As I mentioned in Part 1 of prepping for baby yesterday, the two things I needed most to do to feel calm for the baby's arrival was to compile my birth supplies and stock our freezer with easy meals to prepare once the baby arrives. Part 1 covered the birth supplies and this will cover some of the things we prepared to stock our freezer.
First off, if you do not have a slow cooker, I highly recommend you splurge on a good one. My meat slow cooker is awesome and my dairy slow cooker is decent (small and less technical). It is amazing for plan ahead meals. I don't have strong recommendations but I'd love anyone who does to share in the comments below.
Second, I highly recommend a meal planning party. I wrote to all my friends and family who had offered to help get ready for the baby and asked them to come over and help me with all the chopping and bagging of the meals. We were able to make 2 sets of 6 recipes (each serving 4-6 meals) in less than 3 hours. Many mom groups have these parties where they will either all chip in and take home meals for the freezer or they will rotate houses each month and fill a different family's freezer each month. You definitely do not need to be pregnant to take advantage of this idea.
We also have been doubling easily frozen meals as we prepare them to eat now and freezing half. We do this with bone broth, oatmeal, Challah bread pudding, veggie or meat chili, chicken soup, beef stew, to name a few. We also have been canning applesauce, peaches, strawberry jam, peach butter (savory and sweet), and pumpkin butter. We have soaked and dehydrated a wide variety of nuts. Some we keep in the pantry in canning jars and the others we freeze for longer storage.
So, what resources did we use to fill our freezer? I'm glad you asked. Here are some of my favorites.
Breakfast:
1) Baked Oatmeal Recipe - This is one of my favorite breakfasts and it so nourishing.
2) Regular Oatmeal - We make our oatmeal by the gallon and we make it from scratch. For every 1 cup of oats we use, we add two cups of whole milk (low temperature pasteurized, non-homoginized - we get ours from Trickling Springs). We also add lots of raisins and sometimes cinnamon, vanilla, honey and/or real maple syrup. We bring the oats, milk and raisins to a boil and then cook on simmer for at least 20 minutes until the desired consistence. We freeze the extras and store what we will eat in the week in canning jars in our refrigerator.
3) Challah French Toast Pudding - We make french toast a lot with our leftover Challah. If we have extra Challah, we will occasionally make it in the oven. I usually use 1 egg to every slice of challah and a good dash of whole milk with vanilla and cinnamon to taste. I will beat these together and add cubed pieces of challah to soak for 15-20 minutes. Then I will put them all in a buttered casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes or until the knife comes out clean. The time ranges based on the amount being made, the amount of milk and how stale the challah was before soaking.
4) Egg, Cheese, Veggie and Potato Casserole - I don't have a specific recipe for this one. I tend to throw whatever I have in the fridge and pantry into a big bowl, add eggs and throw in a greased pan and bake until solid and bubbly. It freezes well and is delicious! Google has a ton of recipes if you run a search or two.
5) Muffins, Banana Bread, etc. - Almost all of these baked goods freeze well. It is easy to freeze half a batch each time you make them. Or double the recipe and freeze half that way.
Lunch/Dinner:
1) Bone Broth - We take the carcase from 1-2 small chickens and place in our slow cooker or stock pot with a good splash of apple cider vinegar or wine, peppercorns and a bay leaf or two. We add enough water to fill the pot and bring to a slow boil and then turn it to simmer overnight or up to 24 hours. This can be the base for soups and sauces and are an excellent way to cook grains as the gelatin in the broth helps our bodies break down the grains during digestion. This freezes well once strained. You can also skim the fat and either save it for cooking or toss it or just leave it on the broth. We usually just leave it.
2) Chilli - We make so many different kinds of chilli and freeze them. Vegetarian, Bean, Meat, White Chilli, Chicken Chili, Pumpkin Chilli.
3) Chicken Soup - The recipe I mentioned in Part 1 above is great and freezes very well.
4) Several Recipes from From Your Freezer To Your Family: Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes. A few of these recipes are not Kosher but most of them are. They are non-dairy so all of the meals that have Kosher meats listed are easily made. This is how we selected the meals for our freezer party we had a few weeks ago anticipation of the baby arriving. We are excited to try the Polynesian Chicken, Chicken Curry, and Stephanie's Goulash to name a few.
5) Other Freezer meals including these. Not all of these are Kosher but can often be made with a few substitutions. We also made vegetarian meals like lasagna, baked zitti with veggie sausage, macaroni and cheese, lentil curry, to name a few.
6) I highly recommend this class available through Village Green Network. It has tons of tips for preparing meals ahead and preparing meals that are healthy and easy.
Desserts:
1) Homemade Popsicles. This summer we took all kinds of combinations of fruits and juice and homemade yogurt and made popsicles in these awesome bags. They can be reused or recycled once you're finished.
2) Brownie and Pumpkin Cake both freeze well.
3) Lactation Cookies or other yummy cookies.
Basically, almost any meal can be made ahead. These meals are far more nutritious than most meals you can pick up at the grocery store. They can be customized to what makes your family happy.
Does anyone else have recipes they love to make and freeze? Has anyone had a bad experience?
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