A great idea for established clubs or groups or for like-minded people to help keep them accountable with their nutrition. Buy the fixings for a month (or less) of meals or it could be done every two weeks and this would set up each person for dinners, lunches and breakfast, so they can keep each other accountable for hitting their individual goals.
Now, is the time to form a group or club with individuals who have like-minded goals, taste or preferences…the ideas are endless!
- 1. Find a name for your group and connect via Facebook, creating a little community where you can share more ideas as you go along.
- 2. Make sure the host sets up the rules ahead of time and make sure to keep your DIY parties simple and that everyone leaves with a variety.
- 3. Make (or gather) stuff that’s edible and swappable, dinners, snacks, breakfast, condiments, slow cooker meals, or freezer meal.
- 4. Find a friend or two who can share the planning and hosting duties. You can also switch the hosting duties, so you can rotate hosts and houses.
- 5. Invite your girlfriends over, ones you may not know and the ones that you see all the time. This is a time where you can get out of the house and enjoy time with like-minded people. Another way to keep this party organized is send out event invites on Facebook to make sure you are able to plan your host space accordingly.
- 6. Bring not only swappable food, but food that can be shared at the party. Adding a meal to this party will be a great introduction to the DIY Swap Party Night.
- 7. Be organized before going to the party, provide tags on your meals for description. The tags could include, who made it, what the item is, recipe or ingredients, and if you want to be ambitious you can add the nutritional label.
- 8. Designate a time when the swap will take place and the itinerary of the party. The parties can be as long or as short as you would like but an ideal party would last for about 2 hours, to accommodate late attendees and extra time for talking and eating.
9. The end of the party can be for the swap, giving people ample time to check out the items and enough time for questions!
You can certainly have many themes to your DIY Swap parties, this is the time to get creative and have fun!
Soup or Stew Swap Party–Each guest can make 1-2 frozen homemade soups and/or chili and have meals for a couple weeks!
Produce Swap Party– If you have gardening friends they may have an abundance of produce that they would like to swap out with others. You can bring your surplus and swap for what you didn’t grow.
“Your Famous Dish” Swap Party– Maybe you jar your own salsa, or scratch-bake protein bars, or you have a famous dish, these make great swap items. You can even make your own spices or vinaigrette and swap out those!
Baby Food Swap Party—Provide a variety of foods for your little one(s), without the mess of multiple batches. I had done this with my little one, and I think this would have been an excellent idea because I felt like my kitchen was ALWAYS dirty from making the food. This would be a great way to get moms together, swap out different foods and give children a taste and balance of many foods.
Slow Cooker Swap Party– For those busy days or weeks a slow-cooker meal can certainly save you when you are trying to hit your fitness and health goals. I think this is one of the easiest ones because you can make a bunch of batches at a time to bring to these swap parties, leaving you with several dinners on hand for busy nights when you don’t have time to cook.