Cooking Co-Op

[tmcastro]

I am interested in starting something I heard about some time ago. It's called a cooking co-op, and it's where 3-4 families join together to cook for the week. Each person makes 1 meal large enough to divide up for the 3-4 families. Then they exchange the meals, and each family ends up with 3-4 different meals for the week. Anyone heard of it? Anyone interested?? Tina

[JenniferJJ]

I know of a friend who's participated in two versions of this and I participated in another. One type was a meal exchange: She and two other women would multiply recipes and then give the other two women the dinner. These were neighbors, so the intention was that you would get a warm meal at dinner time. They would do this every Tuesday and rotate. Another co-op meal "program" she was in was a freezer meal exchange. She and some other women would make a freezer meal (one for each person) and then just exchange them when they saw each other each week. I participated in a third type about two months ago: The other women in my Bible study and I made enough recipes for freezer meals to exchange with everyone. The intention was to do all the cooking and assembling together that day, but most of the women made theirs ahead of time. I am the only one without kids/husband, so the other women put mine in smaller tins that you can purchase at the dollar store. (Because if someone were to give me mine in a regular sized pan, I'd be eating it for a week!)

[tmcastro]

:p I like the idea of the freezer type. My husband and I are trying hard to eat better, but we are so short of time, that the quickest things too cook are not as good for us. Anyone interested in trying something similar to this? We could define it however we'd like...

Tina

[tbb113]

Tina:
I just sent you a pm

tyra

[JenniferJJ]

I just wanted to add that I found several cookbooks at the library to guide this process. One of them suggested having theme cooking days. For instance, cook a bunch of chicken dishes one day. Then it gives a shopping list as if you are preparing all those dishes.