Meal Care Package for Families

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Meal Care Package for Families, a New Mom, or Friends: A creative way to deliver a meal to someone with easy, and thoughtful, characteristics. 

Meal Care Package for Families

We are right in the heart of our friends having babies. Now you KNOW I love to host a good party for someone with something to celebrate in life, but a close favorite is being able to make and take a hearty, and thoughtful meal to someone who just had a baby.

As new parents, cooking and cleaning are typically the last on the priority list when they bring a new baby home from the hospital. So over the last few years, I’ve made it a habit to deliver a meal to my friends who have just arrived home with a little bundle of joy.

Then, in true Fantabulosity-fashion, if I can add a little “pretty,” to it… you know I will! I can’t wait to show you my favorite ways to build a to-go care package below! But first…

With “Pretty,” Comes Reality

I know how much you guys love seeing the realness, and behind the scenes of what goes on around here, and I’m about to give it to you!

Kitchen Clean-Up

When I prepared this care package for my friends the other day, I wanted to take the opportunity to show you just how messy my kitchen gets. In “blog-world,” we tend to only show the beautiful and polished rooms of our homes and lives. But let me tell you, my kitchen looks like this on a daily basis after cooking up a storm and ESPECIALLY when making a meal care package for a family!

Counters and sinks full of dirty dishes, half-eaten snacks all around, and so much more. So friends, if this is you too, have no fear… you’re not alone!

Sharing the “Good”

I recently used the new Scotch-Brite® Scrubbing Dish Cloth (the coral color actually caught my eye at Target… surprise, surprise) and I was incredibly shocked at how much I liked these! I mean, a dish cloth is a dish cloth…right? Um, no.

Just look at that nastiness!

Scotch-Brite® Scrubbing Dish Cloth

Plus, they are fully washable and reusable too… so I can keep using them again and again.

Ahhh…. isn’t that so much better!?

 

Counter Top Messes:

With our granite countertops, you can hardly see any stuck on food, after cooking. So there will be times that I don’t “see,” anything on the counter, until I run my hand across it, and “feel,” it. So there are times that “stuck on,” messes will even be on my counter tops, that is crazy-hard to get off. But the scrubbing dots on these dish clothes help SO much. I was always using my thumbnail to etch it off… but love using these so much more. They scrub like the stay clean sponges, and don’t scratch surfaces.

Meal Care Package Tutorial

Now that the mess is cleaned up in the kitchen, we can focus on how to create a meal care package for someone that you love, so they won’t have such a big mess to clean up, during such an important time!

Main Dish

I start by planning a main dish, that can be easily reheated if needed, and that transports well. Kabobs are always a fun choice, and since learning how to wrap them all-cute-like, I tend to want to make these for every care package.

We wrapped the kabobs in aluminum foil and a cloth napkin. (Aluminum to trap heat, and the napkin to add some “flair.”)

“Swaddle that Baby”

I laugh every time doing this, especially if it’s for a new mom. Because we will wrap the kabobs like swaddling a new born baby. The napkin helps secure the kabobs, and well… it just looks super cute. Here’s how:

Finish it off with a ribbon and it’s ready to go!

Tip:

You can tuck aluminum foil around the entire bundle of kabobs if you like, but we left it open so you could see that it was kabobs that we were actually wrapping here. 

Side Dish:

Sending a side dish in a mason jar is my favorite for TWO reasons.

I’m not buying expensive plastic containers to send it in… AND it really adds to the “look,” of the care package. When you make a colorful pasta salad, you can see all of the beautiful colors layered in the mason jar!

Dessert:

Ah, I don’t know if there’s anything better than receiving a sweet treat in a care package. We wrapped our cookies in parchment paper and placed them in an adorable little berry basket for some extra cuteness.

Drinks:

Don’t forget the drinks too! To transport the drinks easily and to make the mom and dad feel super special, I made them their own drinks; each filled with the mint and strawberry garnish!

Want the Pasta Salad Recipe?

The pasta salad recipe is one my favorites and SO easy to make!

Flowers

To round off the care package, we added a mason jar with a small bouquet to bring in Spring colors, and to congratulate the new parents. I thought these added the perfect amount of color and “pop,” to the care package! Don’t you?

Tray:

I use the same tray for each delivery, and just bring it back home with me after making the drop off. Make sure your tray is sturdy!

Clean-Up is Conquered:

With this type of care package, clean up will be a breeze for the recipient. But to make it even easier, we threw in one of the Scotch-Brite® Scrubbing Dish Cloth’s too. I’ve told you how I can’t keep a good thing to myself, right?!

Thank you SO much for popping over to see how we styled the meal care package for friends of ours. I’m tickled that it was also an opportunity to show you one of my favorite new finds in the kitchen!

For more gift ideas that we LOVE to make for others, you can see those HERE!