Meal Ministry - Tips for Planning and Dropping off Meals

Does the idea of bringing a meal to another mom make you nervous? Don't worry - we will be bringing you tips and ideas to make the whole process easier.

Please remember that bringing a meal is an expression of your love and support of another mom, not a competition for best kitchen skills. :)

 

 

Tips for Planning the Meal

1. Double the meal you are already making for your family 
• Do this on a regular basis and freeze the second portion. You will have a freezer full of meals for your family and to give to others. This eliminates the rush when a meal needs to be brought during a busy week.
2. Have easy sides on hand:
   • Frozen garlic bread or rolls
   • Canned vegetables
   • Frozen cookies or cookie dough
   • Frozen sides (e.g. green beans w/ soy sauce, sesame seeds, garlic -- just add water and heat)
3. DGL’s are the first contact for a mom in need. DGL’s should keep track of the following:
   • Dates meals are needed
   • Meal schedule (can set up according to your preference - email, takethemameal.com, etc.) Please copy Megan on all schedules so she can fill in any gaps with other moms as necessary
   • Food allergies
   • Size of family
   • Any additional needs

Tips for Dropping Off the Meal

1. Take food in disposable containers
   • Examples: Ziplocs, foil pans or Gladware. They come in all shapes and sizes and are inexpensive enough that no one minds giving them away. Best of all, the recipient won’t have to worry about returning dishes.
2. Bring a complete meal - {& bring extra if you can}
   • Think about a meal you’d feed to your family...Entree, side and veggie. And no nursing mom I know (or their kids or husband for that matter) turns down dessert! :) Remember to include kids in your portions. I remember being so grateful that we had enough food not only for dinner, but for lunch the next day as well. It was one less thing to worry about, and as a nursing mom I was starving those first few weeks. Having extras was appreciated!
3. Arrive on time
   • As in, don’t bring dinner by at 8pm. I don’t know about you, but I like to eat a little earlier than that. If you find that your weeknights are just too busy to make an extra dinner, try taking a meal over on the weekend. Or, do your prep the night before and just assemble and deliver the next day. Sometimes it’s simplest to bring the meal by in the mornings before their kids (and yours!) hit the wall & nap-time. Just make sure to communicate with the mom for what works best for both of you.
4. Leave on time
   • There’s a lot to chat about, I know. After all, your friends just had a new baby, and you’re eager to hear all the details. But, keep in mind that they might be slightly exhausted (and hungry!). Now is not the time for a two hour visit. Ooh and aah over the baby, chat a little, and then politely excuse yourself and leave the family to enjoy the delicious meal you’ve just prepared! (If you have your kids with you, you may consider leaving them in the car and just running the meal in quickly.)

These tips were compiled by Megan K. Thanks, Megan! 

Meal Planning

Food Your Way has a humorous blog post on the Top 10 reasons you shouldn't plan a weekly menu.  A few of my favorites are:

9. You like to spend your free time staring blankly at the pantry trying to come up with dinner ideas. It’s like a hobby.

3. The grocery store is your “happy place” and you like making extra trips to pick up last-minute ingredients.

1. You like to use the excuse “We don’t have anything to eat” as a reason to go out to dinner.

I am sure we all LOVE to make extra visits to the grocery store with our preschoolers in tow. And I know I have used reason #1 a time or two...or a hundred-something.

I'll admit that I am a recent convert to the concept of making a meal plan for our family. When I first heard about meal planning, I had all kinds of excuses as to why it would never work for me, such as "too much work" or "I am not good at schedules" or "I don't like to cook".

Well, I am still not a fan of cooking, but making a meal plan has been so good for our family and it makes dinnertime run smoother!

When I have a plan for dinner, I no longer open my cupboards and fridge at 5 p.m. with a feeling of desperation. We are saving money by dining out less. We are eating healthier by eating at home rather than hitting the nearby McDonalds. And, to my husband's delight, it has also encouraged me to branch out on my meal repertoire to try new recipes.

Here are a few meal planning tips that work for me:

• Don't feel like you need to plan an entire month's worth of meals. I currently am doing just one week at a time and I find this helps me from feeling overwhelmed.
• Be sure to check your calendar when planning your meals. Do you have a busy afternoon on Wednesday but your morning is free? Make Wednesday's dinner a crockpot meal so you can do most of the work in the morning.
• We usually eat our leftovers for lunch in the following days, but you could also schedule a "leftovers dinner" for a casual dinner during the week.
• Make a list of ingredients you need for the week. Check your pantry for items you may already have and shop for the rest. Having all the ingredients for your entire week of meals is a great incentive to actually want to cook.
• I like to brown extra ground beef or cook extra chicken breasts for dinner to use in another dish later in the week. This saves time and work for the later meal. 
• I have two ready lists of recipes saved on my computer. One is meals we know we like or that are our go-to meals. The other is recipes we want to try, often ones I have bookmarked on the internet. When I make my meal plan, I simply open up these lists and plug in a few recipes from each.
• BE FLEXIBLE. Don't be afraid to move the meals around to a different day if something comes up. 

If you need some inspiration to get started, seven thirty three has a cute meal planner available for free download.

Meal planning has made such a difference for our family. On the weeks where I actually put together a meal plan and let my husband know about it, he gets excited because he knows there are some good dinners in his future. And we both are happy about the money we are saving and that we are eating healthier.

Do you have any meal planning tips?

Transforming a Picky Eater Into a Healthy Eater

Transforming a Picky Eater Into a Healthy Eater - that is the topic of our upcoming MOPS meeting on April 12th with speaker Joann Bruso.

I am thinking I will have to take a lot of notes at this meeting since I have two picky eaters at my house. (Actually, three, if I add myself to the household's picky eater count.)

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Family Goal Setting Resources

Simple Mom Network:  www.simplemom.net
- click on downloads tab (all downloads are FREE):
- Goal Setting Questions for 2011
- Daily Docket
- Master Weekly Checklist
- 20 Questions for a New Years Eve Reflection
- Master Grocery List
- explore other simple 'mom' partners: simple bits (dinner/meal planning), simple homeschool, simple kids and simple organic (on right-hand column).

Book: Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider (editor of the Simple Mom Network).

A Holy Experience: www.aholyexperience.com (spiritual living - thankfulness)

I recommend subscribing via e-mail to these two blogs...it gets delivered right to your inbox, usually a little something every day or every other day.  It's easier than going to the bog and getting sucked in blog time-warp that leads you to another blog and another, etc...These are two of my VERY favorite.  Enjoy!

preschoolers-chore-chart

Passionate Homemaking

Do you struggle with meal planning and multiple trips to the grocery store? I would love to say that I have this role of wife/mom mastered but unfortunately that is not the case. Rarely do I just make one large shopping trip or plan a weeks worth of meals much less a months. Megan Kreitzberg just shared this link with me today, and just a glance will have you inspired to simplify your grocery shopping and start meal planning.

Simple tips for living

Simple tips for living. Otherwise known as Living Simply. Megan Kreitzberg has written an excellent blog on how she applies living simply to her busy life as a wife, mother of a one year old, and owner of Bloom Interiors. You can find her blog post at http://kreitzbergfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/living-simply.html. Megan shares tips on monthly meal planning, using a chore/household chart, keeping a rotating goodwill bag, rising early, and learning from others. Megan's tips are practical and easy to implement. Thanks Megan.

How do you live simply?