Freezer Meals

A long time ago I tried Dream Dinners and really loved it. You prepare your meals before hand, freeze them, and then thaw and cook them when you need them. A great solution to that end of the day chaos. But Dream Dinners were expensive.  Recently my friends, Heidi and Melissa, introduced me to the concept of freezer meal co-op, and even blessed us with a freezer full of prepared meals for when we brought Allison home (What Love Looks Like). In a co-op each woman takes one freezer meal and prepares it "x" times. Then once a month we all bring our meals and trade. Take 6 of one meal, and leave with 6 new and different meals. Brilliant!

And, when I see an amazing idea in action, I have to copy it. So tomorrow morning is my group's second meal exchange. Last month I made and froze 6 batches of my family's homemade chili. This month I'm making Chicken Enchilada Casserole, another family favorite.

But unfortunately I don't have a huge repertoire of meals that can be pre-prepped, frozen, and ready to cook at a later time. So I've been doing some research.

First, I found these two websites (my hope is that our group will get to the point of hosting our own recipe blog):

http://freezermealsforus.blogspot.com/

http://freezerfriendz.blogspot.com/

And secondly, I just found this book at the library. What I love is that it already multiplies the ingredients out for making multiples of the same dinner, either to trade, or stash away for another night.

So here's to our new freezer meal group, and many more nights of family dinners without 5:00 chaos.