I want to introduce you to Jenn and Nicky! These are two of my friends who started doing a neighbor meal swap. Most of the time when you hear about a meal swap going on, it is in relation to a freezer meal swap so I wanted to do a feature on these ladies to explain all about a neighbor meal swap where hot meals are passed between homes! What could be easier for a momma than to share the cooking?!
Q & A with the Neighbor Meal Swap Ladies:
So many people are a part of freezer meal swaps. Where did the idea come from to swap hot home cooked meals?
I had a friend from college mention she was in a swap with 2 of her neighbors. They each had a particular day of the week they cooked on and would meet at the fence they all shared to swap food. She loved it and I was eager to try it out for myself.
Practically, how does the “hot meal swap” work?
We don’t have particular days we cook on each week, instead we decide the week before which days we are cooking depending on our schedules. We usually each cook for each other once each week (for example, I might cook for her on Monday and Nicky would cook for us on Wed.) We just double our recipe. We cook twice as much, half is for us the other half we deliver at dinner time. Of course, there are exceptions. Sometimes I might deliver it earlier in the day because she needs it early or late and will bake it herself. Or maybe I m running behind and she might send her husband down to pick it up.
What kind of recipes do you swap? Do you talk about recipes with each other ahead of time or just make what you already have on your meal plan?
We do talk ahead of time to make a plan. We consider what else we are making that week so we don’t have something like rice 3 times in one week.
If a mom wanted to start a hot meal swap, what suggestions would you have for getting one going?
Proximity is really helpful. We love that we live on the same Street, we just walk our meals down to each other. Number /age of your family and eating habits need to be considered too. We eat very similarly and although she has three children and I have 2, one of mine is a tween boy and easily eats as much as 2 of her littles put together!
Any funny stories from the meal swap?
We have both made recipes with a new ingredient that turned out so spicy our kids could not eat it! We hate to hear that the other person had to make something else for their kids but usually we did too and the adults all loved it. We still can’t help but tease each other about a particular stores spicy sausage or taco seasoning.
I asked the ladies to share a favorite neighbor swap recipe with us!
Ethnic Curry
Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs (cut into pieces and marinated in salt, pepper, olive oil and cumin powder)
1 onion, minced
1 chunk ginger, about the size of your thumb, minced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red or green chili pepper, minced
1 stalk of celery, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 pkg mushrooms, chopped
more veggies if you like (bell pepper, sweet potato etc.)
3 TB curry powder (I do more when I’m adding more veggies along with more coconut milk and minced veggies so that it’s not too watery)
1/4 cup red wine or chicken broth
1/2 cup coconut milk
Cilantro
Here is what you do:
1. On Medium heat cook ginger, garlic and pepper until fragrant. Add onions. Cook for 10 more minutes.
2. Add mushrooms and celery, then move everything to the side of the pan and cook the curry powder with a little bit of water until no longer powdery.
3. Add the tomatoes and mix everything together.
4. Add the chicken on the side of the pan until the surface is cooked, the mix everything together.
5. Add enough water to almost cover the ingredients. Add the red wine or broth and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Add coconut milk, cilantro and salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve over rice.
- 2 chicken thighs (cut into pieces and marinated in salt, pepper, olive oil and cumin powder)
- 1 onion, minced
- 1 chunk ginger, about the size of your thumb, minced
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 red or green chili pepper, minced
- 1 stalk of celery, chopped
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 pkg mushrooms, chopped
- more veggies if you like (bell pepper, sweet potato etc.)
- 3 TB curry powder (I do more when I’m adding more veggies along with more coconut milk and minced veggies so that it’s not too watery)
- 1/4 cup red wine or chicken broth
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- Cilantro
- On Medium heat cook ginger, garlic and pepper until fragrant. Add onions. Cook for 10 more minutes.
- Add mushrooms and celery, then move everything to the side of the pan and cook the curry powder with a little bit of water until no longer powdery.
- Add the tomatoes and mix everything together.
- Add the chicken on the side of the pan until the surface is cooked, the mix everything together.
- Add enough water to almost cover the ingredients. Add the red wine or broth and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add coconut milk, cilantro and salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve over rice.