I've been participating in a meal exchange group through our local homeschool group. Each Monday morning, five ladies meet together and exchange meals to provide dinner for their families for the week. We call our group "Meals and Moms" or "M&Ms", for short. You can start your own Meal Exchange Group.
Each lady chooses one meal (main dish and a side) and shops for the ingredients for each family as well as their own. The meals are then prepped for each family and packaged in containers for transporting and storage until the meal will be cooked.
On the day of the exchange, you'll take four of the meals you prepped and exchange for four different meals prepped by the others. You receive ALL ingredients, pre-measured, and ready to be cooked in your own kitchen.
The benefits of the meal exchange are plentiful and can contribute to the education of your children.
Healthy Meals:
With the meals lovingly chosen by moms who care, the meals are healthy, fresh and tasty. We've tried new recipes and some new foods we don't always eat. There are less prepackaged, processed foods in our meals and more wholesome, fresh ingredients. This is an opportunity to teach your kids about nutrition and the importance of eating your fruits and vegetables.Time Saver:
The meal exchange saves time in meal planning, shopping and preparing dinner each night. You only have to plan and shop for one meal, simplifying both the planning and shopping tasks. It's much easier to throw dinner together each night when all ingredients are prepped and measured ahead of time. Converting your recipes to serve five families is a perfect opportunity to work on fractions with your kids. You can have them do the figuring for you, but I'd double check their math to make sure you don't come up short on ingredients.Money Saver:
I've found that I've saved money by being able to buy in quantity and buy fewer ingredients. With the dinners handled for the week, we also eat out less. The five meals usually provide some leftovers for lunches or weekend meals.Socialization:
Our group meets on Monday mornings for about an hour to exchange the meals. This gives the moms time to visit and the kids time to play together. With all the flack we get on socialization, here's another opportunity to "socialize."