Neighborly Dinner Exchange

I've mentioned my neighbor, Jenn, on here quite a lot in the past couple of months because we've become good friends. After nearly five years of living next door to each other and not knowing much more than our first names, it took me becoming a SAHM to get the ball rolling with our friendship. She's a mom of two, ages 3.5 and 8 weeks, so she's pretty busy these days. We both enjoy cooking, so she brought up the idea of doing a dinner exchange each week.

Since we both menu plan, we usually send each other a text to see which day is best and if what we have in mind sounds good (which it always does). We don't have picky eating families so this works out perfect.

Last week I did the chicken and pasta bake and made enough to send to my mom & dad as well as our neighbors, and this week I'm doing a crock pot recipe. Last week she sent over taco soup - we already had leftovers in the fridge so I decided to freeze her meal and save it for another day. This week it was chicken spaghetti, perfect for a rainy night at home.

It is amazing how much of a difference having someone cook for you for one night a week makes. Since the U and I are trying to cut down on eating out, this has become a great alternative for us. Plus I always tend to make enough to feed at least four, so there's not much of an additional cost in sending over half of the meal - and it's nice to know that at the end of the week I'm not going to be tossing out any food that is no longer good.

As long as you have flexibility with your schedules and mouths that aren't picky to feed, I seriously recommend trying something like this with your own friends/neighbors! Beats the heck out of takeout anyday!