What’s for Supper Tonight? Part One
During the years when I was both caring for a son with special needs and teaching full time, the question “What’s for supper tonight?” was guaranteed to make my heart race and my stomach churn. If we weren’t returning home from an unexpected trip to the hospital or doctor’s office, then I was exhausted from work. Since we lived in a remote part of South Dakota at the time, 90 miles from the closest McDonald’s and 23 miles from the closest grocery store, if the cupboard was bare, we were sunk. No wonder panic set in so quickly when my sweet husband asked such an innocent question!
Freezer Meals in Minutes
Over the years, I learned some tricks about cooking in quantity and froze extra meals for our family. An unexpected side benefit of the practice was that I had extra meals on hand for families dealing with a health crisis. So when I recently ran across www.FreezerMealsinMinutes.com, an inexpensive service designed to help cooks create freezer meals with a minimum of fuss, its potential as a means of assisting caregivers of children with special needs, ailing spouses or aging parents was obvious.
Two for One
The service was developed by a working mom, Jennifer Schulz. For $9.99, she provides the information for a freezer meal assembly session for up to 10 people. The information includes:
- Assembly Session Instructions-walks you through the entire process
-
Menu- complete with “Serving Day” instructions for each recipe
-
Grocery Report- quantities updated for the number of participants
-
Actions Report- if there is meat that needs to be cooked ahead of time
-
Recipes such as Chicken Quesadillas, Sloppy Justins, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Beef Stroganoff and Tuna Noodle Casserole
So my thought was this: What if, when a group gets together to assemble meals, every person involved donated a meal to a caregiving family selected ahead of time? Wouldn’t that be so cool?
I Woulda Kissed Their Feet
If my friends had done something like that twenty-seven years ago when caring for my son took every available minute, I would have kissed their feet. Maybe the family you help won’t be quite as dramatic as me, but you never know. Just in case, be sure wash between your toes before you deliver the meals!
Come Back for Chicken Alfredo
You won’t want to miss the next post in this series when Jennifer explains her food preparation system. She’s even sharing her recipe for Chicken Alfredo. So come back next time for a free sneak peak. To be sure you don’t miss it, you can sign up for the RSS feed which will deliver blog posts directly to your email inbox.
Happy cooking,
Jolene Philo
