After Baby Meal Ideas?

[StephNelson]

Anyone willing to share your after baby either pre-make/freeze or easy make meal ideas? : PLEASE...

I want to make several casseroles, but I am coming up short on ideas...:

I am pretty sure I will make a giant tuna casserole, maybe some chicken soups both to freeze.

We have lots of farm eggs here so I am thinking somethings with eggs, but does anything with eggs freeze well?

~Steph

[wombatclay]

I was about to go dig out my "once a month" cooking recipes to figure out what would be yummy and freeze well for a "warm month" babe.

Last time we made a few giant lasagnas (one with meat, one veggie only) and a gigantic baked mac/cheese with veggies galore. In each case we broke them down into single serving portions before freezing...I think this makes life easier later on since you only have to thaw as much as you want or need right then.

I think this time we'll do lasagna again, and the baked mac. Probably also some stuffed shells and other pasta type dishes.

I plan on grilling up a ton of chicken breasts and chopping them into strips before freezing them. This way I can throw together a salad and top it with the chicken...or grab a tortilla and throw together some chicken strips/cheese/veggies for a wrap...

And I love making "frozen pizza"...we make the dough and bake it into pizza shell form, then we make a little baggie with sauce and cheese and toppings, and then we freeze the baggie with the shell. To serve just pull it out, dump the baggie on the shell, and heat till the cheese melts.

We make waffles too so that's another thing we'll stock up on. Pop them in the toaster oven and top with just about anything...we have them for dinner a couple times a month topped with low fat ricotta and pumpkin seeds/chopped almonds. Mmmmmm...yummy!

I think we'll be eating a lot of smoothies too if the weather gets really hot. Some yogurt, frozen fruit, and seltzer water and you've got a great "mini" meal along with some chopped fruit or a slice of bread and cheese.

But I need to find that cookbook! More later...

[jstar]

i don't know if you eat meat. i made a big batch of meatballs last night and stuck half the meat blob in the freezer. it will make a quick meal postpartum (this rendition is meatballs and rice). i made a big pan of lasagne a few weekends ago and cut half the pan up into individual servings i can unwrap and heat up for easy lunches.

other than that i haven't done much 'freezer prep' i should try to get a few more things done.

i'm not sure how egg dishes freeze :

[wombatclay]

I know you can freeze quiche...

[Jilian]

I like the idea of freezing chicken in strips. I have heard of people freezing fajita seasoned chicken and that sounds good. You can freeze rice and pasta nicely for side dishes. I like whole wheat egg noodles with veggies added. A beef stroganoff would freeze nicely. Chilli freezes nicely but could make you and baby gassy (I learned that the hard way).

[boheime]

After both of my children, I had dh making me BLTs....mmmm...they tasted especially good to me and were a one hand meal (while nursing a newborn).

[NCMomworld]

All of these ideas sound yummy! I freeze a lot of things anyway, but some of my easiest meals are just a large ziploc bag with meat or beans (for meat I crockpot a bunch at a time and then shred it), some sort of sauce, and some sort of veggie. Then I thaw and serve it with a grain. Our family likes chili (chili seasoning, tomato sauce, beans and corn) and cornbread, but I hadn't thought about gas! We also like chicken with BBQ sauce (store bought or homemade) served with whole wheat buns, chicken or beef with teriakyi sauce served with rice and peas, beef with mushroom sauce served with egg noodles, and veggies and biscuit dumplings (mixed veggies in a creamy sauce - we use rice milk and chicken broth).

I am also going to freeze grilled chicken breasts and meatballs because they make easy meals. Last time I had two weeks worth of meals frozen. Add in meals people brought me and the times we decided to do take out and I had over 3 weeks when I didn't have to cook - very nice

[wombatclay]

Oh yeah...one of our staples is slow cook oatmeal. We buy it in bulk for just a few cents a pound at the local coop and then put it in either the crockpot or the rice cooker. It cooks over night an come morning it's good to go! Sometimes DH will add some dry milk to the mix, or a few handfuls of chopped almonds, or a cup or two of dried fruit or granola...random things. Add a little yogurt and fruit in the morning and you've got a complete (and yummy) meal that took literally minutes to prepare.

And we make big batches and stick leftovers in the fridge (a moment or two in the microwave and it's good to go)....then anything left after a day or so get's dumped into bread dough or waffle batter.

Not to mention, oatmeal is great for boosting milk supply...

[Keeping up]

How about:

- chicken parmigan (s/p?) (breaded chicken, half cooked, cheese and jarred spaghetti sauce) - I make that now, freeze it and then cook. Even better, I have a time delay on my stove so I put it in frozen at 7:15am when we leave for work and we have a hot meal when we get home at 6:30pm!
- the shreaded chicken sounds like a great idea

... as a northerner, I refuse to eat frozen food in June aside from the stove heating up the un-air conditioned house, it seems wrong to eat frozen in the summer:

Quick meals
- we grill meat and have a little salad on the side (the salad can be prepared much earlier in the day and dh can grill/bbq the meat) - we do chicken/beef with nice salads (my favorite - tomatoes sliced with basil and boccoccini cheese with a homemade vinegrette - yum!)
- turkey burgers (homemade - 3 minutes to make) in pitas with tomatos and avocado - next time I will have a bean salad (homemade again - takes but a few minutes at any point in the day!)
- homemade pizza - either in the oven or the BBQ
- cesaer salad with chicken (again cook the chicken in the middle of the day and cool) - takes but a few minutes
- homemade quiche - shreaded cheese, eggs and milk (and ham, brocolli, red pepper or whatever) - really easy - but takes a long time to cook so you have to start at 4pm (but that is hopefully before the witching hour).

My two cents - I am not really into frozen. And, not working, I will have more time to cook with only one at home (the other trio will stay in school for at least part of the summer until we figure out the waitlist issues).

[willoLevin]

I'm not much of a cook, but I second Wombat's oatmeal idea. We have a small (1 1/2 qt?) crockpot that I use just for hot cereals! If you don't have a crockpot, you can also soak the oats (or other whole grains) in the liquid in the fridge overnight, then it will cook faster in the morning...

My only unique advice to offer is to think hard about what you LIKE to eat as well as what you think you OUGHT to eat. I goofed on this after DS was born.

We asked my MIL to be our food bringer for a couple of weeks (old-world Jewish babushka who feeds us to show us love), which seemed like a perfect fit between our needs and her favorite actions. EXCEPT, her food just isn't my "comfort" food. I could barely eat any of it, but felt obligated and also didn't want to make something else when dinner had already been provided... Her food is good! It's just that, for me, it's like when you eat out at a new ethnic restaurant--more adventure than comfort food.

I was very tired and having breastfeeding problems and (though I don't normally have this problem!) I think I made things worse by tending to want to do stuff other than eat when I really needed to do so. Tempting food would've helped me immensely.

--willo

[OTMomma]

I bought a freezer a couple of months ago just so I could freezer cook for this baby. So far I've made

hamberger patties- dh can grill from frozen
meatballs
muffins
cookie dough- frozen balls of dough to have a fresh hot oatmeal cookie whenever
hotpockets- various fillings- these should be great for easy one hand meals
meatloafs
chicken potpie filling- I'm worried about the reheat work on this, but dh says he can handle it
twice baked poatoes

Dd cried from 4-8 pm for the first few months, and wouldn't let me put her down, dh and I struggled with dinner each night. So I'm very motivated to have easy food this time.