Can You Master the Art of Power Cooking?

[caraighan]

these are great. Just sneaking in a little peek before I go to work... unfortunately I've got to go! Can't wait to look at it fully after work!

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

I'm actually still drafting my cost list to verify but so far it seems I can do it by shopping at Costco. My goal is really to make this such a no brainer for people to sign up and that it's about the service they can use. I'm confident that at that point, they will place orders and book shows to have me come personally show their family and friends how to do this in the comfort of their own home, so I want to be careful not to make the actual workshop fee make money. I'm also thinking that once I finalize the true costs, that I will adjust the flier to indicate how much works out to be per serving. Any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!I'm going through the final round of the edits on this and I should have the church reservation done by the end of the week. I'm going to mail this flyer to all the recent guests in that area.

 

[Jolie_Paradoxe]

Keep us posted....I'm ready to unroll this too, but have held back until I can figure out the costs....

 

[TrishPCMommy]

Keep in mind... The Power Cooking meals are around $2 per serving and serve 6 people (adults); that's $12 per meal. If you're making 3 Power Cooking meals, that's $36 dollars worth of food.
At my workshop, every participant brought their own meat (the host chose 3 chicken recipes, so everyone brought 3 pounds of chicken already cubed) and $15. Guests paired themselves up in teams of 2, great for socializing and reading directions so everyone puts the correct ingredients in the correct bags. I set it up in stations or centers with directions specific to each station:
1) Label 6 freezer bags with a Sharpie marker: Today's Date, Bag 1, Chicken Stir-Fry (for example); Today's Date, Bag 2, Chicken Stir-Fry; Today's Date, Bag 1, Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup; Today's Date, Bag 2, Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup; Today's Date, Bag 1, Smoky Black Bean Chicken Wrap; Today's Date, Bag 2, Smoky Black Bean Chicken Wrap.
2) Cookware: Cook your chicken in the family skillet until there is no more pink.
3) Seasonings: left the seasonings needed for all 3 recipes and the Easy Adjustable Measuring Spoon & the Adjustable Measuring Spoons with directions of how much of which seasoning to put into which bag.
4) Cutting Edge: cutting board and knife for cutting and julienning carrots, Velveeta... whatever cutting needed to be done. (once again, directions at each station for what to do and which bag it went into)
5) Cans: can opener and can strainer (Close to a sink or have a "dump" bowl for draining.) This is where I also put precooked & premeasured rice for the wraps in Ziploc bowls.
6) Frozen foods: Easy Read Measuring Cups and all of the frozen foods (frozen broccoli for the stir-fry instead of fresh--less expensive and it's going back into the freezer anyway!)
7) Liquid measurements & Easy Read Measuring Cup & Easy Adjustable Measuring Cup
8) Other: Batter Bowl & Mix 'N Chop for crushing Tortilla Chips.

I also had a display table covered in new Spring products and HWC products.
Yes, it moves quickly and they can't believe it took so little time to cook 3 meals.
Yes, I shopped for all of the other groceries at Sam's Club. The benefit of them bringing their own meat is they can choose if they want chicken breasts or thighs and them cubing it at home takes the time component out, but they still cook on our cookware.

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

Trish, I love how you have your stations set up, I'm going to tweak mine to be less recipe focused and more function focused as you have because then there's no worry about having enough tools.I will definitely keep an eye on costs and post my spreadsheet here when it is done. (It's the biggest part of the project). I'm not sure it will completely help each person however because of price variances per locale. But, my prices will probably be on the upper end of costs as this is an expensive area, so that should give you extra cushion. Also bear in mind that some things are inexact because you might buy a whole bottle of vinegar to only have 2 people choose a recipe, therefore only using 4 teaspoons of it so the actual per serving cost and the flat rate you are stuck with of that item make for a variance. OTOH, on those items the cost is usually insignificant, especially if you are operating as your own host where you have the chance to earn items for your kit.On my display I will have the DCB Set Sale Items as referenced in the call to take the idea of quick inexpensive cooking to the next level. I'm tossing around Holly's idea of putting my DCB "cookbook" on my website versus as part of my 2 Buck Grub Special (DCB special). My only concern is that I wanted to give it as incentive to purchase...get them excited about the recipes they will be making while they wait for the DCB to arrive. But Holly has a great point too about drawing them to the website....One element of my workshop that I'm sure will be different from everyone else's is that I will pre cook and pre freeze the beef and chicken. My focus is not going to be on cookware (more on the tools and DCB) and I don't want to slow down the recipe prep with actual cook time. Part of this is because I have decided to do two back to back workshops also. In this format, the bags of meat will be given out as registration is completed which also allows me to maintain the portion control over the most expensive part of the class.I will also do sheet labels for the Bag 1, Bag 2 recipe ideas as well as sheet labels for the final assembly instructions for when it comes out of the freezer that they can slap on the bags (all conveniently showing my email and phone number too of course ;-))

