Starting a Freezer Meal Exchange Group

I have recently gotten very into freezer cooking and here is the reason why. My loving coach-husband who has coached football as an assistant coach for the last 10 years, recently got the head coaching job at our local high school (Go Tigers!). As such, I have been stockpiling like a maniac chipmunk trying to get ready for football season. Stay tuned for a lot more posts about the freezer meals I've made (I have everything from mini cheesecakes to crockpot freezer meals to fajitas). Right after I got this brilliant freezer idea into my head, a friend of mine on Facebook, who recently became a new mom, inquired about anyone who wanted to do a freezer meal exchange. I had thought about this, but had never had the go-get-em enough to actually organize one. So... THANKS ANGIE! Thanks to her (and three other awesome friends) we now have a freezer group. I pinned these two guides recently, and they are great guides for how to get a group started. But I hope this post will give you a good idea too!

Disclaimer: I wish I would have taken more photos along the way, but I didn't know this was going to turn into a blog post until later. So... sorry for the lack of photos!

THE PIN(S): These are two great guides, which you could use to start a freezer meal exchange. I have yet to actually exchange meals with my group, thus... this blog post. I'll tell you how easy it is (I'm expecting extreme ease since I'll get five meals when I've really only made one!)

Pic from http://www.eazypeazymealz.com/

Pic from http://www.mealplanningmagic.com/

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Whatever ingredients you'll need for your recipe. See the link for the recipe I used below.
Gallon sized freezer bags or other vessels for freezing
Friends (we have five, but I think anywhere between 2-6 would work... any more and it could get too hard to make all the meals, any less and, well... you would be doing it by yourself!)
Freezer

Before I get too far, I will tell you that there is a list at the end of this post of tips I gathered from my experience. When I started, I had this really grand plan for what I was going to make (I have found so many good meals!), but I encountered a few hurdles before I even made my meal. Read on...

One thing that is really important before you start is to set up a meeting with your group members. I wouldn't have thought of this, but Angie did (thank goodness!). We wanted to set some guidelines for how we wanted to do the meals, when and where we would exchange the meal, allergies and likes/dislikes, etc. I didn't know all of the ladies very well, so it was nice to get together and meet everyone first, plus determine some of those preferences. PLUS, I got to hold the sweetest little baby (got my baby fix!) while his mama enjoyed her coffee.

So we all met for coffee to determine some guidelines. I hadn't even really thought about different diets because my family will eat anything (or if they won't... they don't eat - my middle child experienced this the other night). Angie mentioned that her husband didn't like mushrooms. That's easy; I could just leave them out of hers. But another lady in my group, Robin, asked for little or no dairy. My sister doesn't do well with dairy, so I took the challenge as something that I could make for her. Plus, if she comes to visit (hint hint!), I can make one of my exchange meals for her. Perfect! No dairy and no mushrooms isn't too hard as a lot of the freezer meals leave out the dairy anyway (it doesn't freeze really well). Another thing we determined was that my family (at 5) was going to be the biggest. We decided to make all the meals big enough for five people and the smaller families (one of my friends is cooking for one!) would just have lots of yummy leftovers. You can see the importance of having a pre-meeting to determine some expectations.

Hurdle #2 had me thinking a little harder. One of the members, Angie, messaged the group a few days after the first meeting we had to let us know that her husband had recently been diagnosed with diabetes. She was so sweet and told the group that she would bow out, but we all had the same mutual feeling: we can work with this! All that being said... it was feeling a lot more challenging. No dairy AND no carbs? In the words of Barney Stinson: "Challenge accepted!" Angie told us that her hubby had to limit the amount of carbs he could eat (so no pasta-based dishes) but that he could have small portions of brown rice and grains. After a little digging on Pinterest and other sites, I determined that this would really not be that difficult. While a lot of freezer meals have carbs in them, many of the ones I found could be easily modified to leave them out or they didn't even have that many in the first place. The silver lining? These meals were going to be very healthy! It's a bonus I hadn't thought about plus my aunt, who doesn't do well with gluten, can also come and visit (hint hint!) and enjoy these meals.

So after all of the hurdle jumping, I made my one meal (Coconut Curry Chicken). I will blog about it later because it is so, so good! I made one meal, but multiplied it by the number of members in my group. Including me, that's five. I had to make sure I made enough so we could keep one in our freezer, but if you run out of ingredients, you could take yourself out of the equation. I wanted to make it easy on my group members, so I made a crock pot freezer meal. I love this idea so much because not only is it already chopped and done, but when you cook it you just set your slow cooker and come home at the end of the day to an amazing meal (and this one is amazing!). This took me around 2 1/2 hours to chop everything and put it into bags. I did use a mini food processor to chop the onions because they do not get along with my eyes (cue Justin Timberlake...). I felt so accomplished when I was finished!!

