It’s time to start thinking of getting a freezer friends group together. My freezer is pretty empty right now and I can’t wait to start doubling and quadrupling my garden made tomato sauces, eggplant Parmesans and stuffed cabbages and who knows what else this first year of gardening will grant me. Anyone who lives in my area who would like to be put into a freezer friends group just email me with “Freezer Friends” in the subject line. I like to get the groups together by Sept 1st.
If you do not live in my area then consider starting your own group. It’s so rewarding to have meals ready to go in your freezer and it’s so fun to try new recipes.
For those of you who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about I'll describe how we do Freezer Friends in a nutshell. Each group consists of 4 or 5 friends (I've found that any more than that is just too much quantity to fit into the pots most people have). Each friend is responsible for making one meal a month and multiplying it by the number of friends in their group. The meals are to be divided into meals for each friend's family and frozen. The due date is generally the last day of the month when the friends arrange a time and place to exchange their meals. So really, you have an entire month to complete your assigned meal. You cook it and freeze it at your convenience sometime during the month as long as it is done by the exchange date.
The rules are simple:
1) BIGGEST MOST IMPORTANT RULE: make healthful meals made from scratch (NO canned soup as an ingredient or other such prefabricated processed things like processed cheese-like products) - If anyone ever has doubts I will always advise.
2) meals are due the last day of the month unless the group makes other arrangements
3) family size should be taken into consideration when proportioning out the meals and make enough for a whole meal for the family
4) email your group the meal you plan to make as soon as possible so that the group doesn't end up with 5 chillis in one month
5) try to provide a whole meal so if your dish is a pasta sauce, also provide a box of pasta
6) email or include a copy of your recipe with your meal and the thawing / reheating instructions
7) freeze meals that are freezable
I think I've covered it all.
Now I like to mix up the groups and there are usually 4-5 groups organized so we can mix up the groups throughout the winter so the schedule is this:
Group 1, September, October and November.
Group 1, September, October and November.
Break for December, no exchange.
Group 2, (new members in your group), January, February, March
Group 3, (new members again), April, May and if members agree to June they may exchange in June
