I highly recommend googling some crock pot freezer meals. My husband and I tried a bunch while I pregnant last time and then in my 3rd trimester I spent an afternoon shopping and packaging up our favorites. It was so easy after my daughter was born to defrost overnight, dump in the crock pot in the morning, and have both dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day.
I can't wait to see what others suggest. I'm already thinking about this because this time I'll have to feed a toddler too.
Any casserole freeze well. Alot of websites say you can't freeze casseroles but I've found it to turn out just fine! I feel that rice casseroles do better than pasta but it could be the one pasta casserole i made wasn't the greatest to begin with. Casseroles make several days worth of meals and reheats well. If you pinterest french onion chicken casserole it's amazing. I add veggies to it and use low fat/brown rice to make it healthier(it is best with green beans added). I get together with a friend once every other month to do this. We go grocery shopping,buy in bulk and split the bill. It's great and saves so much time and money. I will for sure be doing this before baby and a little closer. We have freezing cold winters so it will be a great indoor activity
My mom makes a freezer chicken casserole that's pretty amazing. I'll definitely be checking back for more ideas, because I was just talking to my mom about this the other day. Poor DH can cook hamburgers, hot dogs, fried potatoes, and canned veggies without (much) assistance, but he's definitely going to need a little help that first little while after baby gets here.
We did chili, jambalaya, and stuffed shells last time, plus friends and family brought us tons of food. My only advice would be to make reasonable portions of each thing. We made GIANT batches of everything, separated it out into individual meal portions, and were so sick and tired of each one by the time baby was two weeks old. The chili in particular, I recall having dozens of portions of. I haven't made it since!
We did chili, jambalaya, and stuffed shells last time, plus friends and family brought us tons of food. My only advice would be to make reasonable portions of each thing. We made GIANT batches of everything, separated it out into individual meal portions, and were so sick and tired of each one by the time baby was two weeks old. The chili in particular, I recall having dozens of portions of. I haven't made it since!
This is so true. I made a giant pan of Shepherd's pie and froze it all in one casserole...we ate Shepherd's pie for lunch and dinner for DAYS and were so sick of it. I didn't make it again until my daughter was almost a year old and my husband still cringed a little.
If you can do a freezer meal exchange with some people do it! It helps with the "we have to eat 9 million servings of this one dish". Get together with a couple people and you all make a couple containers of something and then trade them around!
Having food on hand makes life so much easier. DS is a summer baby so it was harder to get motivated for a lot of crockpot meals, casseroles, soups, etc that freeze well. With winter babies, I plan on making lasagna, enchiladas, chicken pot pie filling and freezing the dough, some crock pot meals and stuffed shells. I make sure to put frozen foods into smaller containers (1-2 meals worth) so that we can space them out and not get tired of the same thing.
@ashanne88 My last baby was a summer baby too, so I'm excited for a winter baby when all these kind of hearty freezer meals actually sound good.
We really didn't have much food brought to the house last time. We had a tiny baby that we wanted to keep people away from and my recovery from an emergency c-section didn't go so well, so we basically didn't leave the house for about 6-8 weeks except for a 5 minute drive to his pediatric office for appointments and my OB's office for twice weekly check-ups.
The grandparents were there practically around the clock for several weeks to help, so having a little bigger serving size of meals came in handy. That's something to consider when portioning out. I didn't expect to need as much help as I did; but when you're sick, cut into and have a 4-lb super needy baby, you take all the help you can get!
Since we are all in January, soups and stews are fantastic to freeze ahead. Lentil soup freezes easily and is also great nutrition for breastfeeding. I avoid potatoes though because they tend to absorb water and become mushy when thawed.
Me: 34, DH: 33 // Met: 10.21.2007 // Married: 9.18.2015 BFP: 4.29.2016 // EDD: 1.2.2017 (IT'S A BOY!) Born 12/26/16 BFP: 2.10.19 // and MC on 3.19.19 BFP: 7.9.19 // EDD 3.16.20
I'm going to have to try freezing some soups and crockpot meals. Our deep freeze broke about a year ago and we don't plan to replace it until we move (at least a year away). It stinks though because planning ahead is tough when you are limited on freezer space. Soups and crockpot meals can freeze in ziplock bags so that helps on the space issue.
I would also budget for an "emergency take-out fund." It is temporary, you will have energy again. And, no visitors unless they feed the parents. Sorry, that's the rule. I'm not running a bed and breakfast where you can smear your gross winter germs on my fresh baby until he or she cries and you give the baby back. Feed the breastfeeding mother.
I would also budget for an "emergency take-out fund." It is temporary, you will have energy again. And, no visitors unless they feed the parents. Sorry, that's the rule. I'm not running a bed and breakfast where you can smear your gross winter germs on my fresh baby until he or she cries and you give the baby back. Feed the breastfeeding mother.
Another great idea! When DD was born, DH and I thought we were going to save a good bit of money since we wouldn't be going to restaurants. We spent just as much, if not more, on take out.
Super smart to have a take-out fund. We did get to-go orders a lot, but we lived in town then. Now that we're in the country, I think we'll be depending on the freezer even more.
Re: Thinking ahead
I can't wait to see what others suggest. I'm already thinking about this because this time I'll have to feed a toddler too.
I get together with a friend once every other month to do this. We go grocery shopping,buy in bulk and split the bill. It's great and saves so much time and money. I will for sure be doing this before baby and a little closer. We have freezing cold winters so it will be a great indoor activity
Our freezer was full of lasagna and frozen pizza, people brought us pasta and other Italian food. It was coming out of our ears.
I made a lot of breaded chicken and separated it. It's pretty easy to whip up a quick side for that. It was important for me to have protein.
Mass amounts of freezer soups are also a great idea, because it will be winter. Quick, filling, nutritionally dense.
Jan17 Sept Sig: Pumpkin Spice gone too far
Get together with a couple people and you all make a couple containers of something and then trade them around!
We really didn't have much food brought to the house last time. We had a tiny baby that we wanted to keep people away from and my recovery from an emergency c-section didn't go so well, so we basically didn't leave the house for about 6-8 weeks except for a 5 minute drive to his pediatric office for appointments and my OB's office for twice weekly check-ups.
The grandparents were there practically around the clock for several weeks to help, so having a little bigger serving size of meals came in handy. That's something to consider when portioning out. I didn't expect to need as much help as I did; but when you're sick, cut into and have a 4-lb super needy baby, you take all the help you can get!
BFP: 4.29.2016 // EDD: 1.2.2017 (IT'S A BOY!) Born 12/26/16
BFP: 2.10.19 // and MC on 3.19.19
BFP: 7.9.19 // EDD 3.16.20