While I was busy, so were my counterparts!

One of my group mate's meals... all ready for the freezer

With freezing meals, you want to make sure you always write out the instructions for how to prepare the meal, and this is especially important if you're giving them to other people. Something I didn't think of (but thanks to my awesome exchange group...) is to print out and share the recipe you used. There are a lot of reasons this could be useful, not the least of which is so the people you give your meals to have a reference point to refer back to in case some question comes up. Another good reason is so if they really like your meal, they can make it again!

One thing that we also had come up is that Lindy, messaged us all and told us she had unexpectedly been called in to work the day we were supposed to exchange meals (she found out about a week before). It was really not a big deal. She brought her meals to my house and I stuck them in my freezer until the exchange date. Then I just kept one of my meals in my freezer for her, and one of her meals in my freezer for myself. When we exchanged, I brought the other three meals (for Shannan, Robin and Angie) to the exchange.

As mentioned before, we decided on a pre-determined date for our exchange meeting (about three weeks after our initial coffee get-together so we had time to cook and freeze). I don't know how our group is going to do it moving forward, but for the first one, Angie offered to exchange at her house. She has a new baby, so we all agreed this would be easiest. I'm not sure what my group will want to do, but I think the "rotating hostess" method would work really well where a different person hosts the exchange at their house.

All of our meals all stacked up together 

All of our meals stacked up together

COST: $$ The cost of this totally depends on you. I think I spent a total of around $35-$45, but I got five meals out of it, so you have to take that into account. I put it as pretty affordable because $40 is a lot, but when you factor in how many meals you get, you're really only spending $5-$9 per meal

DO-ABILITY: Considering I got five different meals that I can just un-thaw and cook, no stress, I would say this was incredibly easy! As long as you can chop, portion and write, (and spare a couple hours) you can do this!

THE SKINNY: If you have a few friends who want to join together with you, this is definitely they way to go! I don't know why I didn't do something like this earlier! Again, it's such an easy way to get five meals out of one and it's good for camaraderie.

THE GOOD: You get a bunch of meals and only have to make one! Plus it's a great excuse to get together with your friends. It does come with a few challenges, but as I mentioned above, it was really easy to get through the obstacles we encountered.

THE BAD: You will literally be chopping and cutting for about 2-3 hours. So hunker down and put a good movie or audio book on the 'ole tablet and chop away. I would definitely invest in a small food processor. You can pick them up for less than $20 and it is totally worth it if you're going to do this a lot. Here is the one I have.

PIN OR BUST?: Pin it! Pin both of them, and share this blog post, while your at it! This post is authentic, real-world, trial-and-error, experience you can use! Learn from my mistakes and challenges... And then go freeze with friends!

THE LAST WORD: As promised, I have compiled a short list of good tips to keep in mind. If you have a go-to place, this would probably be it. 

Go To List!
1. Pre-Cooking Meeting: Very important. Set up a date you can all meet for coffee (gives you a good excuse to drink coffee together!) and decide on some ground rules and expectations.
2. Dietary Needs: Make sure at the first meeting you outline any dietary needs your family might have and to note down the needs of the other families in your group. Make sure you keep an open line of communication to let the group know of any new changes in your family's diet.
3. Portion Sizes: I didn't really think about this when we first started, but portion sizes are important. As I said, my family was the biggest in the group, so our group decided to make enough in all the meals for five people and everyone else would have leftovers. Your group could do it however you please, but make sure to make it an expectation!
4. Instructions: I always write in permanent marker on my bags, and it makes it really easy. You'll want to make sure your cooking methods/temperatures are on there, times for cooking, and any other pertinent information. Make sure you put the date on there also! Most freezer meals will last up to 6 months, but I've found that you'll probably want to eat them within 1-2 months (you can stretch it out to three, but they're better in the first two!).
5. How to contain it: Again, something you might not think of, but if all of the meals are "contained" the same way, it makes for easier hauling to and from the pickup site as well as storage when you get all the meals home. We decided to freeze everything flat in gallon sized freezer bags. All of the freezer meals I've made tell you to freeze in a gallon sized bag, but the key is to freeze it flat (not in a lump, if that makes sense). I stacked mine in the freezer on top of a cookie sheet and it worked very well.
6. Share your recipe: Again, something I did not think of, but definitely a really great idea. Print out your recipe and hand one to everyone in your group. This serves a few purposes. First, if they like it, they can save the recipe for later. Second, they can read the ingredients so that in case there is something in there they are not sure they can eat, they are aware it is in there.
7. Set up an exchange place/time: Make sure you set up a specific time and place. Some groups will use the same spot and time and do a once-monthly exchange. With how schedules change, I didn't think this was a good idea for our group. We set up our first meeting, but I am expecting that it will probably change both location and time. Do what is easiest for your group!
8. Communicate!: Definitely set up a communication line within your group. We did this in a "group message" on Facebook, so that everyone could ask questions, give and get pointers, and stay on the same page. Anytime you're doing something with five people (or how ever many...) communication is key!

