Freezer Meal Party in lieu of Baby Shower

 

My older girls stuffing the melon...

Attaching the pacifier and cute little blueberry eyes...

 

Cute little baby in the melon basket center piece

A very creative, organized and incredibly talented pair of friends came up from Tok, Alaska, to put on a Freezer Meal Making Party for me in lieu of a baby shower.  It was so much fun I forgot to take pictures of the actual process but I can explain it as best I can.  I remembered to take pictures during prep time but when other ladies arrived to help it was so much busy and so much fun that I didn't even think about my camera. 

In an hour and a half, nine of us ladies made 36 meals for the freezer.  What a huge time saver this will be when the new baby arrives May 29th!  We have a scheduled C-section (fourth one, long story).

Have you heard of making meals for a month groups?  This is basically the same idea, except I've been purchasing extra food for the past couple months in preparation for the day.  The day before the party, we pre-cooked 7lbs of chicken in a couple 9x13 or roasters.  Then the morning of the party we pre-cooked our sausage and ground caribou instead of hamburger in the oven.  My friend so graciously brought up 16lbs from their last hunt!  What a huge blessing.  Caribou is so lean you do not have to drain any fat.  I'm thinking there was some ground moose in their too.  Anyhow, we just baked in the oven until it was done.  What a cinch and you don't have to stand there and stir it.

So the little bit of prep is setting up extra tables and pulling out mixing bowls, spoons, cups and what not.  When all the ladies arrived we paired up in two's and followed the printed out recipes that were inserted into slipcovers.  Most of the recipes were tripled or quadrupled. 

We placed all matching food items with recipes, creating mini work stations.  Common spices like salt, pepper, or things like oil and chopped onion went on the center island so all could use them.

When things were done being rinsed, chopped, stirred or assembled, they went into either 9x13 foil pans or double bagged plastic gallon size bags.  They taped on a label, how to cook it and what to serve it with.  Inside the double bags, they inserted another small sandwich size bag with label.

We didn't have to do any cooking, just assembly.   My friend had me choose 10 or so different recipes from her freezer meal cookbooks that I liked or knew my family would appreciate.  There were breakfast entrées too.  Wow, many hands do make light work!  It was so much fun visiting and working together.  Many generations were represented and we all appreciated one another's help.  It seemed those generational gap ideas didn't exist.  We're all one human race and even though years may separate us, love and care and working draw us together. 

We were musing how today the modern woman is missing out even with all her technological gadgets.  They don't compare to real face to face visiting and sharing one another's work load, laughing and enjoying learning and relating.

I hope we can do this again soon for other women in the church, whether it's a young busy Mom or someone expecting a lot of company, or moving, or some other mounting obstacle.

Getting together and helping each other out and encouraging one another was a great benefit and will be a much needed break from planning and preparing meals from day to day while undergoing a major abdominal surgery.  Let's call things for what they are.  C-section sounds so nice and quick and easy.  If anyone is considering weighing their options.... go to http://vbacfacts.com/    first.  Obviously we also surround our decisions with prayer as well, but learning as much as we can is also prudent.

You might change your mind after learning the truth behind why well-meaning health care providers may resort to surgery too quickly.  C-sections were meant to be done for emergencies, not preventative, precautionary ways to deal with birth.  Somehow in all our advancements we may have lost some common sense.  For some of us, it's too late.  I'm no longer a candidate for a VBAC but I would be a strong proponent of encouraging women to not give into their fears or anyone else using pressure to opt for an elective C-section.  We don't always think about the long term effects and cost down the road for our quick and easy choices today.