 

[TrishPCMommy]

Make sure the labels will stick to the freezer bags even in the freezer.
Also, you don't want the meat frozen yet; you need it seasoned with the seasonings-like a marinade. If it's already frozen when you add the seasonings, the meat will have very little time once finally thawed before cooking or while cooking from frozen to marinate.
You may want to have the cold, cooked meat in a cooler and hand them the correct number of bags based on their recipe selections when they finish registration, just not frozen meat.

The function focus of the Power Cooking Centers helps them get well acquainted with the tools, sometimes for more than one use, and the Power Cooking technique - if I have a lot of cutting to do, I'm going to do it all in one place at one time, not go back and forth to the cutting board. Then, they're truly focusing on Power Cooking, not "what's the recipe?"

 

[TrishPCMommy]

Here's what I created for the Workshop I did where the host chose 3 recipes and everyone would make the same 3... (Margins are .5" all the way around. Simply cut on the dotted lines.) This is for a workshop with Chicken Stir-Fry, Smoky Black Bean Chicken Wraps & Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup.

If you're offering to the guests to make their own choices, you may want to have similar "function" stations, but color code the specific recipe directions. (Print directions and glue them on colored cardstock. Tell each guest which color he/she needs to follow based on recipe selections..."You need to follow the purple, green, red and blue directions at each station.") Or mark it on their registration form or Two Buck Grub stuff.

Best wishes Michelle on yours; offering all 10 recipes will keep you busy!
I know I'll be doing my workshop again in the near future, but I enjoy knowing I only have to think about ingredients and tools for 3 recipes and not 10! Let us know how it goes!
Maybe as incentive to get them to your website, hand them some recipes and tell them there are more on your website...

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

Make sure the labels will stick to the freezer bags even in the freezer.
Also, you don't want the meat frozen yet; you need it seasoned with the seasonings-like a marinade. If it's already frozen when you add the seasonings, the meat will have very little time once finally thawed before cooking or while cooking from frozen to marinate.
You may want to have the cold, cooked meat in a cooler and hand them the correct number of bags based on their recipe selections when they finish registration, just not frozen meat.

The function focus of the Power Cooking Centers helps them get well acquainted with the tools, sometimes for more than one use, and the Power Cooking technique - if I have a lot of cutting to do, I'm going to do it all in one place at one time, not go back and forth to the cutting board. Then, they're truly focusing on Power Cooking, not "what's the recipe?"

Fantastic points Trish. I love "discussing" this!

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

If you're offering to the guests to make their own choices, you may want to have similar "function" stations, but color code the specific recipe directions. (Print directions and glue them on colored cardstock. Tell each guest which color he/she needs to follow based on recipe selections..."You need to follow the purple, green, red and blue directions at each station.") Or mark it on their registration form or Two Buck Grub stuff.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Sweet!

Thanks so much Trish, I figure it will feel like an evening with my sisters

And thanks for sharing the flier along with your wonderful thought process...I hope you will stick around and fill me in on observations from your workshops!

PS Do you also hand out the printouts so they can replicate again at home or do you prefer they call you back when they want to do it again?

 

[TrishPCMommy]

I hand out the printouts: Recipe Summary, Shopping List and Tips for both chicken and ground beef only (double-sided to save paper).
I also make reminder calls about 3 months after the workshop to remind guests if they haven't eaten all 3 meals yet to go ahead and do so due to the freezing tips we reviewed.
Also... let's book another so we can create another 3 recipes amongst friends...

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

It's naptime here, so this is a quick post

Here's the spreadsheet. A few observations and notes of comment:

1. Surprisingly the Greek Orzo and the SOUP (of all things) cost about $11 each to prepare. So I pulled them and came up with an an average cost of $5.70 PER MEAL (not per serving).
2. I noted a few things that could be had at Costco that I did not actually price out there but I did price out and record the chicken and beef from Costco.
3. I also did not add prices for the rubs from PC or oil or vinegar. For me it was not worth calculating separately, I'll just round up when I charge the fee.
4. Based on this, I will likely charge $25 for four meals and they get a resusable bag to keep and carry.
5. I should have priced ziplocs but did not; get them at Costco too
6. Finally, please note that my prices in the DC area are very high. Make sure you modify or spot check before doing your own
7. Note that there are several tabs in this workbook. It also was originally saved in Office 2007 but I had to save down to attach. This may have affected the format but I don't have a chance to chekc now, just let me know if you have trouble

Hope this helps!


