If there is one thing I took seriously this pregnancy it is freezer meal prepping! I started planning ahead early and at 32 weeks pregnant I had 30 frozen dinners ready! As someone who had her last baby at 32 weeks, I can’t say the peace of mind this brought me! The beauty is that I did this with what I would consider pretty minimal effort. If you’re wondering how, what and when, keep reading!
My strategies
Start Early: I knew I wanted more than just a couple options. I don’t want to think about food for at least the first month. Knowing I felt the worst in my third trimester last pregnancy, I decided to start as early as I could without risking the food expiring in the freezer before I had the baby. I started around 22 weeks and am so glad I did! I didn’t necessarily have a goal number of meals to prep, but in 10 weeks I was able to stash 30 meals.
Double dinner: This is how I made the bulk of the meals. I would simply double (or even triple dinner) and throw all the leftovers in the freezer. I often do this even when not pregnant and cannot recommend it enough. There is almost nothing better than having a warm home cooked meal ready to warm up on a night that you don’t feel like cooking dinner. Having a freezer full of meals also means I am able to bring food to a friend quickly when they are in need, and often saves us money because we are repurposing our leftovers instead of letting them go to waste in the fridge. While making my meal plan I would just make sure one or two of the meals each week was something we could freeze, and it was as easy as that! No reason to get your kitchen dirty more than once.
Swap with a friend: 8 of my meals came from friends through swaps. I happen to have a *lot* of pregnant friends right now and 2 of them swapped meals with me. With one girlfriend we each made 4 dinners (x2, one for each of us) on our own time and swapped (I think we both used the “double dinner” method) and with the other girlfriend we got together in my kitchen one afternoon and each made 2 meals that we doubled (so we each went home with 4 meals). If you know someone else who is expecting, absolutely swap with each other! It adds in variety and again, not a lot of extra work. I have their meals included to give you ideas even if I don’t have an exact recipe.
Keep a list: I can’t stress this enough! Keep a list on the outside of your freezer or on your phone and every single time you add something, add it to the list with the number of servings. This way you always know what you have on hand, can add easily, and can make sure nothing gets forgotten when the time comes to eat your way through the stash.
The Tools
Having the right supplies on hand is crucial. If you are doing a large volume you will run out of tupperware so fast! I chose to go with disposable options because it will mean fewer dishes postpartum, and gives me the freedom to give away some meals to those other pregnant friends.
Aluminum Pans In our family (myself, husband and 2 year old) the 8×8 pan is the perfect amount for one night of dinners and the following day’s lunch. If your family is bigger I would go with the 9×9 pan or even consider larger.
Deli Containers – For soups/stews/sides I used these and love them! These are dishwasher safe and reusable which is great, but again I don’t mind giving them away if needed.
Labels – label everything as SOON as you make it on the top and side (facing out when you are looking in the freezer). You may think you will remember whats in the pan (especially tempting if you end up using clear containers) but trust me, you won’t. For the aluminum pans I wrote in sharpie, for the soup containers I’ve been using these labels that peel off super easily so you can reuse the container.
A freezer – I will confess, we did end up buying an upright freezer for our garage. This had been our plan for a while so we saved up and got one on a good Black Friday deal. We will use it for meat storage and to preserve things from our garden when our postpartum season is over so it was wroth it to us either way.
Dinner recipes
The Fun part! These are all recipes that are part of my normal arsenal, so I can vouch for all of them being delicious. They just happen to freeze well!
Baked Ziti (3) – I used this recipe from The Modern Proper.
Shepherds Pie – I loosely followed this recipe from Savory Nothings but used instant mashed potatoes.
Turkey Meatballs & Creamy Orzo – This recipe from Half Baked Harvest is amazing! I did it stovetop instead of crockpot style.
Aussie Meat Pies – We LOVE this recipe. It’s time consuming but so worth it and they actually freeze really well! I froze them all on a sheet pan and then transferred them to a baggie. We reheat a couple at a time in the air fryer.
Beef & Bean Enchiladas – For this I cooked ground beef with onion and taco seasoning. Put a little bit of canned red enchilada sauce in the bottom of a pan, spread tortillas with refried beans, topped with beef and cheese, rolled up and put them in the pan, then topped the whole pan with more enchilada sauce and shredded cheese.
