Chesed meals (Part 3): Shabbat meals

(See part 1 and part 2 of this series)

We’ve talked about some ideas for weekday meals. Now what about Shabbat? These meals are usually more elaborate and may be harder for the coordinator to fill. One thing that we do in my community is break it up into two (or three, for bigger groups) jobs. The people who are making the meals can coordinate their food so the recipients have the usual things:

  • appetizer: soup, salad, and/or fish
  • main course (almost always meat/chicken)
  • veggie
  • starch
  • dessert

Sometimes a person’s preferences might mix this up a little, but in general, this is a good run down of a Shabbat meal. So you could make pumpkin peanut soup, some spice rubbed chicken, cauliflower popcorn, noodle kugel, and lemon bars. Make two portions: one for your family, and one for the other, and you have your meal set–and theirs!

Shabbat brings a few other things to worry about, however.

  • If you are making lunch, be sure that everything is reheating friendly or good cold. Things with sauce can be a problem to reheat, so it shouldn’t be something like sweet and sour meatballs (even if you would reheat it based on your psak, other people might not be able to).
  • If you are sending the makings of a cholent or a roast (like BBQ beef sandwiches), be sure they have a crockpot, check on size, and be sure it’s available for that week. Otherwise, they won’t be able to cook their lunch!

Shabbat is the biggest food day of our week, so even though it’s most work for the giver, it takes the most work off the recipient’s plate–or is that puts the most on their plate? 😉

Stay tuned for next week’s final installment in this series: some nice touches.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2011/10/05/chesed-meals-part-3-shabbat-meals/

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