This is a guest post from church member Jennifer Rodriguez who has been helping to make small groups happen for many years. She is especially skilled at feeding large groups of people quickly, happily and simply. By the way, her chocolate chip cookies are to die for.
Our small group meets late Sunday afternoon 4 - 6 pm. Right after the meeting we eat dinner
together. To get a hot meal we have
adopted a basic two meal rotation.
Our two basic meals are Spaghetti with Sauce (meat optional)
and Potato Bar. The cost for these meals
is easily under $ 40 - estimating 10 adult servings for each meal. The estimated food cost is divided equally amongst
all the families.
In our situation one family always prepares the meal. This decision was made because we have a
person who really likes to cook as well as having several families with small
children who enjoy getting a night off from cooking.
Spaghetti Set-up
I also prepare a
basic salad. Once again it rest covered
on the counter until meal time. Just as
we are eating I toss the salad with dressing.
We also have sliced French
bread with butter – not heated or made fancy with garlic.
Potato
bar Set-up
One hour before the meeting I cook potatoes wrapped in aluminum
foil. Once kinship starts I turn off
the oven – the potatoes tend to stay hot if left in a closed oven. If you need to transport them or take them
out of the oven you can wrap them in a large towel & keep them in a plastic
“ice-chest.”
At meal time for toppings I set out sour cream, chopped
green onions, grated cheese & butter
In the crock pot I
heat canned vegetarian chili. (For my
crock pot I have to fill it 2/3 full to heat something which means I often have
left overs & so I freeze it for future use.)
During the potato bake
time I also steam a head of broccoli – after cooking it I drain it & let is
rest covered on the counter until meal time.
I also prepare a
basic salad. Once again it rest covered
on the counter until meal time. Just as
we are eating I toss the salad with dressing.
Kid-snack
time
We have several toddlers in our group. And so as a group we decided that feeding the
kids snacks was OK even if that meant they did not eat as much dinner that
night. We set out string cheese, baby
carrots and pretzels as well as juice boxes for kids to “graze on” whenever
they want to. The cost for these items
is added to the nightly food bill.
As you can see our meal plan involves preparation before the
meeting & then letting food rest at room temperate during the meeting. If someone really wants their food hot they
can always use the microwave – otherwise we enjoy room temperature spaghetti
with hot sauce or a warm potato with hot chili.