freezing meals before baby arrives

grazia213 · August 2014

How many of you doing this?

I've already started to buy meat when ever it is on sale and putting it in the freezer. But I haven't actually done meals yet. I figure I wait until I'm off to do this. Which is two weeks weeks before my due date (oct 13)

Emerald27 · August 2014

We've been talking about this. We might freeze a few trays of lasagna or casseroles, etc., but I always prefer fresh food, and I'm thinking we'll want to get out of the house and grocery shop, etc. ...maybe we would have better luck just tossing some Stauffers lasagnas and casseroles in the freezer.

I think our game plan will be to plan simple-to-make and simple-to-eat meals for baby's first few weeks while we get into the groove. We can always order out for Chinese or pizza if we get stuck. Lol

MrsTinMKE · August 2014

I am doing this. I have already started. When I make a casserole or meal I think would freeze well I make double the amount I would need for dinner and freeze one meal. Last night I mean bean and cheese enchiladas. One pan for dinner (and left overs) then another pan to freeze and reheat. Did the same with Chicken pot pies and lasagna. Also Ill buy large packs of chicken breast and marinate them before freezing so I can pull out and throw in the crock pot. Anything to make life a little easier once this LO comes!

golfingdarwinfish · August 2014

I don't like keeping things in the freezer for too long, so I will be making lasagna, baked ziti and enchiladas early October since I'm due 10/23.

We are also stocking up on Williams-Sonoma braising bases because they're fantastic. Throw in the slow cooker with some root veggies and meat (if you choose!) and then serve over egg noodles. We tend to get 2 meals out of a single jar, and the meals are quite hearty - perfect for winter!

Maggie6424 · August 2014

We talked about doing this, and the paper plates/plastic cutlery for DS1. We didn't, and it really didn't make a difference to us. We made sure to have things like bread, lunch meat, hot pockets, some microwave single serves like lean cuisine, and cereal on hand. Plus, a good ole mac n cheese. It's great if you have time to make a pan of lasagne and portion/freeze it. I'm just saying if you don't get to it, don't stress. Delivery/take out works just fine too!

HappyCianci · August 2014

I'm definitely doing this, but I'm not starting until next month, so it doesn't sit in there too long.

I'll probably make some lentil stew and baked beans for the whole family, and I definitely want to make some easy, healthy, handheld things I can reheat easily for my son. Meatballs are on that list, and cheesy quinoa-veggie cakes, and banana oat "breakfast cookies," and maybe some whole wheat blueberry muffins.

We don't have a lot of freezer space, so my partner is on duty this month to finish off all the weird convenience foods he keeps in there, to make room. :P

bitsybubbles7 · August 2014

I need to start getting on this. We did this with lo and I was so nice to just pull something out of the freezer and into the over/crockpot.

Jbunny100 · August 2014

I already started doing this. I just have a couple things, but will start ramping up more and more over the next few weeks. I didn't do this with DS and really wish I had. It would have been nice to have something so we didn't have to get take out so much or I didn't have to try to muster up the energy to cook something.

If you plan to nurse then try to think up things to have for snacks. I am thinking I will pull smaller packages of fruit together for smoothies.

toomanycats1 · August 2014

We should definitely do something to have "easy meals" ready. After we brought DS home, we ate nothing but oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies for 2 days :P No need to do that again!

pnwlover12 · August 2014

HelloSweetie1 said:
We should definitely do something to have "easy meals" ready. After we brought DS home, we ate nothing but oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies for 2 days :P No need to do that again!

Omg!!! This was us too, only pumpkin chocolate chips.

sarahj219 · August 2014

I've started doing a few small meals here and there. It saved my life with the last two babies. Especially in the beginning & on days when I had zero energy. We don't eat out or spend a lot of money on unnecessary foods though...

DaniGrace89 · August 2014

DH doesn't like frozen meals, but because I'll be the one cooking and needing to eat...and don't want take out for every meal, I'm going to attempt it. I've never frozen meals before...so I don't know anything about storage. I'll read into that.

Liss1481 · August 2014

I'm going to freeze soup for quick lunches but would rather have fresh meals. I'm just going to use my slow cooker a lot.

LaDyBostonRN · August 2014

theresat858 said:

I froze some crock pot meals last time. NOT worth it. They were all inedible. I find that very few things can be put in the freezer for any length of time and still be edible. At least that's my take on it... I don't even tend to like meat once it's been frozen and defrosted once.

