Facebook

Here are a few ways to use facebook with CaringMeals:
1. Become a Fan
Keep up-to-date on the latest news and announcements.
2. Invite your Friends to Bring Meals
You can "share" your plan on facebook and invite your facebook friends to bring a meal directly from CaringMeals. On the "Invite Friends" page, look at the facebook section for a link to facebook.
In the future, we are looking at further integration with facebook including:

• Posting updates to your feed
  
• Profile Pictures
  
• Signon with facebook email/password
  

If you have suggestions or questions regarding facebook and CaringMeals, let us know!

Minestrone Soup

This is a DELICIOUS Minestrone Soup recipe! It's so simple too! Take a look.

Here are all the ingredients you will need to begin:
1/4 cup oil
1 clove garlic (minced)
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 Tbsp parsley
1 can tomato paste
1 can beef broth
8 cups water
2 carrots sliced
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sage
2 zucchini sliced
1 can (28 oz) diced tomato
1 can kidney beans
1 cup shell macaroni (or more)
Optional: 1/2 pound cooked ground beef

The first and most time consuming step is pealing the carrots and chopping the vegetables. (Tip: I usually cut my carrots and zucchini in large chunks.)

The next step is to brown your meat.

While the meat is cooking, you can start putting all the ingredients into a large pot. Add every ingredient (including the meat when it is done), except for the pasta and zucchini. Place your pot on the stove and cook until carrots are mostly tender.

Add the pasta of your choice and the zucchini and cook about 15 minutes more.

Serve with bread or in a bread bowl! You may also like to serve a salad alongside it. Oh, and it tastes great with Parmesan Cheese on top!

I figured out the cost is approximately 60 cents per serving and this recipe serves 10 -12 people. So, you can make a big pot, put the amount needed to give in a Tupperware container to transport, and then feed your family or put the rest in the freezer for another meal!

Soup may not sound like an exciting meal, but I guarantee it is a winner! This was the first meal brought to Nate and I when we came home from the hospital with our brand new baby, Alexander, and we LOVED it. I remember very clearly that we received a phone call saying that dinner was on it's way, and then I heard that it was soup... Nate and I were both disappointed by the news... BUT it was AMAZING! We loved it, it actually filled Nate up (which is hard to do), we had leftovers, and it was actually one of our favorite meals!

- Amy

Flexible Shepherd’s Pie

This is a "Flexible" recipe, because it easily adapts to different tastes in vegetables, meat, and seasonings. It also can be finished in the oven, so it is hot when you (or the family you gave it to) is ready to eat!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef/turkey


• 1 onion chopped


• 2-3 cups chopped mushrooms


• 1-2 cups vegetables (chopped carrots, spinach, peas, corn, soybeans, or whatever you like)


• 2-3 large potatoes (Yukon Gold is my favorite, but anything works)


• 2-3 cloves of garlic (optional)


• One can of Cream of Tomato soup (any tomato sauce will do)


• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil


• Worcestershire sauce (you can substitute any seasonings you want)


• Salt, pepper

Instructions:

1. Boil potatoes and garlic in salted water.




2. Mash potatoes, adding a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.



3. Saute mushrooms. Set Aside.



4. Saute onions. Add meat with a little salt and cook until brown.
   
   



5. Take the meat mixture off the stove, mix in tomato soup/sauce and vegetables. (If you are using mushrooms, don’t mix them in yet.)
   
   



6. In a 13x9 casserole dish, first spread the meat mixture on the bottom.
   



7. Add the mushrooms...
   



8. Finally, add the mashed potato.
   



9. Score the top of the potato layer with a fork.
   Optional: Sprinkle with a little butter or cheese (Cheddar, Colby Jack or Monterrey Jack)



10. Cooking Instructions : Bake at 350 deg F for 45 min or till the tips of the mashed potato turn brown. (Put these instructions on a sticky note and put on the dish if the recipient is baking it.)

Enjoy!

- Sabina

Wrapping Things Up

Disposable or not? This is up to you. Disposable can make things easier for the recipient. Consider how important it is to you that you get your dishes back also. On the other hand, it is hard to find to a disposable container that can hold a large quantity of steaming stew. I tend to just take it in the pot in which it was cooked. Sometimes, the recipient will just pour it into one of their own and hand the pot back to me. But I don’t stress about my dishes. I have pots to spare and by and large my dishes have found their way back to me.

If you are taking the meal to a family that’s at a hospital and away from home, disposable would just be necessary. In that case, don’t forget napkins and disposable cutlery!

- Sabina

Importing Email Addresses

Virtually every major email system (Yahoo, Google, and Hotmail) can export email addresses (Contacts) to an Outlook CSV format. CaringMeals can now import Outlook CSV files, so you can save typing and quickly invite all your Friends to bring meals!

Here are the steps:

1. Export your Contacts to an Outlook CSV file. When prompted to save the file, choose your "My Documents" or "Documents" folder.
   
   Here are examples from the 3 major email providers:
   
   • Gmail
     
     
     
     • Click Contacts | Export
     
     
     • Select Outlook CSV and click "Export"
       
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • Yahoo
     
     
     
     • Open your Contact List and select Export
       
     
     
     • Click Export Now next to "Microsoft Outlook"
       
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • Hotmail
     Open your Contacts and Click Manage | Export
   
   
   • For other email systems, look for an "Export" function, and select "Outlook CSV" when asked for the format to export. If you have questions, please check with your email provider.
     
   
   
   
   


2. Login to CaringMeals, Open the Plan you are coordinating, and click INVITE FRIENDS TO HELP. You will see this screen:


3. Click the "Choose File" button, and select the file from step #1 in your "My Documents", "Documents", or whichever folder you saved the file.


4. Click UPLOAD, and then you should see a screen like this:If you see one of the following messages:
   - File too big
   - No Addresses found
   - Not a CSV file
   Please correct your file, and try again.
   


5. Enter a note to your Friends, and then click SEND!

This is another feature which was requested by our YOU, our users - Keep sending us your feedback and suggestions! We want to keep providing features which help you coordinate more meals, in less time, with less stress!

Food Safety - Your Refrigerator

Why do we refrigerate foods?

Refrigeration slows bacterial growth. Bacteria exist everywhere in nature. They are in the soil, air, water, and the foods we eat. When they have nutrients (food), moisture, and favorable temperatures, they grow rapidly, increasing in numbers to the point where some types of bacteria can cause illness. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 and 140 °F, the “Danger Zone,” some doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. A refrigerator set at 40 °F or below will protect most foods.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Refrigeration_and_Food_Safety.pdf

Stay out of the "Danger Zone" in your refrigerator!
When it comes to meal preparation and storage (Leftovers), knowing how refrigeration affects different types of foods can save you from making yourself or, even worse, someone else painfully sick.

Here are the refrigeration times for some of the most common CaringMeals:
- Opened Luncheon Meats: 3-5 days
- Ground Meats: 1-2 days
- Chicken: 1-2 days
(be careful with chicken and ground meat!)

For an in-depth explanation of this topic, the USDA has provided a complete guide to food safety:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Refrigeration_and_Food_Safety.pdf

Their Food Safety home page is:
http://origin-www.fsis.usda.gov/Food_Safety_Education/index.asp

You can even call them at 1-888-MPHotline! Your tax dollars at work!

Who did I Invite?

As your friend list grows, sometimes you forget who you already invited to a Plan. No need to worry - when you click "INVITE FRIENDS TO HELP" and look at your list of friends, the "@" will be your guide. If you see "@" next to your Friend's name, they have already been invited. (Even if someone else invited that friend to the Plan, you will see the "@" symbol!)