Arggg it won't let me attach at all. PM me for it and I'll send it to you

 

[sunnygirl in nd]

That confirms it - I priced out the recipes to be between $5- 6.50. I didn't get $11 for the soup - hope I'm not wrong on the price. Anyway, my fliers are advertising 4 for $25 and I'm giving them 6 to pick from and then they can chose chicken or beef on a bunch - tacos, stroganoff, and italian hoagies, and then the chicken soup, chicken stir fry,and chicken black bean wraps. I figured $2.50 a lb. for either chicken breast or beef. It's definitely just an estimate.

 

[Jolie_Paradoxe]

It's naptime here, so this is a quick post

Here's the spreadsheet. A few observations and notes of comment:

1. Surprisingly the Greek Orzo and the SOUP (of all things) cost about $11 each to prepare. So I pulled them and came up with an an average cost of $5.70 PER MEAL (not per serving).
2. I noted a few things that could be had at Costco that I did not actually price out there but I did price out and record the chicken and beef from Costco.
3. I also did not add prices for the rubs from PC or oil or vinegar. For me it was not worth calculating separately, I'll just round up when I charge the fee.
4. Based on this, I will likely charge $25 for four meals and they get a resusable bag to keep and carry.
5. I should have priced ziplocs but did not; get them at Costco too
6. Finally, please note that my prices in the DC area are very high. Make sure you modify or spot check before doing your own
7. Note that there are several tabs in this workbook. It also was originally saved in Office 2007 but I had to save down to attach. This may have affected the format but I don't have a chance to chekc now, just let me know if you have trouble

Hope this helps!


Arggg it won't let me attach at all. PM me for it and I'll send it to you

Very cool. You have really beefed up this concept, AND done major research. Thanks for being generous and sharing.....on my way to PM you my email!

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

That confirms it - I priced out the recipes to be between $5- 6.50. I didn't get $11 for the soup - hope I'm not wrong on the price. Anyway, my fliers are advertising 4 for $25 and I'm giving them 6 to pick from and then they can chose chicken or beef on a bunch - tacos, stroganoff, and italian hoagies, and then the chicken soup, chicken stir fry,and chicken black bean wraps. I figured $2.50 a lb. for either chicken breast or beef. It's definitely just an estimate.

Are you willing to share your flier?

 

[sunnygirl in nd]

My fliers are pretty much a copy of yours! I hope you don't mind! I just changed the entrees to 6 and the prices and added a line at the top that said "Spend more time in the sun and less in the kitchen! " I'm planning to do it on June 6 so we'll see if I get enough interest. I really need something more in June. I have 2 cooking shows so far.

 

[PamperedK]

Here's what I created for the Workshop I did where the host chose 3 recipes and everyone would make the same 3... (Margins are .5" all the way around. Simply cut on the dotted lines.) This is for a workshop with Chicken Stir-Fry, Smoky Black Bean Chicken Wraps & Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup.

If you're offering to the guests to make their own choices, you may want to have similar "function" stations, but color code the specific recipe directions. (Print directions and glue them on colored cardstock. Tell each guest which color he/she needs to follow based on recipe selections..."You need to follow the purple, green, red and blue directions at each station.") Or mark it on their registration form or Two Buck Grub stuff.

Best wishes Michelle on yours; offering all 10 recipes will keep you busy!
I know I'll be doing my workshop again in the near future, but I enjoy knowing I only have to think about ingredients and tools for 3 recipes and not 10! Let us know how it goes!
Maybe as incentive to get them to your website, hand them some recipes and tell them there are more on your website...

I'm trying to read through this thread and not get too confused but I had a question. You have them labelling 6 bags, 2 for each recipe, right? Is that because they're working in pairs? They'll each take 3 bags home, correct?

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

I'm trying to read through this thread and not get too confused but I had a question. You have them labelling 6 bags, 2 for each recipe, right? Is that because they're working in pairs? They'll each take 3 bags home, correct?

I believe what she is saying is that two bags per recipe. It makes more sense if you reference the Bag 1 and Bag 2 that are show on CC for theme shows under Power Cooking

 

[TrishPCMommy]

Yes, thank you Michelle.