We already have a routine of weeknight meals that are quick to prepare, and DH already does more than half of the cooking. I'm not going to bother freezing anything this time since I spent a weekend last time doing so and ended up throwing it all out bc it was so gross.

This is our problem. Mostly DH's, but he really prefers fresh food. We also have a pretty good routine of quick, work night meals. I work 10 hour days and DH works 9 but we each have at least an hour commute home so we're used to trying to put together something nutritious but quick. I think DH will be ok with doing all the for prep for us those two weeks he is home and then my mom is coming after that so she can just cook ;-)

lct2008 · August 2014

Well since it will most likely just be me with a toddler and newborn I will definitely be freezing some meals before hand so that we can eat and I can maintain my sanity.

We did some meals last time too.

I'll do things like chicken, broccoli, rice casserole

Lasagna

Soups

Then I'll have crappy frozen stuff as well like little frozen meals for my son.

ashie0610 · August 2014

Definitely doing this again. I did mostly crockpot meals with a few other easy-to-reheat things before DS1 and it was a lifesaver. The chilis were great but the stews and beefs, not so much. This time I'm going to do a couple of chilis, lasagna rolls, chicken and dumplings, homemade chicken nuggets, and will try a couple new recipes I found on Pinterest.

Now that I have a toddler to feed too, I'm also going to bake a bunch of veggie muffins to freeze - spinach, carrot-applesauce, zucchini, and pumpkin oatmeal.

LightBright515 · August 2014

I'm making a few things just to use up some frozen ground meat I already have.

A batch of sloppy joes, chili, and spaghetti meat sauce.

My mom will be around to help with sides.

MrsSarahRenee · August 2014

Chicken pot pie freezes well if you don't cook it. I make two pies but cook one and freeze the other then take out the second whenever DH wants it and we cook it (a little longer). As a suggestion for those who don't like frozen meals.

bennikki · August 2014

We have a ton of freezer space (two chest style/deep freezers, and the one with our fridge) because my family hunts, fishes, gardens, and raises free-range cattle and lamb. I love to freezer cook, but I can be picky about what and how I freeze. I love crock pot meals in the winter, but I like to sear my meat before I put it in the crock pot (or if I run out of time in the morning, I make it in the pressure cooker later), so I often mix up the sauce in a quart size freezer bag and package that with the meat of choice, we have a commercial grade food saver that we bought from a grocery store. Take the meat and sauce out before I go to bed at night, sear it when I get up, pour the sauce over it in the slow cooker and dinner in served 8-10 hours later. I also assemble a ton of soups in bags (I seriously think I have about 16 right now, and I haven't even started to tackle tomato and squash based ones yet), so I can just dump if need be.

We prefer frozen veggies over canned ones in the winter (we're in MN, so I don't like eating fresh veggies in the winter because who know's how far they've had to travel or how they were artificially ripened), so I've been blanching and flash freezing our peas, beans, collards, kale, swiss chard, and spinach. I also stock up on onions and squash (veggies we don't grow) at the farmers market this time of year, and chop, slice, or dice that up and freeze for future use. I'm canning peaches this weekend, and I'll start on applesauce in a couple weeks when the tree is ready. Our tomatoes and peppers are getting there, so I make freezer bags of fajita peppers (yeah, they aren't as good as fresh, but again, where am I going to find a good, fresh pepper in MN in Jan. anyway?), and I have a great freezer recipe for spaghetti sauce in the crock pot, so I usually make a couple dozen batches of that. I also make about 10 pans (5 9 x 13 pans cut in half) of zucchini or eggplant lasagna with the spaghetti sauce.

ohioloveyou · August 2014

I'm planning on making a few things, but I don't have much freezer space, so I will probably stick with enchiladas, spaghetti meat sauce, and maybe a chicken pot pie. I'm also thinking I can fit some homemade pizza dough and maybe one lasagna.

MsMacual · August 2014

I also have a DH who isn't a fan of most frozen stuff, but he will eat meat that has been frozen and thawed. I'm hoping to get a small chest freezer soon so I actually have the space to store a bigger freezer stash. I plan to do a mix- some easy meals that I know our son likes (chicken and broccoli, enchiladas, pizza pie/lasagna, etc). I also plan to stock up on Trader Joe's frozen meals and other frozen stuff that we eat pretty frequently. Finally, I'll buy a bunch of meat for DH and freeze in individual portions so we can pretty easily prepare meals. My hope is that we don't have to grocery shop for the first month with the exception of picking up perishable stuff like milk, eggs, yogurt. Timing wise- a lot depends on when I actually pull the trigger on getting a freezer, but I'm thinking I'll take care of everything in mid-late September (or about 2-3 weeks before our due date).

