You chose a main entree recipe that serves 6 adults and then you make that recipe 10 times over. Your budget for 10 meal is about $100 for food. Sometimes you spend more, but then the next month you can choose a less expensive recipe to make. That is how you even out your spending. We exchange once a month.
We have a democratic approach to what is being made for the swap. The group organizer assigns a food category (soup/chili/stews, Italian/Mediterranean, Southwestern/Mexican, American/Euporean, Far East (Asian/Indian”). We bring 2 recipes to the swap meeting and we all vote on the recipe we want and majority wins. That’s how we decide on the menu for the month and then we swap the food we decided on the previous month.
We communicate by mostly by email. Also we disclose family allergies.
The recipes we use comes from a variety of resources.
Here’s Some Basic Group Guidelines:
We make one recipe 10 times. Each entree should yield 6 adult servings. This is optimal for most families, to have leftovers or a guest for dinner.
Our entree budget is flexible, we try not to exceed $100 for 10 meals. But this budget does not include packaging. We are Free to spend more, but the $100 is the standard. We all agree quality is preferred. If you use product from our own gardens we count that the same as if we were to buy it.
The recipes we chose should be able to be cooked or reheated by one of these ways – grilled, broiled, stove top, crock pot, microwave, and oven.
Bring 2 recipes to the meal swap for the group to vote on.
Bring prepared meals already frozen to the exchange site in a large cooler or clothes basket to carry the food.
Package food in containers that are freezable. Not all our has group has stand alone freezers. So we try to put most things in freezer bags whenever we can.
We make sure we label all packages with the month/year, what it is and what it goes with. Have cooking/reheating directions with the meals. (Example: 3/011 – package 1. Beef Fajita Meat, 2. Beef Fajita Shells, & 3. Beef Fajita veggies.)
Meals should only take 2 to 3 hours to prepare and package. We want this to be as stress free as we can.
If someone will be out of town/unavailable for the exchange date, you should arrange an alternate plan with the swap coordinator. Maybe you could put it in your freezer to be picked up by someone in the swap group or opted out for that month. Talk with the swap coordinator if an occasion a rises about options if needed.