As someone who once a month prepares numerous meals, I find it exhausting, and sometimes an all day adventure with leftover ingredients that I can't use. I find it sometimes to be frustrating, a waste, and at times struggle to find recipe's to incorporate the leftover food into. I sometimes end up throwing the remaining ingredients out.
Someone told me about their group cooking events probably about a year ago. And all I could think of, was how GENIUS it was. You get a group of friends, and compile your favorite crockpot recipes (trust me, I have about 200 recipe's and people STILL surprise me with new recipe's every week). Then you assign each friend to a certain recipe.
Lets say I get assigned to the whole roaster chicken. And I have 13 people in my cooking group including me. That is 13 Roaster Chicken meals that I can prepare on my own. 1 meal goes to myself, and 12 other meals go to my friends in the cooking group. Lets say the 2nd person in my cooking group is Megan. Megan has been assigned meatballs and sauce. She now prepares 13 meatballs and sauce meals. 1 for her, and 12 for everyone else in the group. If you assign every single person in the group to at least 1 different recipe, you will now have 13 different meals to fill your freezer!
Lets say I get assigned to the whole roaster chicken. And I have 13 people in my cooking group including me. That is 13 Roaster Chicken meals that I can prepare on my own. 1 meal goes to myself, and 12 other meals go to my friends in the cooking group. Lets say the 2nd person in my cooking group is Megan. Megan has been assigned meatballs and sauce. She now prepares 13 meatballs and sauce meals. 1 for her, and 12 for everyone else in the group. If you assign every single person in the group to at least 1 different recipe, you will now have 13 different meals to fill your freezer!
Just think of all the possibilities if you assign 2 recipe's to each person. That's 26 different recipe's for your freezer! Imagine the possibilities if you DOUBLE what everyone makes, thats 26 or 52 meals (hopefully you have a big freezer!).
There are obviously the logistical things to work out here such as cost, who does the shopping, how you coordinate a day to do this, and above all what to make! My advice to make things simple is as follows:
Shopping: Assign 2-3 people to accomplish this task. Buy everything in bulk. Pre-order meats from a butcher or a meat market (they may tend to be cheaper in large quantities). And go to your local wholesale dealer for everything else. The vegetables, and canned goods should be relatively easy to obtain in bulk, and cheaper then your regular grocery store. You will not be buying spices, oils, and other things, as these are things that everyone in your cooking group normally should have. This is a costly venture. It is hard to determine costs up front, so working out how to pay the people back for buying the groceries should be made in advance. The last time we did a group cooking venture with 16 of us, we made 32 meals for each person, and our out of pocket cost for each of us was $206.81. The more you buy in bulk, the cheap it turns out to be, so it is beneficial to do it in a group as opposed to just alone. This shopping trip was $3,308.96, but it made 512 dinners that each fed a family of 6. That gave each family dinner for over an entire month for just over $200. For those of us with smaller families, it gave us dinner and leftovers for lunch.
What do I make: Choose a meal that you personally enjoy. Choose something that it simple, kid friendly and would appeal to the tastes of everyone in the group. Best way I found to do this is print up a template of recipes (like I said I have 200 of them) and have everyone peruse them (we use facebook for our group forum). Once we have chosen a bunch of recipes to do, each person is assigned 1-2 recipes. Those are the recipe's that they're going to making 16 of each. This helps in the long run, because its all bulk preparation of a few ingredients.
Shopping: Assign 2-3 people to accomplish this task. Buy everything in bulk. Pre-order meats from a butcher or a meat market (they may tend to be cheaper in large quantities). And go to your local wholesale dealer for everything else. The vegetables, and canned goods should be relatively easy to obtain in bulk, and cheaper then your regular grocery store. You will not be buying spices, oils, and other things, as these are things that everyone in your cooking group normally should have. This is a costly venture. It is hard to determine costs up front, so working out how to pay the people back for buying the groceries should be made in advance. The last time we did a group cooking venture with 16 of us, we made 32 meals for each person, and our out of pocket cost for each of us was $206.81. The more you buy in bulk, the cheap it turns out to be, so it is beneficial to do it in a group as opposed to just alone. This shopping trip was $3,308.96, but it made 512 dinners that each fed a family of 6. That gave each family dinner for over an entire month for just over $200. For those of us with smaller families, it gave us dinner and leftovers for lunch.
What do I make: Choose a meal that you personally enjoy. Choose something that it simple, kid friendly and would appeal to the tastes of everyone in the group. Best way I found to do this is print up a template of recipes (like I said I have 200 of them) and have everyone peruse them (we use facebook for our group forum). Once we have chosen a bunch of recipes to do, each person is assigned 1-2 recipes. Those are the recipe's that they're going to making 16 of each. This helps in the long run, because its all bulk preparation of a few ingredients.
Choosing a day: More often then not, choosing a day that 16 people can all prepare meals at the same time is a headache all and into itself. You need to really plan this, because once you buy the meat, you are on a clock, especially with the ground beef. Make sure that you coordinate closely with your friends. I recommend starting out with a small group and working your way up from there. Weekends tend to work the best for people, but this also becomes an all day venture. So be prepared to give up at least 1 weekend say to make this happen. Make sure its a day you can shop, prepare, and then meet up to drop off and pick up.
How do I get the groceries: Set up a meeting point. This is why I love shopping in bulk, especially at a wholesale center. I can pick up 16 boxes, and just stuff all the ingredients each person is going to need in the one box and label it. So arrange with whomever is doing your shopping to set up a pickup time. It normally takes me about an hour to sort everyone's groceries into individual boxes. So late morning or early afternoon after all the shopping is done is the best time.
How do I prepare the meals: This part is easy. Label your 16 or 32 bags with the recipe name. And get chopping and dividing. Because you only have 1 or 2 separate groups of ingredients, it is relatively easy to fill all the bags. The only pain that may occur is if you are assigned meatballs, or a dish that requires the ground beef to be cooked before hand. If you've gotten chicken, you're lucky! Just know your kitchen will be a mess, prepare to order pizza for the night!
How do I prepare the meals: This part is easy. Label your 16 or 32 bags with the recipe name. And get chopping and dividing. Because you only have 1 or 2 separate groups of ingredients, it is relatively easy to fill all the bags. The only pain that may occur is if you are assigned meatballs, or a dish that requires the ground beef to be cooked before hand. If you've gotten chicken, you're lucky! Just know your kitchen will be a mess, prepare to order pizza for the night!
I've made all the bags, now what: Sit back and relax for a moment. Everything is set and ready for delivery. I like to get everything frozen so I tend to do my delivery the next day. I prefer to have everything frozen so the bags don't rupture in transit. We set up a central meeting place (preferably the house with the most room and the best wine). We all sit down, have a chat and a drink then go on our merry ways with our 32 new meals to shove into our freezers.
Hopefully this helps you along your journey into bulk freezer cooking. Make a facebook group, get some close friends in, you can have fun AND cut down the production time of these meals!
