Ideas for stocking pantry?

[NewIma]

I was wondering if anyone had ideas/plans for stocking the pantry with ingredients for easy meals for after your baby arrives? We don't have room in the freezer for me to freeze meals so I'm trying to think of canned goods, etc. that would be good to have on hand. All my pregnancy brain can come up with though is pasta sauce! lol Anyone have any other ideas? We are vegetarian.

[Tumble Bumbles]

What about canned soups -- Amy's or similar? Awesome with toast for a quick meal...
Annie's mac&cheese -- fast to cook, throw in some frozen broccoli to make it healthier or serve with a bagged salad.
Nut butters
Crackers
Dried Fruit
vegetarian refried beans -- full of protein throw on some taco shells or tortillas
black beans
Garbanzo beans -- can be mashed into hummus, served on salad, mixed with spices, coconut milk to make a curry

That's all I can think of for now!

We have a very small freezer (above fridge freezer) and I was able to freeze a lot of meals with some creativity. Rather than big casseroles and stuff, I made brown rice, refrigerated it for a few hours so it wouldn't stick together, and put it in a big freezer ziplock bag to save space. Or, made lasagna, refrigerated it for a few hours for firmness, then cut into meal-sized squares and froze individually in foil. Things like that. You'd be surprised how much you can fit.

[Jenne]

I didn't catch when you are due but if it is winter I want denser/heavier foods like:

instant mashed potatoes
"stovetop" stuffing
green bean casserole- fried onions, mushroom soup, canned green beans
sweet potatoe casserole- canned yams, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon
oatmeal
wheat free 5 grain hot cereal
premeasured gallon sized baggies of flour, salt, yeast for bread

Jenne

[WifeofAnt]

I don't really 'do' canned stuff if I can avoid it but there are a lot of freezer things you could do. I personally have an addiction to the SteamFresh mixed pasta and vegetables. Not really an option if you don't do microwaves but I'm lazy like that. They even have whole meals you can get like that (Steamfresh Meals For Two). Cheaper than takeout, faster than cooking full meals.

[katelove]

We stocked up on

- curry sauce and tins of lentils
- dried pasta (I froze sauce but you could do jars too)
- museli bars
- cereal
- nuts and dried fruit

Not all meal-type things but I found I wanted to snack a bit and I wanted things which were easy to grab and didn't need preparation.

[AZgirl2207]

What about some 'baking kits'? Just mix all the dry ingred for muffins, pancakes, cornbread, etc and write wet ingred and baking instructions on the outside of bag. It doesn't seem like measuring the dry ingred takes too long, but anything to save a bit of time/effort is worth it to me.

I make muffin and pancake (WW and buckwheat) mixes. Muffin mixes are plain muffins that you can add blueberries, raisins, Chocolate chips...whatever you feel like that morning.

[EnchantedMamma]

10-min rice (or regular)
Canned squash (you can get Butternut puree on Amazon!)
Canned Chickpeas (great w/potatoes for a filling meal)
Chunk Light Tuna cans/packets
Protein bars for quickie snack (great for nursing/pumping)