utilize some of the things I learned along the way. I try to chop up all of my onions if I need just one. The extra goes into the freezer for a later date. This is also something I do with peppers and celery. If we have leftovers of fruits and veggies, I try to puree and freeze. These purees are great in quick bread recipes. There are several popular cookbooks recipes utilizing purees. Fall and Winter are great seasons for the weekly soup recipe. My family alternates between potato, chili, vegetable and jalapeno cheese soup.
If you research Make-Ahead-Frozen Meals, Once a Month Cookie, or Supper Clubs, you will find most of the recipes are high in fat due to the use of creamed soups and cheeses. I think this is why our husbands and kids got a little worn on the meals and craved something different. One solution is to use low-fat versions of the soups and cheeses (even though I am convinced that stuff isn’t real food). Most meats can be cooked ahead and reheated. Make sure you add plenty of liquid (broths, sauces, and vinegar/oil) in the reheating process to keep the meat from drying out. I like to enclose the meat and liquid in aluminum foil for reheating. Do not freeze any recipe with mayonnaise (forget the hot chicken salad, seafood salads, veg-all casseroles and many broccoli casseroles).
My younger sister is an avid Sunday cook. She and her dedicated husband grill fish and chicken once a week. They also boil dozens of eggs (only eats the whites). On several occasions I have seen her steam large amounts of fresh veggies for the week. She packs her lunch everyday. Most of the time she carries a lunchbox when she goes out to dinner. The lunchbox contains salad dressing and grilled chicken. She usually attempts to order from the menu, but sometimes just adds chicken and salad dressing to a house salad if needed. Just in case you are wondering, my sister is a professional all natural (no steroids) figure competitor (bodybuilding). She also eats a gluten free diet as part of her therapeutic treatment for Crohn’s disease.
I hope you gain something from my experience with make-ahead-frozen meals and supper clubs.
Here is a list of my favorite freezer friendly dishes:
Quiche (create low-fat versions by using one whole egg and egg whites)
Meatloaf
Soups and Chili
Pancakes (create whole wheat versions with those purees)
Baked Spaghetti (Paula Dean recipe)
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce w/ground beef (at least making this ahead allows you to heat and serve with noodles.
Grilled or Baked Boston Butt (cook, shred and freeze—Just wrap in aluminum foil w/liquid to reheat)
Website with good recipes: http://www.christysclipart.com/wwwroot/oamc2.html#CHICKEN
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