I am blessed. Four years ago my husband and I made the necessary changes that allowed me to quit my job and stay-at-home. In staying home, I quickly realized that my “easy” days were blissful and my “hard” days were 10x harder than any hard day I ever had at work. If you are a stay-at-home mom or know one, you can surmise which days I had (and still have) more of. I quickly realized I needed support in this new position of stay-at-home mom.
That support came in the form of a cooking group that began in February 2006 with three dear friends that still exists today. I am blessed.
Our cooking group is a way for four busy moms to support each other in making healthy family meals. We all love couponing so try to keep our per meal cost low. We meet twice a month to exchange meals. We each quadruple a recipe and divide it among the four families. So, at the end of the night, we walk away with the benefits of both great food (4 different meals) and great friends supporting one another in this crazy thing we call “motherhood.”
Secrets To Our Success:
1. Maximum of 4 people in cooking group.
2. Meals can be eaten right away or frozen.
3. Make meals at home as you have time and put them in the freezer OR bring your ingredients and assemble when the group meets.
4. Provide the serving dishes (foil pans/Tupperware containers) for your meals. It all works out in the end when you c0mmit to recycling the containers you are given and using them the next time you cook.
5. Label each meal with the name of the dish, date, and cooking instructions or print the recipe and provide with meal.
6. Coordinate meals via email so that you don’t end up with two of the same. You’ll find each person eventually has their specialties.
7. Be honest about if your family likes certain types of food or not and let your group know about any allergies so that they can cook around your needs.
8. Provide feedback on meals. Let each other know when the meal was an A+ and when it was closer to a C grade.
9. Be a blessing to each other through food and fellowship (and a glass of wine when you meet!).
10. Be a blessing to others by cooking for someone outside of your group and taking them four fabulous freezer meals or donating food items to a local charity 3-4 times a year.
Do you want to start your own cooking group and have questions? Contact Ali at kansascitymamas@gmail.com.
