Freezing Meals?

[justbishop]

Maybe it's b/c we're expecting #1 and DH will not have any other kids to care for in the immediate post partum time, but neither he nor I really understand why everyone expends so much energy doing it.

Honestly, even when not pregnant, DH and I both basically share the cooking equally, and he hasn't minded taking over most of it while I've been pregnant at all. Please tell me that the majority of married men aren't just refusing to cook or something, lol!

Also, we live in a fairly convinient-to-food area, which might play into our confusion on this. If DH is on his way home from work, he passes 2 grocery stores, at least 2 pharmacies, Target, Petsmart, and no less than 5 restraunts that he could easily pick food up from. If we're both at home, all of the things I've mentioned are probably within a 3 minute drive.

So...should I be freaking out that we haven't stocked our freezer?!

[L&K'smommie]

Nope, everyone is different. I haven't really stocked mine...just made sure we have the normal food in the house and freezer and then I've done a few meals in case baby comes before my mom gets here. I know that my mom will cook whatever for me once she is here. But as for dh, no he doesn't cook...well he can cook eggs but that's about it. We've never split the cooking between us since we'd probably only ever eat breakfast foods. And also once baby comes you or dh don't want to have to be going out to pick up food...but maybe that's just us.

[fuzzypeach]

Hmmm... with my first child, I had a couple meals in the freezer, plus a few frozen store bought pizzas and a lasagne, and a meal or two someone else made for us. We lived 30 minutes away from town then. DH could and did cook some meals, but with him taking care of lots of other things he didn't normally do (I had been a stay-at-home-gestater for 2/3 of the pregnancy), and us living that far away from everything, it was nice not to worry about it.

This time around we live in town, close to stores and all sorts of yummy restaurants. We have some sweet potato/black bean burritos and some egg/rice burritos in the freezer, and a few frozen pizzas, and I try to have at least a week's worth of groceries +meal plan on hand...

[amybird]

We are already eating out of the freezer from meals my MIL and I fixed, and it's wonderful.

DH is not a cook, and has little interest in developing that skill. Even if I demanded he fix dinner, with his work schedule, it wouldn't be ready until 8pm or so, by which time I would be far past ravenous. DH would get take out five nights out of seven, but that's not healthful or cost effective.

So yeah, the freezer stash is necessary for me. But it sounds like your DH is a full partner in the kitchen chores. That's great!

[ilovebabies]

Originally Posted by justbishop

So...should I be freaking out that we haven't stocked our freezer?!

No, why would you freak out about it? Just because you read others on here like to freeze meals? If you don't need to, then you don't need to.

And yes, you are correct, if you had a larger family you might think differently. We are having our 5th child and with two of them being teenagers that eat like adults. My husband is a great cook but having meals already frozen that can just be popped in the oven (or if a friend for family brings over a hot, fresh meal) is an incredible time saver for us. It makes for hardly any food preparation which means less mess to clean up, and meal preparation alone is a huge chunk of time for whoever cooks us because of our large family. Neither my husband nor I want to do much of that the first couple of weeks with a new baby in the house. It's also a money saver. We have take out places around here, too, but that gets too costly for a large family.

So although we're not "freaking out" about it, I have frozen a few meals and I have friends and family who either already have, or are planning to bring over food when the baby comes.

[YayJennie]

Everyone is different, and if it works for you, I wouldn't worry about freezing meals. My husband loves cooking, and when I mentioned freezing meals to him, he was actually against it because he said he would cook after baby was here. However, because it was fairly easy for me to cook and freeze a few casseroles, I did it for me. I wouldn't say it's necessary though, and my husband is certainly not refusing to cook!

[Multimomma]

We freeze meals because dh wants to be able to spend time with me and baby afterwards, not spend time cooking, running errands and cleaning. Granted, we also have other children, and he'll be spending time with them, but overall it makes it easier to just snuggle and spend time together.

[lanielayne]

When we had our first it was pretty easy picking up food or getting someone to take care of that on their way over to visit. I didn't have a thing in the freezer. This time I don't either : but should. Dh works late right now and certainly doesn't want to come home to cook for 6 so it will be up to me. We don't eat out anymore since it is so expensive for all of us. I need to make a menu with some really quick dinners I can whip up like spaghetti. I think it is time to get my butt in gear

[justbishop]

Ick, I hadn't thought of the cleanup part of things...that wil suck some (mostly for him). Our house and kitchen is pretty small, though so it shouldn't be that bad. Plus, I've had a pretty rough pregnancy and haven't been able to do much of the housework that I did pre-pregnancy, so he's pretty used to picking up that slack by now (besides, and these are HIS words, I'm doing a much more imortant 24 hour a day job!)