I am so excited to try this again with my exchange group. Hopefully all of them are willing to keep at it too! If you have either frozen meals or done an exchange group, leave a comment and let me know how it went, give tips or suggestions, etc.

Happy Pinning!

DIY Mason Jar Soap Dispenser *BONUS* DIY Foaming Hand Soap

Again, I'm apologizing for not posting sooner. I have a bucket full of excuses I could use... mainly that the sale of our current home and purchase of our next home totally fell apart, and we've been trying to rebound from that. Even more reason to make our existing bathroom look new!

Since I have more time on my hands now that it's summer and I have time to think about these things... I was looking at my soap dispenser the other day (yea, that's weird...) and noticed it was pretty boring. It was just your regular, run-of-the-mill store-bought soap dispenser. When I got married and bought my house I always envisioned that it would be one of those houses with neat things in it... like soap dispensers that are unique. Unfortunately, the vision in my head doesn't match the reality of my house (I decorate my family room with toy bins instead of elegant vases and in place of the picture collages of my travels, my walls are adorned with the faces of my little cherubs...). It's okay, I figured I can add a unique or elegant touch here and there.

THE PIN: Confession: I didn't actually find this on Pinterest, but it is on there now on my "DIY" Board. I find a lot of the projects I like on other blogs as well. When I saw this I was immediately intrigued when it said "Homemade". In my mind that generally translates to "cheap", as a lot of times the materials can be found for inexpensive at the local garage sale or hardware store. As was the case with this one, I already had many of the materials from other projects I'd undertaken. It looked easy enough and it was SO PRETTY (for a soap dispenser...) Plus, as a bonus and I already had mason jars. Perfect!

Picture from www.domesticallyblissful.com/

FOR THE SOAP DISPENSER:
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

The top half of a Foam Soap Dispenser (I dismembered my foaming dispenser from Bath and Body Works)
Mason Jar with Lid
Hammer
Small Nail
Super Glue (I used Gorilla Glue because it's what I had!)
Tin Snips (pliers used to cut through tin) 

Newspapers
Spray Paint

Mason jar - I have a gazillion (because I think that one day I might actually can my own food... one day). Hammer and nail - the hubby has to have one somewhere. Super glue - always have that. Tin snips (these are optional but very useful... see below for why these are good to have for this project). Newspapers - everyone has those. Spray paint - I even have some left over from an old project. Fantastic!

Once I had all the stuff, this was actually a lot easier than it looked. If you don't want to bother with cutting the tin on the lid, you may have to enlist the help of your significant other or friend who likes acting tough and cutting things apart (we all have one!). First I rinsed out the top of the foaming dispenser (it takes some time, because the water recycles back into foam, but after awhile it's just foamy water) and set that aside to dry.

The next thing I did was make the top for the dispenser. I took the lid off the jar and separated the screw-top ring from the tin disc. I took the flat, round part and made a hole in the center so the foaming dispenser would fit into it. The suggestion on the original blog didn't work for me, so I just poked the tube of the dispenser through a Post-It, and drew a circle around the part on the dispenser that would need to fit through the tin disc. Then I wrapped the post it around the tin disc so I could use it as a make-shift pattern to punch a hole in the tin disc. Hopefully my picture and explanation makes sense. If not... comment and I will clarify!

Pattern for the dispenser hole

Once I had the pattern on the tin disc, I made the hole for the dispenser by poking holes through it with a hammer and nail. You will want to make sure the holes are as close together as you can get them. Once I made it all the way around the circle pattern, I broke a piece out of the middle of the tin disc using the nails and hammer to help. Once I could get them into the hole, I used tin snips to finish cutting (it was a lot easier and I wasn't afraid I was going to cut off my finger with the jagged pieces of metal). Mine ended up looking something like this...

I will try to add a picture of the tin disc with the holes in it - wanted to get the post up!

I placed the dispenser on top of the tin disc and glued it on with the Gorilla glue, then left it to dry while I started painting the other stuff.

