How to Stock your Freezer for Postpartum
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Postpartum is a difficult time to navigate for a mother. With your first child you are so overwhelmed with a major life adjustment and learning to care for a newborn. With your second (and beyond) child, you may feel better equipped to managing a newborn, but also have a fuller home and more children to manage. Preparing postpartum freezer meals as part of your pre-baby checklist, helps you focus more on adjusting to your new baby and not stress about preparing every day meals.
While preparing to welcome our second child we stocked our freezer much better than when we were preparing for our first child. This was a lifesaver when dinner time rolled around. Especially with a toddler bedtime routine to manage, and a husband having a longer work commute.
In this blog post I’m sharing all the tips I learned from stocking a freezer during pregnancy to help manage your home’s food during postpartum. I’m covering:
Find enjoyable recipes
Make a grocery list
Prep the food- cut meats last
Utilize disposable containers
Remember sides, snacks, and goodies
Stock up on pre-frozen
If you want to make mealtime easier for you and your family after welcoming a baby, then follow along!
One of the most helpful things during my first and second postpartum periods was not having to worry about dinner every night. With our first child we were still new to the area without a big support group to help with meals. We prepped a few freezer meals during pregnancy, but nothing major. We ate fast food almost every meal, which was expensive and lead my husband and I to feeling crummy often.
Even though I do enjoy cooking for our family, especially baking, I know your time (and energy) becomes very limited. After getting some appetite back during my pregnancy with our second child, I began planning meals for postpartum. I enlisted my mom to help me prep meals during one of her visits and I began doing small parts in my free time. Once our son arrived, we had so many meals that were easy to pop in the oven or crockpot. A major bonus was that everyone enjoyed the food, including our 3-year-old!
#1: Find enjoyable recipes
This step may seem super obvious but can be a deal breaker. Plan to make multiples of each recipe to have a few nights worth. No one likes to prep several meals of a recipe no one in your household will eat.
This is the time to take any food allergies or restrictions into consideration. Also consider any other children at home that may be picky eaters. Zero judgement if you keep some frozen nuggets on hand to feed them on the nights they may not eat a specific meal.
Here’s some of the best ways to find freezer meal ideas:
Make Pinterest your best friend- a simple search for freezer meals and you will be overwhelmed with all the recipes you find. Try narrowing it down by using keywords of things you and your family already enjoy (i.e., with ground beef or chicken, or soups).
Ask friends or family- so many people of tried freezer meals at some point or have regulars they put together.
Utilize recipes you already use and love- so many recipes can become freezer meals. If you are worried about how to prepare certain food items or how they will keep in the freezer, Google will have all the answers for you. My family loves a good roast, this is such an easy recipe to freezer and toss in the crock pot.
These are some of our favorite freezer meals:
#2: Make a grocery list
Once you have all the recipes decided on, sit down with all of them to make one big grocery list. Yes, this grocery run will most likely cost more than your average grocery stops, but these meals will be used at a time you might not be making as many grocery runs overall. Making one big list ensures you get all items needed for each recipe and avoid running back to the store during the prepping phase.
TIP: Make the grocery chore easier with grocery delivery or pick up. Our family utilizes Instacart, especially during busy seasons of life like postpartum. If you don’t already have an account use the referral code: A369416177 to receive up to $40 off.
#3: Prep the food
This step can be time consuming but is easier to do all at once if you can free up an afternoon. This way you only have to prep and clean up once. Here are my top tips on physically preparing your freezer meals:
Enlist help- I had my mom help, I ended up being sick and she handled all the main dishes, so helpful. So, ask a family member or a good friend. It’s a good time to socialize, even throw on your favorite movie or songs in the background.
Set aside an entire afternoon- this will give you time to finish everything and have it put in the freezer.
One recipe list- write or type all the recipes together to have one place of reference, rather than switching between several online recipes or cookbooks.
Veggies first- cut and prep every ingredient other than your meat first. Cutting your meat last ensures there is no cross contamination without washing your supplies several times.
Make double- make a double (or more) of every recipe. That way you will have several servings of each recipe to last a few weeks.
Some of the most helpful freezer meal prep supplies (pictures linked):
#4: Utilize disposable containers
Using disposable containers is more effective in making a large quantity of meals and saves dishwashing amount when the meals are utilized. I love all the kitchen supplies and gadgets, especially a good baking dish, but I do not own enough to fill up our freezer with meals. On top of that, putting a frozen meal in the oven to enjoy and then not having dishes to clean was wonderful.
TIP: If you are worried about freezer burn, put a layer of plastic wrap around your meal prior to the final lid. Just write on your warming/cooking instructions to remove the wrap first!
Here’s some great options (pictures linked):
#5: Remember sides, snacks, and goodies
When prepping your freezer for welcoming a new baby it is easy to focus solely on main dishes. This is what comes to mind for the most time consuming each day. Prepping some sides and such ensures you have balanced meals and snacks available. This is very helpful if you like to have most of your food homemade.
Here’s some of the non-main dishes I prepared and froze:
Sourdough
Banana bread
Chocolate chip cookie dough
Sliced veggies
Tomato soup- this can be made as a main dish, but I put it in smaller silicone molds to use as a side with grilled cheeses or on its own for a snack.
Some other ideas:
Smoothie bags- fill Ziploc baggies with your favorite smoothie ingredients to toss in the blender.
Various breads
Muffins
Protein balls
#6: Stock up on pre-frozen items
Not all of your freezer stash has to be homemade meals. I added plenty of frozen foods from the grocery store. Most of these are not as healthy as homemade options, but we utilized a lot of them for lunches and sides. Plus, our family really enjoys a Stouffer’s lasagna from time to time. If you are concerned about unhealthy ingredients in frozen foods, download the Yuka app. Such a handy tool, you scan the barcode and the app will breakdown the ingredients for you and give the item a rating.
Some pre-frozen ideas:
Veggies for roasting
Garlic bread
Sandwich bread
Frozen meals (lasagna, chicken pot pie, etc.)
TIP: If you live near a Trader Joe’s they have lots of yummy choices in frozen foods.
I hope all of these tips and suggestions help you along your freezer meal journey! The hope is for this process to make postpartum time a little easier and allow you to focus on the important things while still having nourishing meals. If you need more motherhood tips and tricks, check out these posts!