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I love making soup freezer meals, I also freeze them in portion size ziplocs so that DH can just grab one as lunch for work, or I can just take one out and thaw it for dinner/lunch when I'm at home.
My favorite soup meals:
cream of potato soup
Vegetable soup
Chili
Chicken Wild Rice soup
Also - crock pot meals are helpful. Buy whole chickens or roasts, pre-chop vegetables and freeze them - then just add it all to the crock pot in the morning and let is sit for 8 hours. It's fantastic.
Bread also freezes really well, I love my honey beer bread recipe (no sugar! sweetened only with honey) that we serve with soup.
I also try to keep a box of pasta and jar of red sauce on hand for a quick meal too.
Frozen pre-made burritos. I got whole-wheat tortillas from Trader Joes, made some beef/chicken, added refried + black beans, rice, and cheese, then wrap them up and freeze them. You can make breakfast burritos the same way.
Don't forget about breakfast/snack items too! My sister homemakes a bunch of granola bars to have on hand, also homemade granola is great (I have a great recipe if you want one!), frozen fruit/berries for breakfast smoothies (remember our green smoothies?! ;) I have found that adding flax and chia seeds make them A LOT more filling too!!).
Hopefully that's a good start :) good luck!
I'm actually not going to pre-make any food because firstly, my husband cooks very well. Also, my sister/mom will be with me my whole first week. My friend is staying with me my second week to help out, and my MIL is coming the third week. THEN I have friends from church who start a "take-them-a-meal" plan. I will be a blessed new-mom :)
Soups, chili, lasagna, enchiladas, pasta sauces, and risotto should all freeze well. I also second the idea of freezing berries and even bananas for smoothies. You can freeze homemade waffles and reheat them in the toaster just like Eggos too.
Quiche freezes well, home made pizza with lots of veggies, chicken and veggie pie- then all you have to do is pop them in the oven =) Maybe even get some chicken tenderloins and pre-marinate them, defrost and pan fry for a bit of variety. Good luck with your new bubs!
Risotto is a interesting one. I think rice/grains and how they don't heat up well. How would you re-heat up risotto?
We have a whole host of Chinese custom things I'm suppose to eat/not suppose to eat so my mom will be here for 2 months after baby. Which means babysitter + cook extraordinaire! hehe
But I will be following this for the weeks after mom leaves and we're trying to get into our new drop baby off/go to work/pick baby up routine!
ETA: Here are a couple old threads I digged up!http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/dinner-ideas-for-a-newbreast-feeding-mom
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/recipes-for-food-to-make-for-new-parents
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/ideas-for-meals-to-freeze-for-new-parents
Found some good tips online as well:
http://www.thekitchn.com/tips-for-making-a-meal-for-a-n-146159
http://www.ehow.com/info_8432628_meals-freeze-nursing-mother.html
Homemade pizzas!
Baked ziti
Chili
Chicken and quinoa/rice/noodle soup
Other soups
Spaghetti sauce (just cook the noodles!)
Sweet and sour meatballs (make the meatballs up ahead of time and then toss in the crock w/ sauce, serve with egg noodles)
Enchiladas
Sausage and bean casserole
Cook up a bunch of ground beef w/taco seasoning for quick tacos, taco salad or to mix into boxed mac n' cheese w/ a little salsa.
Make up burgers, turkey burgers or salmon burgers to serve with a bag salad or oven fries.
Bag salads and frozen vegetables are your friend for quick salads and stir-fry!
If I know I am going to be really busy/don't have enough casserole dishes, I use those disposable metal pans which makes the dishes even easier :)
My freezer meal list this time includes:
I'm making more this time than I did when I was pregnant with DD because I think we'll need easy meals for longer, now that I'll have a toddler and a newborn to chase around. I also love the salad kits and the frozen veggies that steam right in the bag for easy meals, so we'll probably stock up on those, too.
