Cook Once, Receive a Homemade Supper 3Xs

I love to cook. For me it’s relaxing and creative…and the added bonus is the delicious meal at the end. But, I also like a night off. Today I had a “mini-dinner” of the previously written about beef & bulgur meatballs with the kids and a sweet playdate late in the afternoon. Then, after the kids were tucked in, I enjoyed a delectable dinner of Cilantro-Chipotle Tilapia, Mexican Chopped Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing, and Creamed Broccoli. Delish. Did I mention that I feed my kids between, oh 4:30 and 5:00, and tuck them in around 6:30 to preserve my sanity? Anyway, I digress….

Tonight’s meal was the product of this brilliant (if I might say so myself) Supper Swap I am doing with three local moms (prime examples of mom-a-licious folk). It’s a phenomenal—and much healthier-- alternative to take-out. I highly recommend arranging one of these with like-minded friends, if for no other reason than you cook once and then get to enjoy three nights off! The meals need not be fancy, though ours always seem pretty special. Then again, what meal isn’t special when it’s homemade by a friend?

For those who might be interested in starting their own, here’s how our Wednesday Supper Swap works:

• 4 of us are participating and we all live in close proximity to one another
• Though we didn’t know this when we chose to form this Supper Swap, none of us have any dietary issues/allergies to work around, so we’re totally open to making anything we’d like. If you do have an allergy/strong dislikes then I would recommend finding 3 other moms with the same culinary parameters just to keep things easy on all of you.
• A night or two before one of us is slated to make dinner we email the menu out to the other three moms and request appropriate serving dishes be dropped off on our stoop (so our dishes don’t end up all over the place).
• The first week I cooked 8 servings of my meal, packaged it up (2 servings per mom) for my 3 friends and then they swung by my house on Wednesday during a pre-determined window of time and picked up their dinner (packaged up, in their serving dishes).
• The next three Wednesdays I was the recipient of dinners. So you cook one Wednesday and then pick up the next three Wednesdays in a rotating fashion.

While your cook day takes some planning and effort, the next three Wednesday nights when you get to enjoy a meal made by a friend make it totally worthwhile. Since we could all use a night off from kitchen duty here and there, this has become a weekly treat.