Meals to Cook and Freeze Before Baby Arrives
I outset got into making freezer meals after my commencement daughter was born in 2009. I froze lasagna and mac 'northward cheese for upcoming holidays and altogether parties, and they made my life so much less stressful. Instead of being stuck in the kitchen, I could have fun with my family and friends.
Earlier my second daughter was born, I froze two week'due south worth of meals. Information technology was amazing to have good for you, homemade meals on-hand while I was bonding with the newest fellow member of our family. I was starting to think there was something to these freezer meals for new moms.
Fast-forward to today, and my two freezers were STOCKED 27 freezer meals to enjoy subsequently my third infant's birth. I'm non talking about leftover soup that was frozen in little plastic bags, either. Most of my freezer meals will melt for the very commencement fourth dimension out of my freezer, then they won't taste like leftovers at all.
Curious how it works? Read on!
I started with a list of meals that I wanted to freeze.
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Lasagna Ringlet-ups
- Mexican Stuffed Shells (from The Way to His Heart)
- Breakfast Burritos with egg, sausage, spinach, and cheese
- Shepherd'south Pie
- Macaroni & Cheese
- Chicken Pesto Calzones (I added steamed broccoli)
- Twice Baked Potatoes (made by my Mother-in-law)
- Ho-hum Cooker Sausage Spinach Tomato Soup
- Tedious Cooker Cranberry Pork Roast
- Slow Cooker Craven Back-scratch
- Slow Cooker Turkey & Black Edible bean Chili
- Slow Cooker Beef, Lime, & Cilantro Chili
- Slow Cooker Party Pork
- Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup (from Once a Month Meals)
- Slow Cooker Garden Vegetable Soup (I as well added ground sausage) (from my 'Easy & Good for you Slow Cooker Recipes' cookbook)
- Boring Cooker Chicken Fajitas (from my 'Piece of cake & Healthy Ho-hum Cooker Recipes' cookbook)
- Deadening Cooker Shredded BBQ Chicken (from my 'Easy & Healthy Tiresome Cooker Recipes' cookbook)
- Slow Cooker Chicken Chili (from my '15-Infinitesimal Freezer Recipes' cookbook)
- Dull Cooker Beef Roast & Carrots (from my 'fifteen-Minute Freezer Recipes' cookbook)
- Dull Cooker Vegetable Barley Soup (from my 'fifteen-Minute Freezer Recipes' cookbook)
- Ham & Veggie Breakfast Strata (from my 'xv-Infinitesimal Freezer Recipes' cookbook)
- Chicken Enchiladas (from my '15-Minute Freezer Recipes' cookbook)
- Edible bean & Cheese Burritos
- Chocolate-brown Sugar Meatloaf
My wedding soup and spiced carrot muffins likewise freeze not bad, but I had to draw the line somewhere.
Meals #26 and #27 came from a wonderful friend who dropped off containers of her vegetarian chili and chickpea and rice stew. I'1000 then excited to effort them!
If you're new to freezer cooking, you can notice out more about how to catechumen "normal recipes" to "freezer recipes" in my blog post with freezer meal tips for beginners. (I too include info near labeling, storing, and re-heating freezer meals.)
At 32 weeks preggo, I started freezing meals.
Most freezer meals will last in a standard freezer for up to 3 months so I figured I would exist safe to slowly showtime freezing meals at that signal.
I started planning ane or two dinners per week from my freezer meal list.
Ane of my favorite means to stock my freezer is to double a recipe and brand one for dinner and the one for my freezer.
Since I was making the aforementioned repast for dinner, it didn't brand me much extra fourth dimension to start edifice my freezer stash. And I barely noticed the extra money spent at the grocery store. (Sometimes I even found improve deals when ownership in larger quantities.)
My pre-babe freezer meals started with one, lone chicken pot pie.
(This is my actress freezer in the basement. My kitchen freezer isn't nearly this empty!)
Over the next six weeks, I added lasagna whorl-ups, chicken pesto calzones, macaroni and cheese, shepherd's pie, and Mexican stuffed shells.
I purposefully picked more fourth dimension-intensive recipes for these days and saved the "no cook" recipes for a big freezer day with my mom.
At 38 weeks pregnant, I got together on a Saturday with my mom and prepped 16 "no cook" freezer meals.
Since they didn't require any cooking ahead of time, we were able to prep them in less than four hours. (In a previous web log postal service, I shared more details well-nigh our big freezer day and how to do 1 of your own.)
Since some of my freezer meals aren't complete meals, I stocked upwardly on side dishes for my freezer and pantry.
- Frozen rolls and biscuits (To eat with our frozen soups)
- Bags of frozen peas and corn (To eat with our frozen beef and pork roasts)
- Two heads of broccoli (I chopped and froze them to swallow with our frozen beef or pork roasts)
- Half dozen bags of microwaveable chocolate-brown rice (Don't hate me for taking the easy way out)
We'll also need tortillas for the fajitas and chips and cheese to pinnacle our chilis, but I figured we can hands pick those up at the grocery store when we're ownership fresh fruit, milk, bread, etc. (It's not like these freezer meals are the but thing that we're going to eat for months with a newborn. While they'll be the bulk of our dinners, nosotros'll still need to brand smaller trips to the grocery store.)
And, just similar that, we were fix.
I'd love to hear your thoughts! Accept you e'er considered stocking your freezer with bootleg meals? Exit a comment beneath!
Source: https://thefamilyfreezer.com/2013/12/09/baby-freezer-meals/
0 Response to "Meals to Cook and Freeze Before Baby Arrives"
Post a Comment