FWIW- I actually had a fairly easy time shopping and cooking when our first son was less than a month old- he has his most predictable schedule during that time frame. I found that it all became more challenging once I went back to work and had my commute (an hour each way) and more to coordinate at home each day. This time around, I'm planning to have more on hand because we have a toddler and it is likely that I'll start back to work pretty soon after.

lisamahrt · August 2014

If anyone is looking for crockpot meal ideas, this is a great link: 40 meals in 4 hours! There also is a link within for 20 meals in 2 hours.

https://whoneedsacape.com/2012/11/crockpot-freezer-cooking/

This is what we will be doing with in the next month as I still am working on cleaning out the freezer

Syllessa · August 2014

I have a few started already, and I have made 2 of everything.

Chicken tetrazzini (well, it started out that way) with onion, carrots, and squash

MacNcheese with hamburger, onion, zucchini

Veggie/ham soup- well all the ingredients are bagged/frozen together. Just toss in pot with some of my canned tomatoes.

Stuffed shells w/ homemade spaghetti sauce

Enchiladas

I still have potato soup w/ broccoli and burrito casseroles to make, plus I need to bag/freeze the stuff for my chili. I think the soup is my project for Sunday.

lct2008 · August 2014

@ashie0610‌ the muffins sound like such a great idea! I'm assuming you could use them as like breakfast for your toddler?! I'd love a recipe if you have one to share.

ashie0610 · August 2014

lct2008 said:

@ashie0610‌ the muffins sound like such a great idea! I'm assuming you could use them as like breakfast for your toddler?! I'd love a recipe if you have one to share.

Yes, exactly! A veggie muffin plus fruit for breakfast instead of pancakes and waffles every day. We do a lot of eggs and toast but not sure what mornings will be like come October.

I'm also thinking this could work well on picky-eater days to get veggies in him at lunch or dinner.

Here's what I'm planning.

Popeye (Spinach) Muffins

Applesauce Pumpkin Muffins

Whole Wheat Zucchini Muffins

Whole Wheat Carrot Applesauce Muffins

I'm also thinking of trying these as an easy dinner/side dish option for him:

Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites

bumpuser10309732 · August 2014

This is terrible but my mom will be here for two weeks. I'm kind of leaning on her at this point. If not I just call my MIL since she's ALREADY planning sleep overs with LO. I think she thinks the baby is hers but I'm not really sure ;-) Otherwise -keeping it simple. I'll just throw soups and stuff in the crock pot. I've thought about making up some lasagna for the freezer. Maybe some calzones you can just toss in the oven. I'm really thinking I'm not going to have much of an issue with food though but that's FTM ignorance and ignorance is bliss.

BreandMikewedding · August 2014

We won't. I didn't find it difficult to make meals after I had my first two and my family is pretty picky about food. We also don't have freezer space for meals.

jmw222 · August 2014

I'm not so concerned with the days after baby is born, my issues are when I return to work in January and feeding 3 kids by myself 3 nights a week. While on leave, I plan to make sauce, chicken "nuggets", muffins, etc and freeze them. My plan has been to make Sunday a meal prep/shopping day, which means at least 4 meals a week planned out. We usually do leftovers for lunch for all of us during the week.

Raesofsunshine1 · August 2014

I did this last time and was so glad I did. We had a few meals brought to us by people at church which was wonderful. DD was a terrible sleeper. I felt like a zombie most of the time. Even if Id had the energy to cook, I usually didnt want to have to think about it.

I did (and plan on doing again)
Homemade Stromboli

Frozen crockpot meals where all the ingredients get frozen in one bag and tossed in the crockpot. I cant think what they were at the moment though.

Crockpot Ravioli

Salisbury Steaks

Breakfast burritos

And I froze individual ingredients for meals like rice with Chicken and gravy.

Chili and Taco soup-DH takes this to work for lunch.

And maybe some twice baked potatoes.

I also like to have quick things on hand like Chicken Patties, hamburgers, taco meat, etc.

