GNO Freezer Meals

I think you all should pick out a recipe, or few, and decide who does what, and everyone gets a list of things to bring, including, pans, pots, cutting knives etc, whatever they will need to do their part, and list what order you can do things. Such as if two of you are cooking, then the others are cutting or drinking wine ;)

It will make it easier on you and everyone does their own dishes so that no one does them all.

Keep it simple and organized! and clean up as you go so then it wont seem so messy.

Pick out 7 recipes, write down all the ingredients and figure out the ones that are the same. Determine if you all want to purchase items separate or have one person do the shopping or make it a group shopping trip. Then break down the ingredients and everyone participate in the prep for all such as need onions chopped, green peppers seared and sliced, pepper ground, meat cut, place as much of the meal together as possible so when it is put together it can be done quickly. We did this whole thing shopping trip to packing up the meals for 7 days in 4 hours...okay there was some drinking in there but we ended up with enchiladas, lasangna, meat loaf meal, chicken cordon bleu, pot roast, shredded bbq pork, stuffed pork chops and all the sides for each meal. At the end we had nothing left for us to do but heating which would be anywhere from 10 minutes to 4 hours but all the work done.

I haven't been to a franchise but have read about it and think that they are quite organized. The set up stations for each food item as I understand it. If I were planning to do something like this in my home, I'd go to a franchise first so that I could utilize their ideas. It can be a girls night out at the franchise and then do more later in your home.

I agree with Barb - split up the work before hand and figure out the shopping. I've done this before with a girlfriend and we split the shopping for big items (meat, veggies, cheese) but we just brought our own spices as needed - I had some she didn't and vice versa. The book "Fix, Freeze, Feast" is a fantastic place to start - I was able to check one out from the library and just copied the recipes I really liked. Many are ones that don't require cooking ahead of time - just raw meat and diced veggies and those are a great way to go if you want to minimize time in the kitchen.

I would also have people bring bowls that they can line with the ziplock bags for meal prep - makes it so much easier than trying to stand the bag up on the counter! As for actually going to a Dream Dinner place beforehand, I'm sure you could ask for a "tour" to check it out and get ideas without having to do it. Good luck!