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).


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

October - Pasta Fagioli


Serves 8
Cooks: 2h
Prep Time:  1.5 h

Ingredients 

- 1 lb dry great northern or navy beans 
- 28 1/8 oz whole tomatoes crushed by hand 
- 8 oz tomato sauce 
- 2 md carrots chopped 
- 1/2 c onion chopped 
- 2 1/2 c celery chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp salt 
- 2 1/4 tsp pepper 
- 2 Tbsp olive oil 
- 1 lb elbow macaroni(can sub different small noodle) 
- extra virgin olive oil for garnish 
- parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pan soak beans overnight in 8 cups water or combine beans with 8 cups water bring to a boil: simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 1 hour.
2. Add water (to cover beans with about 2 inches of water) bring to a boil lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Drain and reserve 3 cups of liquid.(add water to make up 3 cups of liquid)
3. Combine beans reserve liquid , onion, celery, garlic, pepper ,salt and olive oil in large pan. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes or till beans are cooked. Check for seasoning.
4. Cook pasta according to directions. Reserve 1 cup pasta water and then drain pasta. Place pasta in bowl and ladle beans over pasta finish with good quality extra virgin olive oil and cheese.
5. Note I like to have the beans break down to form a thicker sauce. When serving use the pasta water to thin out the beans if to thick. This actually will taste better if left to rest for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. This sauce will thicken in the refrigerator so make sure you save enough pasta water to thin it out when reheating it.

No comments:

Post a Comment