Each Power Cooking Chicken recipe on CC has "Bag 1" and "Bag 2". So each lady labeled 6 bags, 2 for Chicken Stir-Fry, 2 for Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup, and 2 for Smoky Black Bean Chicken Wraps. They also identified "Bag 1" and "Bag 2" on corresponding ziplocs so they could follow the Power Cooking Finish and Serve recipes once they were home and finishing the meals.

They take 3 meals home. Power Cooking Beef= 3 bags. Power Cooking Chicken= 3 meals, but 6 bags, with Bag 2s folded into the corresponding Bag 1s.

 

[PamperedK]

Wow Ok I'm lost. I did read CC - I wonder if Canadian ones are different? Probably not though. I'm just missing something.

I'm going to re-read and see if it makes sense to me.


AHH I see now. The Chicken recipes on CC use 2 bags but the beef ones I was looking at don't.

Thanks everyone!

 

[TrishPCMommy]

OK... here's some help for those who are still confused on "function" stations for a Power Cooking Workshop... Now that you have people interested, how to set it up so you don't need a "gazillion" of the same tools.
1. Greet everyone. Explain there are stations with directions at each station. Everyone will need to wash hands and start at the first station to prepare their bags. After the first station, stop at any of the other stations (try one that isn't busy with people already). Follow your recipe colors that correspond with the recipes you chose.
2. Pair people up so they chat and/or get to know one another. They can share what they like about the tools as they go.
3. As they finish and seal up their meals, they can start going through the catalog and filling out their order forms or see what's on the display table.

The file I attached is for the Power Cooking Chicken. For those of us who are creative, make a flip book and have it laminated. You can put Cutting Edge chicken and ground beef directions in one book and Kitchenware chicken and ground beef directions in another, etc.

 

[PamperedK]

Great thanks! I'm going to be providing ingredients for my show, so I'm going to choose 3 recipes and only do those ones...but this helps a lot!

I think I'm also going to pre-cook the chicken so it doesn't take too long...I'm going to have 5 pairs of people going through, so 5 people X 7-10 minutes is a lot of time.

 

[TrishPCMommy]

When doing a workshop, if they've already chosen the recipes, have them bring their meats already cooked and take away the "Cookware" Station.

I'll start working on the Power Cooking Beef Workshop Stations and post them here too!

Trish

 

[PamperedK]

I know it goes by weight, but if I'm using CHicken Breast, how many chicken breasts would you estimate each person needs??

 

[TrishPCMommy]

The sizes of chicken breasts vary... you'd need to use a food scale and thawed chicken.

 

[sunnygirl in nd]

Hope you don't mind I copied your flyer. So far I don't have any takers but they have 1 more week to register. How about you? How's your interest?

 

[TrishPCMommy]

Promote it as everyone can stock their freezer for the summer with quick, easy meals that are around $2 per serving, not just the Host. Maybe explain to guests and hosts that they will work together... it's quick, easy and you instantly go home with 3 meals.
All you need is a volunteer to donate their kitchen for a short (afternoon, morning, evening, etc.) and that volunteer will receive Host Benefits.

My first one went extremely well; only 6 ladies were able to make it on that day, but I had 2 more power cooking workshops book before we even began because they couldn't make it to the first one! Plus, it was also about a $600 show.

"If they book in June, they may be able to get their own rubs for FREE to continue Power Cooking at home!"
"Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime"... You're "teaching" them to Power Cook to save money and time while feeding their families! (Plus, instant gratification of taking meals home while waiting for ordered tools to arrive...)
These have both worked for me to entice people to book Workshops.

 

[ButterflyVioletta]

My interest is great! I got the church reserved and have two dates for them to choose from. Mine is a little different than Trish's as I am self hosting. I completely agree with Trish in that this is a two-fer...they get meals to take home (in my case it's four) PLUS the plan so that they can recreate this at home. With the recipes I'm using (all except soup and Greek Orzo) it's a dollar per serving. It's a no brainer for anyone really.

 

[TrishPCMommy]

Hey Michelle, did you have your Workshop yet? If so, how did yours go?

 

[martike]

Hi

I'm a PC consultant in Scotland and I love the power cooking concept - just read through all the posts and I want to give it a go over here. Could someone post the recipes for me please as it looks like they're in your CN and ours is completely different!

Thanks

Kirsty

 

[TrishPCMommy]

I'll post what I can...