Frozen Meal Swap

I've been looking up recipes lately, thinking it would be wonderful to put together some pre-made meals and stock my freezer. But it's more fun doing it with someone else. So, on a whim I sent out an evite to ask some friends if they'd like to participate in a frozen meal swap. I was excited to hear back that almost everyone wanted to do it! We had a total of eight people participating! I've never done a meal swap with that many people but thought it would provide a nice variety of food...and a great way to spend time with friends! :)  If you've never done a meal swap, it's pretty simple. Here are the basics:


--Choose one recipe that freezes well and make multiple batches (the number will depend on how many people come to the swap) Think casseroles, sauces with pasta or rice, stews/soups, meat with a side, etc...



--Place a complete meal (enough to serve 4 people) in a foil pan or ziploc bag. Cover tightly and label each bag with the contents and cooking directions. You're going to make as many pans/bags of food as there are people at the swap.


-- If your recipe is a sauce, you may prefer to include a bag of dried rice or pasta that can be stored and cooked later.


--Come to the swap and give each person (including yourself!) a meal that you made. You, in turn, get a meal from every other person as well. So you leave with several different meals that you can put in your freezer. Great for busy days and you also get to try some favorite recipes of other ladies in the group! 


Of course, you can customize it for whatever group you have....if you invite couples rather than families you could make smaller servings, or you could assign certain people to just bring freezer desserts, etc. If you decide to host a meal swap with only one or two others, you may want to EACH make a few different recipes, so you still end up with a good variety and number of meals to freeze. 


We didn't have many 'rules' for our swap. Everyone just made and brought whatever they wanted to...which actually made it fun because we had no idea what we were going to end up with!  :) 

I decided to make baked ziti as my contribution. One batch/recipe makes enough for two smaller pans, it freezes really well and it happens to be one of my favorite things right now.  So on Monday and Tuesday of this week, whenever I had a free hour I would make a couple pans of ziti and freeze it until I had made eight pans of food. I prefer to use disposable aluminum pans for freezer meals. That way there's no clean up after it's cooked. Once the pan is filled, I wrap and cover it well with foil and write the contents and cooking directions on the top with a sharpie. 

After the swap this is what we now have in our freezer: lasagne, baked ziti, spaghetti with sauce and meatballs, homemade ravioli, chili, a noodle/sausage casserole, crockpot chicken & veggies, and quiche! Yum--can't wait to try all the new dinners!

Thanks to everyone who participated!!  :)