I have hosted successful cookie swaps in the past and learned several lessons from each event to make the next swap better. When my friends approached me about hosting a food swap for frozen entrées, I thought the idea might be good for the holidays. Swapping entrées that could be frozen and pulled out during the hectic holiday season sounded like a wonderful idea. A morning of cooking verses cooking every night for ten or twelve days – – the morning of cooking won hands down. Our food swap was wonderful and now we are enjoying homemade entrées each night during the holidays.
Tips for a successful food swap
To make your food swap successful, follow these suggestions and tips.
Size – Because you are cooking entrées, keeping the size of your group to a manageable number is advisable. We chose 12 because that would give us almost two weeks worth of dinners for one day of cooking. Allergies and warnings – Be sure to ask everyone in your group if anyone has food allergies or other health problems that should be known to everyone. When preparing entrées for a large number of people, you need to know if you must avoid certain foods or ingredients. Containers – We discussed this thoroughly and agreed that everyone should use disposable containers to make it easier for everyone. The only drawback is that if aluminum containers are used they cannot be microwaved. The idea of a food swap is to make it easier for everyone to give their families good, nutritious and delicious meals. Therefore, everyone contributed and equal amount and one friend purchased disposable containers in bulk that could be used in the microwave. Plan ahead for picky eaters – There is always at least one picky eater in every group – – I am the one in our group. However, I have tried different dishes over the years and must admit that once I tried them I loved them. In order to make your food swap successful, plan ahead by having a meeting to discuss recipes. Have everyone bring two or three recipes with them to the meeting and discuss each with the group. This way each person can choose a recipe that everyone likes and you also do not have duplication of dishes. Reheating instructions – Make sure that each person includes a copy of the reheating and/or preparation directions with each of their dishes to avoid confusion later. I put mine in a Ziploc sandwich bag taped to the top of each dish to keep it handy.
When I am choosing my recipes for the food swap, I look for several key things:
1. Does it freeze well?
2. Does it reheat quickly and go to the table without any other preparation?
3. How easy is it to prepare and cook?
4. How many ingredients does it require and how easy is the preparation?
If the entrée is easy to prepare, freezes well, is easy to reheat and tastes great, then it makes my short list. The time it is saving me each night from having to cook is well worth the day of cooking I did for the food swap.