I just dont want to have to think!!

ashie0610 · August 2014

jmw222 said:

I'm not so concerned with the days after baby is born, my issues are when I return to work in January and feeding 3 kids by myself 3 nights a week. While on leave, I plan to make sauce, chicken "nuggets", muffins, etc and freeze them. My plan has been to make Sunday a meal prep/shopping day, which means at least 4 meals a week planned out. We usually do leftovers for lunch for all of us during the week.

Same here, although I'll go back to work later. After my oldest was born, I pulled out the freezer meals around months 2-3 because in the beginning, a lot of people bring food anyway.

It's surprising to me that people don't like thawed freezer food! I think it tastes just fine because it was never cooked to begin with. What I can't do are reheated leftovers from the fridge a few nights after the original dinner, yuck! Different strokes.

golfingdarwinfish · August 2014

Nicb13 said:

Emerald27 said:

We've been talking about this. We might freeze a few trays of lasagna or casseroles, etc., but I always prefer fresh food, and I'm thinking we'll want to get out of the house and grocery shop, etc. ...maybe we would have better luck just tossing some Stauffers lasagnas and casseroles in the freezer. I think our game plan will be to plan simple-to-make and simple-to-eat meals for baby's first few weeks while we get into the groove. We can always order out for Chinese or pizza if we get stuck. Lol

This. Frozen meals are pretty nasty to me. I don't do the "make ahead" stuff. I won't even use meats that's been frozen. We buy it fresh and cook it right away.

Same here, and DH won't even touch leftovers most of the time. I'll freeze lasagna and enchiladas because I think they taste better after they've been reheated and the flavors have "meshed" together for longer, but DH doesn't necessarily agree. The few times I've frozen meat itturned out to be a waste because I would never actually use it and just thew it away.

LightBright515 · August 2014

Something an old tutor of mine used to do..

On Sundays, they would cook 3-4 different meats. And throughout the week they would whip up some side dishes and veggies. That way you have a variety of fresh food that you won't get sick of..

Shellysliv · August 2014

I ended up making a bunch of freezer meals a few months back when I had a little extra money and time. I froze:

Veggie Lasagna

Enchiladas

Burrito Meat Mix (Beef, Chile, Potato)

French Toast Casserole

Soups

Spaghetti Casserole

If I have time and money I plan on making some soups to freeze as well tomato, pumpkin and butternut squash soup.

grazia213 · August 2014

I think I will make up a couple batches of tomato sauce and freeze those. I'll probably do chilli too.

I wonder if freezing meatballs raw would work out well? it might.

My husband doesn't like soups so....I'll limit what make in that department. I think he would like stews. ( he is picky with which vegetables that I can add too)

@bennikki - thats a good idea about freezing individual bags of veggies. I live in Canada so I'm in the same boat as you...you can't really find fresh pepper's in January here in Canada. lol.

cmcookaln · August 2014

I have considered doing this and am still planning on getting on pinterest to get ideas of good recipes, but then again I'm not sure if it will actually happen. I have a week off in the middle of September when I might make some stuff up, but I already plan on doing a full house cleaning, washing baby things, and finishing the nursery since I have two showers right before my break.

grazia213 · August 2014

lisamahrt

Thanks for sharing that link!

JessAnnJ · August 2014

We order from a Dinner Afare regularly so we will probably buy from the October menu and then have other easy to make meals for the first couple of weeks. When DD was born DH went grocery shopping our first night back and bought salad, veggies, stuff for sandwiches, frozen ravioli, and other easy to make items. It wasn't a big deal having him leave for a little while to get some food.

MrsTinMKE · August 2014

@ashie0610 - Thanks for sharing! I am going to try a few of those muffin recipes! I have a ton of zucchini to freeze/use this week, so the zucchini muffins are on my list!

Klavanga74 · August 2014

Not sure how many cities they're in but I'm trying Power Supply next week for a few meals. You pick time up at a local gym. You can order 3-5 days lunches or dinners or both. Paleo or vegan or "mixed" so you get some grain. Since I eat non dairy, no gluten, etc., but my family does, it's hard to coordinate meals. Next week will be a trial. If I like it, I might do it for me for a few weeks and freeze some stuff for everyone else, or have easy stuff on hand.

Raesofsunshine1 · August 2014

grazia213 said:

I wonder if freezing meatballs raw would work out well? it might.

.

For the meatballs, just freeze them seperately on a cookie sheet for about 20-30 min before putting in a bag/container together.

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