Meal of The Month

Need a gift idea for a birthday, or any other occasion? How about a new mom or bride to be? You might consider the gift of a meal a month. My husband and I wanted to give our children a Christmas gift last year that would keep on giving, so we came up with the Meal a Month idea.

We put together a book that featured three meals that my son's family could choose from each month. Each meal was complete with sides and dessert, if they did not like the choices offered that month they could  choose a meal featured in any of the previous months. They would chose the day they would like the meal delivered, with the only requirement being that they had was to give me a weeks notice so I could plan and do my shopping.

My youngest son lives out of state, so we had to adapt his book. He has three baked items to choose from each month, and the same rules apply, if he does not like the choices offered he can choose from a prior month and he needs to give me a weeks notice. Another rule that applies to him...the plastic cake containers must come home at some point so they can be reused, all his items are mailed to him

I made the book that featured the meals on line, using Walgreens photo processing, added photos of the grand kids in the kitchen and eating just for fun. You can do these books as reasonably as ten dollars. You could also use index cards for this, with one index card for each month featuring three meal choices. Tie all the index cards together with a pretty bow and you are set to go. As an added feature you can also add the recipe when delivering the meal. The most challenging part of this gift is coming up with 36 different menu choices (I ended up doing some repeats)

I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy a meal brought to them, especially if their lives are busy, mobility limited, health frail or finances tight. Our families have really enjoyed this, maybe you'd like to try it too

                                      Linking with Pamela at a Sheltering Tree