MOMS Club Meal Exchange



We all spend too much of something (whether it be time, money, or calories) on providing delicious meals for our families. This became all too apparent to me when I went from being full time at the office to being full time as Mommy. It started with the 18 days of meals my freezer was stocked with by family and friends after our little girl arrived. These 18 days made me a believer as I saw our restaurant budget with an excess for the first time in years, experienced several relaxing dinners with the hubby, and even stopped dreading my daily weigh in quite so much.

I started out by stocking my freezer with some of our favorites - homemade pizza dough, gumbo, and meatball sliders. But I was immediately excited when introduced to the concept of a "Supper Club". After a year of this prior to our move to PA, I'm excited to continue this with new friends as part of the MOMS Club of Derry Township.

1) Each member will choose 1 meal to make and will email their recipe to the Chair Mom or post it to the blog prior to our Meetup. This will help other moms to find the directions for preheating, make the meal later if it's one they really enjoyed, and create a database of meals to choose from.

2) Each member will prepare their selected recipe for 6 families (with a generous 4 servings each). One of these you will keep for your own family and you will bring 4 others to exchange.

3) Please freeze for at least 24 hours. Write all cooking instructions on the meal packaging. If there are pantry staples (i.e. rice, noodles, buns) needed to complete the meal, please provide these as well.

4) The meals will be exchanged each month via a brief play date. Kids are welcome! If you'd like to participate and can't attend, feel free to still RSVP and arrange to bring your meals to the Chair Mom before the date of exchange. I can store your meals until you are able to come pick them up from me.

5) Provide feedback on the meals! You can do that via email to the Chair Mom or on the blog. Everyone has different preferences and we want to build a "bank" of recipes that all of our little families enjoy!

You can also post any recipe ideas you want to share with the group to the blog at anytime to help generate ideas.

Only 2 restrictions for our group:
- Use healthy substitutes when possible (i.e. fat free dairy products, half and half instead of whipping cream, lean ground beef).
- No major dietary preferences or restrictions for your family (i.e. No onions is a fair request; Gluten free is not).


Friday, October 26, 2012

November - Taco Pasta Bake


Here is the recipe - I've quadrupled the recipe for sharing with the group!

Ingredients
1/2 – 3/4 of a bag of large noodle pasta like ziti
approx. 1lb of ground beef
1 pkg/envelope of taco seasoning
1C water
1/2 pkg of cream cheese
1 1/2 C shredded cheese (I used colby jack)
Prep Directions
1. Boil pasta until just cooked, drain, run cold water over it.
2. Brown ground beef.
3. Mix together taco seasoning and 1C of water. Pour over cooked beef and let simmer for about 5 minutes until the liquid has reduced.
4. Add the 1/2 pkg of cream cheese to the beef mixture, stir until melted and combined, remove from heat
5. Put pasta in your casserole dish. Mix in 1C of the shredded cheese
6. Top pasta and cheese with beef mixture. Gently mix until the pasta is coated.
7. Cover with foil and freeze. 
Cooking Directions
1. Thaw for 24 hours. 
2. Bake at 350 uncovered for approximately 30 minutes.
3. If desired, top with additional shredded cheese, sour cream, and/or crushed tortilla chips.
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