Want to add a little life into your meals? Why not start a “What’s for Dinner Club?” You’ll gain new recipes, new friends and make meal planning a lot of fun.
About a year ago, as I was e-mailing a small group of friends, I realized that one of the things we talked about almost daily was our dinner plans. “What’s for dinner?” someone would inevitably ask, and then the e-mail would be flying back and forth. We were all eager to share our plans, ask questions and get suggestions.
So I thought it would be great for us to have a real official group, and this has really worked well. Although I started it with that core e-mail group, soon others were invited into the fold, and it is just growing from there.
Some of the benefits of having this group include: a database of home grown, tried and true recipes, an accountability for trying new things (no one wants to keep posting the same menu day after day), a ready made resource for tips, suggestions and substitutions, and just the fun companionship of being in a like-minded group. I’ve also learned some pretty creative little tidbits, such as the substitution when you don’t have buttermilk on hand, or which apples make the best home made apple sauce.
We do have some specialists in the group, which make it really fun. One member is an expert in crock pot meals. Another creates some yummy vegetarian dishes. A third is so organized, she inspires the rest with her weekly, low cost menu plans.
We created this group online, and that has allowed us to have that nice database of recipes, organized by type. We can even add photos of the completed dishes, if we like. I am always referring to the files to see what I might make for that evening. Our database of recipes is now so good, that we should probably make it into a published cookbook.
If you want to start your own group, you can begin by e-mailing a few friends to see if they are interested. Let them know that they are free to invite others. We used Yahoo Groups, but you can use any system you are comfortable with, such as a My Site or a forum thread here at Families.com.
Well, I would write some more about this great group, but I am off to try Kelly’s famous pot roast that is constantly getting a majority of rave reviews.
Mary Ann Romans writes about her family’s money saving secrets in the Frugal Living Blog here at Families.com
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