Guidelines

1. You must try out your meals before making them for the masses. That means preparing it, freezing it and then thawing and cooking it to make sure that not only is it a good recipe, but it freezes well.

2. $15 should cover the cost of all of the ingredients for two meals, not including staple items like seasonings you have on hand. It should also cover the cost of extra items that your dish requires like uncooked rice or pasta, and additions to the food like sour cream or cheese that you add during cooking. It does not cover the cost of packaging supplies that you will use to freeze your dish such as plastic wrap, tin foil, ziplocks, or aluminum pans. You assume those costs.

3. Each meal should serve a family of 4-5. That would mean 4-5 (depending on size) chicken breasts or pork chops, or whatever.

4. These are meant to be main dishes, any sides are not necessary, people can cook up their own vegetables or whatever they like to go with their meal.

5. FYI, the following do not freeze well: potatoes (unless you use the ones already frozen), cream cheese, raw eggs, rice and some pasta. If your dish uses rice or pasta as a main element, you can try to cook it al dente, but it still usually comes out a bit mushy. Lasagna would be an exception. You can try playing around with those recipes and see if the rice or pasta could be added during cooking night.

6. Please use this blog to post not only your recipes, but the instructions on how to prepare your meals from frozen. That way all we have to do is log on to see what we need to do.