I will also try to add a picture of the tin disc after I attached the dispenser. See comment above. :)

I used newspaper so my lawn didn't look like the side of a railroad car. I just used spray paint (in colors I had used for other things... the best things in life are, indeed, free!). I love spray paint because it is so easy and it makes boring things look so much nicer (most of the time...). I made two of these, one for me and one for my sis for her newly remodeled kitchen. So I painted her jar blue (to match her new kitchen) and my jar green. I used tan for the screw on lid and dispenser. I liked the contrast. Play around with the colors that will work for your house. I planned to do about two coats on each item, but ended up doing three. You'll want to make sure you turn them at different angles to get the coverage you want. Three coats turned out to be the right amount.

Post-paint

To paint the dispenser part, I used an old Windex bottle filled with water (to weight it down), stuck the dispenser in, tube down, so that I could spray it and get an even coat. You can use whatever creative tricks you can come up with! I painted the dispenser the same color as the screw-top ring (again, three coats).

Painting the dispenser

After that I just had to let everything dry. I don't like waiting, so I needed something else to occupy my attention. Enter: Homemade Foaming Hand Soap.

FOR THE HOMEMADE FOAMING HAND SOAP
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Water
Regular hand soap

That's it! If you're like me, you go to the nice-smelling soap and lotion place and buy ten thousand soaps (because they're on sale!) and then they sit under your cabinet for God knows how long. Okay... maybe that's just me. You can transform any regular hand soap into foaming hand wash with just water? Why could I have not known this years ago?

This is so easy it's almost stupid. 1 part water, 1 part soap. Viola! Hand wash! Once you mix them, you'll have to shake them up a bit, but it really is that easy. Once I got done with that, I still had to wait for my stuff to dry. It's okay... I have three kids to keep me busy. I actually forgot about it until later that evening. But it turned out so cute! I wanted to wash my hands over and over (yes... I'm that weird).

My sister liked hers too (I think...). Here's hers!

Next up... one for my other sister. She just moved into a new house too. Oops... just ruined her housewarming present. :)

COST: $$ In terms of DIY projects, it's actually really cheap. If you already have a stockpile of mason jars (for that canning you're going to do... some day) and spray paint (because you have to buy a different color for Every. Single. Project.) then it costs almost nothing. If you did have to buy the materials, I still think it would cost you only about $10-$15, including the soap to put in it.

DO-ABILITY: It was pretty easy. If it's your first craft project, it's probably not the one you want to start with but it's definitely do-able. The hardest part was punching the holes in the tin lid and poking it through so that you have a space for your soap dispenser to go through. I was kind of leery that i was going to cut my hand on the sharp edges. Tin snips work very well for cutting the hole once you have an edge you can work them into. They make the edge a little neater and less sharp. Since almost anyone can spray paint stuff (channel your inner graffiti artist!) that part is super easy. Other than that, you glue stuff. I think they teach that in kindergarten. :)

THE SKINNY: This was actually kind of awesome. I loved it mostly because it was so cheap and easy (wait... that sounded kind of bad...). I had mason jars sitting around (somehow they pile up in our garage) and a few soap dispensers that I sacrificed for the foam-pump tops. I had nothing to buy for it, which made it really easy to throw together. Plus, as an added bonus, I got to "up-cycle", which I am getting more into these days. Why buy something new when you can make something just as good out of old stuff?

THE GOOD: Super easy, super cheap, and most of the materials should be lying around your house (or at least in a good thrift store somewhere). Even if you did have to buy all of it, it's still not going to break your budget. You'll still be able to spring for that Starbucks latte. Plus it fits in with the whole "rustic chic" style that's so popular. I'm so stylish!

THE BAD: Punching the holes through the tin is a little difficult and you're likely to cut your finger or hand. Again, using tin snips will help with this. It's also a little difficult to get the circle cut exactly in the center of the tin top. It didn't really bother me that much (the off-center top made it have character!) but if it does, you might want to have a couple extra tin discs. Also, measuring how big the hole should be is a little tricky, but there are definite tricks to help you get it right (like I did above, using a sticky note that had been dipped it water to make an outline of the approximate diameter. It doesn't have to be perfect because it will be covered up anyway.

PIN OR BUST?: Pin it! Again, it's not for the rookie crafter, but it is definitely someting almost anyone could handle once you get your feet wet. It's so easy, really inexpensive, and it will add a little "rustic chic" class to your kitchen or bathroom! So much better than the dispensers your soap comes in!

ANY LAST WORDS?: I definitely want to try this in different colors and with different sizes of bottles. I think it would be fun to make a matching lotion pump to go with my new soap dispensers. I'm also curoius to experiment with different types of soap (the antibacterial ones with the little flecks in them?) to see how they work making them into foaming soap. There are so many different types of jars you could use... go crazy with it! And let me know how it goes! 

Happy pinning!