My all the time freezer meals are:
When our families asked what we needed for the baby, we told them that the most useful thing would be food that we could freeze! Here's what we got:
Vegetable soup
Stuffed Cabbage
Shepherd's pie
Spaghetti Sauce
Lasagna
Butter Chicken
Turkey
Beef Stew
Chili
Beef balls in sauce
Chicken in sauce
Pork in sauce
6 weeks in, I cooked only once, prepared a few easy salads and we ordered in a few times as a treat... But the freezer is still full. Now I am gradually going back to cooking so that we still have frozen meals for the challenging days.
Are there any tips for freezing this stuff? I can't imagine I put my glass pyrex dish in the freezer with lasagne in it?
@heathaah: I get freezer zip locs, this is nice to freezing individual portion sizes of the meals instead of a big zip loc. You can also buy the cheap rubbermaid containers and freeze them in there. For burritos, I would wrap them in plastic wrap or wax paper first, then wrap in foil.
Wrapping bread/baked good items in plastic wrap then foil works well also.
We freeze just about everything! We like to put individual dinners in plastic baggies and then they become like lean cuisines for us. So easy!
@heathaah I freeze in my pyrex tupperware with saran wrap on the top to seal it tight, then it's plastic lid. Seems to work fine for us. We have a pretty new freezer and I've never noticed freezer burn.
Buy the disposable foil stuff from the grocery store! You won't miss your dishes then and can toss (or rinse and use again) when you are done.
@heathaah: Especially for lasagna, I will get the gladware plastic containers. They freeze everything really well. Or, if you have any chicken or meats that you want to freeze, wrapping them in press'n'seal first, then putting them in a freezer bag prevents freezer burn!
I just made my boss who had twins beef stroganoff. The beef part freezes really well, and then you just have to make the noodles.
Chili, Beef Stew, any other kind of stew or casserole, gumbo, soups... we make a lot of meals and freeze them. You can buy tall leak-proof ziploc containers from the grocery store, then just make a huge meal in a slowcooker and freeze most of it!
Chili, Beef Stew, any other kind of stew or casserole, gumbo, soups... we make a lot of meals and freeze them. You can buy tall leak-proof ziploc containers from the grocery store, then just make a huge meal in a slowcooker and freeze most of it!
For freezing, I got disposable (but we re-use) aluminum containers with lids. I pressed Saran Wrap over the top (touching the food), then placed a card with any directions or last-minute ingredient additions that you needed prior to heating as well as the name of the food, and then wrapped the top in foil. You can also line your regular pyrex-type dish with foil, freeze, and then lift the whole frozen thing out so that your pyrex isn't trapped in the freezer. My tips are to take anyone up on any offer of bringing food. And freeze at least a few things that don't have dairy in case--God forbid--the baby is sensitive. (Well, maybe it's not "God forbid" for everyone but it was for me. Ended up being an incorrect theory, though.) I froze maybe 6 meals and we honestly didn't even use them all. I had off for 12 weeks and really got the hang of cooking with a newborn after awhile (yea bouncy chair!).
@heathaah: I second that you can just buy the disposible aluminum roast pans etc. Another option is to line your pyrex with layers of heavy duty aluminum foil. When you've prepared the dish, if its something that will hold its shape, just remove the foil packet and then put it into a ziploc. Otherwise, start freezing it in the pyrex. Once its frozen and will hold its shape, remove the foil/food and pop it into the ziploc and get your pyrex back for daily use etc.
Bierocks!
A couple recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pams-bierocks/
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bierocks-german-meat-turnovers/
Tip: Add shredded swiss cheese to the filling! It helps hold together the filling so it doesn't fall out all over the place when you're eating, and it's yummy!
Wow, thanks for the great suggestions everyone! I am going to get to work ASAP on making some stuff and freezing it. I usually freeze a lot of fish and meat, but this gave me great meal ideas. Thank you! :) And keep them coming if you have more ideas!
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What kinds of foods did you make to freeze for the first few weeks? Or wish you'd made? I'm trying to decide what kinds of freezer foods to make so I don't need to cook when the baby first gets here, but we aren't living on takeout. DH doesn't cook. Any ideas or suggestions would be great! Obviously lasagna, but I'd love other ideas that are pretty easy to pop into the freezer now, and would make for a decent meal. Thanks!!