I totally understand the need to do it if you have a large family! DH and I can eat fast food for $5-10 if need be, but I can't imagine the expense of trying to live off of that for 6 people or something!

Thanks ladies

[bethannek]

People feel differently about these things so I certainly wouldn't worry about it. I think it all depends on how your own household functions and how you feel about it.

We have 2 weeks worth of dinners in the freezer for a few different reasons. The major one is that we are fairly new here and don't know anyone who we could call to bring us food if we don't feel like cooking or leaving the house. The second reason is that DH LOVES to cook, but it takes longer than he realizes and creates a lot of dishes/cleanup (I swear he dirties every single dish we own for one meal ). There are plenty of places nearby for us to get quickie meals from but I want to make sure we're eating somewhat healthy in those first few weeks and pizza/chinese won't cut it.

One of the biggest reasons for me was... why not? This being my first kid, I have no idea what I'll be feeling like afterward. I may be up and about feeling ok, or I could be relying on DH to do every little thing but breastfeed. Even if we don't use the meals during the first few weeks they can just sit there until some night in the future when we have no energy. Oh, and we only made 1-2 of the meals ourselves then he rest came from Dinners Ready, one of these make 8+ meals at once assembly line places. We even paid 10% more to have them assemble it. The average price per meal comes out less than if we ordered delivery or even ate fast food.

[SaraC]

I wouldn't freak out because everyone is different. I have about 2 weeks worth right now simply b/c we have 3 kids already and eating out would get really pricey for us. So I have some meals in the freezer and am planning on making some more this weekend since we have eaten a few this past week or so. I like knowing that we have them and that we don't have to eat frozen pizza every night.

[Double E]

No need to freak out
We only have a few meals frozen (and I know some moms from my sons preschool will be making us stuff too. bonus)! But I know myself and I know that I won't want to be cooking in the first week or so of having her. (And take out can get expensive.)

I'm sure my husband wouldn't mind cooking (he's been AWESOME about cooking for the last few months when I haven't been in the mood) but I imagine he'll be just as tired as I will be and he'd rather spend time with the kiddos instead of cooking.

[dachshund mom]

For us it makes sense. It's not any extra work to make double batches when I'm already cooking, so why not? I've built a little stash of things like lasagnas, chili, homemade taquitos, muffins, pizzas and soups without much effort.

It's not that DH is too lazy to cook, but he only has a week off work to enjoy being home with the baby and we want that time to be as relaxing as possible. I'm hoping for lots of baby sleeping on daddy's chest pictures. After he goes back, it'll be me and the baby alone, and I'm not sure about how to cook with a newborn. I see a lot of threads asking "how do I shower/do a load of laundry/pee with this baby who nurses all the time and cries when I set him down?" I'm counting on DH to help with the baby when he gets home from work to give me a few minutes to clean up or relax. Plus we won't have to go grocery shopping for a few weeks either, other than for produce. It's one less thing to worry about.

We'll eat out some, but fast food for more than a meal or two makes me feel gross and healthy take out will get expensive at $20 a meal. Picking it up is as much work as throwing a couple bowls of chili in the microwave imo.

[justbishop]

Originally Posted by bethannek

...

The second reason is that DH LOVES to cook, but it takes longer than he realizes and creates a lot of dishes/cleanup (I swear he dirties every single dish we own for one meal ).

...

LMAO!!!! I hear ya on that one! I swear, the man has no concept of "clean as you go"!

[veghead04]

We haven't either. We both love to cook - find it very relaxing and DH is happy to take over if I'm not available for a while. Every family has to find their own way.

[texanatheart]

I guess it's a personal decision, though I would recommend it to anyone who asked my opinion. We didn't do it with ds1, but we did this time around. DS1 was pretty fussy and had to be held CONSTANTLY, and it was really tough to cook. DH is NOT into cooking (though he'll throw a frozen meal in the oven ) AT ALL. We're still eating (3 weeks pp...can't believe that!) meals from the freezer that mil and I (well, mostly mil) cooked ahead of time. It's been SO nice to not have to cook. Even with out SUPER chill baby this time around, up to now I've been so happy to just be able to throw something (freshly thawed) in the oven. And we even still have 3-4 meals in there. Another nice thing...most of the meals are big enough that we've got leftovers for next day's lunch. I'll definitely stock the freezer again if we ever have another baby, no doubt.