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Surviving the Economy: Cooking clubs
How about this for a dining deal? You could have 11 homemade dishes - each could feed a family of six - for under $80. It's a bargain being whipped up in a central Minnesota church basement, where a group of women are banding together to save on the grocery bill. "My husband once calculated that we produce a hot dish about every 3.5 minutes," Cindy Haugland said. "And I think that has rapidly increased over the years." Yes this is the story of a highly productive, low-cost, recession-bustin' recipe for feeding the family - a cooking club. "Fourteen and sixteen entrees and it is roughly between $70 and $100," Cindy said. 14 to 16 tasty-sounding entrees like Royal Vegetable Crunch, Crock Pot Fajitas and Italian Chicken Roll-ups. It's a table full of suppers for six for well under $100 a family - meals put together by the girl power known as Cooking Club #1. The club includes self-proclaimed tightwad Cindy and seven other bargain-hunters who've set aside one night-a-month for meal making in the basement kitchen of Hutchinson's Faith Lutheran Church. Click here to read Cindy's "Tidy Tightwads Blog." "And I hope they like it," Rozanne Heaton said of the recipes she's come up with for this month's edition. "The whole process begins at your kitchen table, putting together a graph sheet. A quarter teaspoon of this and a half a teaspoon of this, so you know what you need for your recipe," Rosanne continued. And once you know what you need, Rosanne says, it's off to the store to get it. "We're on a mission," Cindy said while shopping for supplies recently at Hutchinson's Cash Wise Foods. It's a "buy-in-bulk mission" to get enough, but not too much, of everything from the milk to the meat. "I need 220 chicken breasts," Rozanne said to the man at the meat counter. Because they're buying in bulk, the women are able to work with their grocer to get the best prices on everything from meat to milk in one location. They try to buy the whole list at the lowest possible price. The women are also trying to include recipes that take advantage of seasonal local foods like rhubarb, sweet corn and apples. "Getting everything at the right price is priority. It is high priority," Rosanne said. Thanks to Rosanne and Cindy's super shopping this month, each woman in the cooking club will spend $79.61 on ingredients. From that, they'll take home nine main meals and two side dishes. That breaks down to $8.84 a meal to feed an entire family. "You absolutely can't beat the cost," Rosanne added. Back in the basement, as the recipes are coming together, the ladies say you can't beat the time savings either. This one evening in the church canteen will mean many summer afternoons away from their own kitchen counters. "We always have something in the freezer ready to go," Cindy said. "We just are able to spend extra time with our families. It just blesses us in such big ways," Rosanne added. "Plus it's a lot more fun than cooking at home," Anne Nelson added. Ah, the fun. It's the special ingredient that seems to makes this club click. "Yes, and that's why it's also hard for them to hold another meeting at church. We get carried away," Cindy said smiling. A little, but not too carried away. Because it all comes together and before you know it, it's time to pay up and pack up a month's worth of homemade meals. "Right now you want to be very strategic so you can carry everything in and hope your husband is still awake when you get home to go out to the car and help carry it in," Beth Gasser said smiling. Even in the final moments of this month's meeting, the women of Cooking Club #1 are adding dashes of laughter and counting their blessings. "I look very forward to this one day a month," Rosanne said. "It's a very fun way to spend a night away from home." A fun night away, made even better knowing they've saved themselves a hefty helping of time and money. If this sounds like something you may be interested in doing, Cindy Haugland has some suggestions about forming a cooking club. She's also willing to answer your email questions. Click here to read Cindy's "Tidy Tightwads Blog."
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