I want to make as much as I can before the baby comes. The first kid came early and we didn’t get a chance to meal prep…it would have been a huge help.
This time I want to have some things, breakfast, sides, lunch, dinner. Where all I need to do is defrost, heat/cook, and eat.
Can you share your ideas, experience, links, etc?
Thanks in advance!
If you need breakfast items French toast freezes well. I just pop them in the toaster to defrost and heat up.
The meal prep I ate most postpartum was precooked ground beef. I made taco meat, Italian seasoned meat, and just ground beef seasoned with salt and pepper for multipurpose use. I vacuumed sealed a pound in each pack. Worked better when I let the meat cool in the refrigerator overnight and then packed with my food saver.
This made it so easy for my husband to make us a meal by just adding a carb and veggies.
I also bought rotisserie chickens and vacuumed sealed 1 pound bags. Super versatile to easily thaw and use. Can be used for chicken soups, casseroles, sandwiches and even just to top off a bag of salad mix.
In addition to ground beef you could also do some pulled pork the same way.
Lasagnes are quite easy to make in bulk (especially if you use white roux sauce instead of ricotta for the white layer). You can precook or not precook the pasta. If you build them up in either aluminum trays or oven-safe dishes, all you need to do is put them in the oven! I made a couple of two-portion lasagnes (a couple of variations such as chicken and pesto) in my last big prep.
Go to Costco. Buy 10 rotisserie chickens. Shred them, and place portions of the meat in individual freezer bags. Then you have a ton of quick dinner options. Shredded chicken over bagged salad. Toss with bbq sauce and serve on a bun. Throw in a pot with a carton of broth, and handful of frozen veg and rice for a quick soup. Chicken Helper, chicken noodle casserole, chicken in pasta salad, chicken paninis, shredded chicken in a loaded baked potato, toss in a pie crust with some mixed veg and a can of cream of chicken soup for a pot pie.
Not sure if this is company-wide, though it makes so much sense that it should be, but my local Costco sells vacuum-sealed packages of their rotisserie chicken in a 2-pack. Usually in an end-cap refrigerator by the fresh, prepared meals like wraps and salads.
Mine has it too but it’s way more expensive per ounce than the whole chicken, which is understandable because the work is done for you. So it’s really just a question of which is more valuable to you- time or money?
Additional advice: if you get the whole chickens, you can use the bones to make stock (especially easy if you have an instant pot or crockpot). Freeze that, and you’ve got an easy soup base if you throw in some veggies, shredded meat, and maybe noodles or rice. You can make a bunch of soups off that frozen base in an hour or less.
If you buy the prepackaged rotisserie meat then you aren’t the one buying all the rotisserie chickens.
I didn’t think it was that more expensive given the yield of a whole chicken. I’m sure someone has done a full comparison on yield and waste to just meat.
Absolutely agree. When meal-prepping for the birth, if you can afford it, I would think that the time-saving would be a very valuable trade-off for having so much of the work done already. Especially if you are trying to create the most meals possible in the shortest amount of time.
Totally. Although I will say if you have close family (or really close friends) living nearby who are always like “what can I do to help?” “Let me know if you need anything!”, putting them to work shredding and portioning chicken is a good use of that goodwill.
Ohh I would love this. This sounds like a stupid question, but is the chicken cut up or is the full rotisserie chicken vacuum sealed?
And then make bone broth for mom to drink as she recovers
This for sure. Half a chicken fits in those quart soup containers. It’s so much easier to use. If the chicken gets cold, just stick it in the oven. It’s easier to debone when the fat isn’t causing it to stick together. it takes no time to defrost either. Just stick it in some hot water and then slide it all out, and chop it up frozen.
My friend made me freezer calzones when I had a baby. It was amazing! She par-baked them so I would just put them in the oven from frozen for about 20 mins.
I found some aluminum casserole pans at Walmart that are exactly half the size of a 13x9 casserole dish (6.5x9 or so) and they work great!
Make the recipe, split it into 2 pans, freeze. Thaw in fridge for 2 days, then pop in the oven. I pressed plastic wrap onto the food and then sealed with the included lid. Wrote the name in marker on the lid.
I’ve only done this once - it was only 5 weeks ago, but I’ve been using one a week since then and I’m SOLD! Absolutely will do again.
I had ground turkey- I did chili with beans, egg noodles+ sauce+ cheese+ meat, a taco type casserole, and cottage pie.
Another one I’ve done before (for a frozen meal swap with several local moms) is crockpot drop-and-go meals. It’s best to have 2 gallon freezer bags, but put all the ingredients in the bag and freeze. If you will use from frozen, just make sure the shape it freezes into will fit in your crockpot.
I think I did a cilantro lime chicken with black beans & corn, a BBQ style chicken, and a chicken and potato soup (using frozen hash browns).
Chili, stew, soups, break down rotisserie chickens, lasagna, good luck and congrats on the baby!
I’m in medical school so I don’t have a lot of free time. I batch cook, freeze, and store things in my chest freezer.
Personally, I like variety, so I freeze components of meals (proteins, veggies, starches) separately so I can mix and match. I portion them in single serving portions in quart size ziplock bags. To freeze I lay the items flat on a sheet pan at the top of the chest, and then one frozen I store them vertically in organized baskets, like files in a file cabinet. I keep everything well labeled with sharpies and masking tapes.
There are tons of recipes out there, so I won’t list a bunch here. But I will say that I find items in sauces reheat really well. So I make a lot of South Asian and East Asian cuisines like curries and rice. I also freeze lots of soups and breads.
Also, in addition to spending dedicated meal prep days cooking to stock up your freezer, I recommend changing how you cook a lot of our meals now to accommodate more servings. So if you normally follow a recipe for dinner that serves 4, choose to double it and make enough for 8. Now you can freeze half a bank it for later. This way, you’re preparing double the meals for less the time and effort.
I’m 5 weeks postpartum currently and I’m trying really hard to keep my iron levels up while also getting enough fibre (because no one wants to be constipated postpartum). So I would suggest bolognese, beef taco mince with red kidney beans, lentil dahl, beef lasagna, minestrone soup (add pasta later so it doesn’t expand too much), beef curries like madras, any curry really with some green beans added
Chili, bags and bags of frozen chili
https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/s/qwy0xycd4v
This is what I did a couple years ago. Large batch things we could eat for a couple days. And lots of things like muffins to just grab.
Add some “treats” to the prep. I made a batch of pioneer woman cinnamon rolls. Prepped to the last rise and frozen. Nothing is so bougie as fresh homemade breads.
I did a bunch of frozen pizzas as well. Cheap dollar tree pizza pans can be reused and I’d par bake the crust before topping. One of my kids had/has a tomato sauce aversion and doing this with half having no tomato sauce was so helpful.
Frozen fruit cups was another ‘treat.’ My toddler loved them. I did mine in foil cupcake liners and stored them in gallon ziplock bags.
Basically things you like to eat. I have a friend who swore by making multiple batches of pancakes / french toast sticks because she could give them to the kids to eat in the car on the way to run errands.
Casseroles never worked well for me.
I just woke up and understood that you want to meal prep a kid… I am glad I was wrong 😂
One thing I love doing is slow cooking a variety of dips, like buffalo chicken, French onion soup, broccoli cheddar, etc and freezing it. Pop that bad boy in the pan and you can dip fresh veggies in it, spread it on bread/make melts, dip corn chips or pita crackers, etc. Super easy prep and really versatile. Congrats!
Lots of soup, and a big batch of parmesan risotto