Beef Stroganoff (2) – This recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen is simple and delicious. She recommends freezing it in baggies without noodles so that’s what I did. We will thaw it and reheat in a saucepan and make a box of noodles fresh to go with it.
Sourdough Skillet – This is something we make several times a month with whatever meat/veggies we have on hand. I’m pretty sure I did ground venison, potatoes, frozen carrots, peas, and green beans.
Beef Stew (3) – I don’t follow a recipe for my beef stew so it turns out a little different every time but it’s usually chuck roast that I’ve cooked in the crockpot (either leftovers from a pot roast, or made just for soup), potatoes, carrots, onion, homemade beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, a little bit of soy sauce, a tiny bit of red wine vinegar and I let it simmer for a good long time. I also love adding orzo!
Aussie Beef Stew – I froze the leftover filling from the meat pies in a soup cup and will add a box of beef broth when we reheat to turn it into a stew.
Chicken Noodle Soup – Again not something I follow a recipe for. Just shredded chicken, carrots, onion, chicken broth and noodles!
Taco Soup (2) This recipe is 1lb ground beef cooked with onion, (3) cans mexi style chili beans, 1 can of corn, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and diced green chilis, 1 package of taco seasoning, 1 package of ranch dressing, 1 1/2 cups water. Add it all to a crockpot and let it simmer all day. Highly recommend eating it with corn chips, cheese and sour cream!
Chicken Mushroom Bean Soup (2) – I started with this Modern Proper recipe as a base but then added white beans and shredded chicken.
Mexican Broth Soup (2) – This recipe from Real Food Whole Life is simple, light, and delicious!
Thanksgiving Box (2) – I put all of our Thanksgiving leftovers in 2 pans and I am quite looking forward to eating them!
Pizza Casserole – This was from my friend swap so I don’t have an exact recipe.
Chicken Alfredo – This was from my friend swap so I don’t have an exact recipe.
Chili – This was from my friend swap so I don’t have an exact recipe.
Lasagna (2) – This was from my friend swap so I don’t have an exact recipe.
Cottage Pie – This was from my friend swap so I don’t have an exact recipe.
Ham & Noodle Bake – This was from my friend swap so I don’t have an exact recipe.
Breakfast/Other
As you can see I put most of my effort towards dinner/entrees because I find those the hardest to put together and if you make enough you get lunch for the next day. For breakfasts we usually stick to scrambled eggs, yogurt, and other simple things like that. That said, here are a few more things I stashed to make life easier.
Rolls – I always keep a bag of these hamburger buns because they work as sandwich buns, hamburger buns, or dinner rolls! Also delicious in the morning with a little butter and jam. I just microwave them for about 30 seconds, or leave them on the counter for 10 mins and they thaw out beautifully.
Croissants – If you attempt this recipe brace yourself for 3 days of work. However, they are delicious. I make them once every couple months and always double it to freeze the extras. I am planning to save these for if I hit a particularly low point in postpartum and want an emotional boost 🤪. She has a youtube video walking through how to bake them (which I recommend watching at least 3 times – ha!) and she explains the best way to freeze/thaw them.
Cinnamon Rolls – This recipe is truly amazing. Another one that I double and freeze every time I make it because who doesn’t want to pull out a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls on a random Saturday morning? I freeze them as soon as I’ve rolled them up. Then to thaw/bake I put them (frozen) on the kitchen counter (still covered with plastic wrap) overnight and bake them as soon as I wake up in the morning. In my experience they thaw and rise perfectly overnight.
Sourdough Bagels – I usually have a bag of these sourdough bagels in my freezer as well. I slice them about 90% of the way through before freezing so that they are easy to break apart. When I want one I microwave it for about 30 seconds, pop it apart and throw it in the toaster.
Sourdough English Muffins – I did the same with a batch of these sourdough english muffins.
Pasta/Pizza Sauce – The fruits of this past summer’s tomato harvest and we are still working through it. However, if you don’t have a canned/frozen garden stash I’d definitely recommend stocking up on a few store bought cans because they can provide you a quick meal (even if it does involve a little cooking).
Cookie Dough – the last few times I’ve made cookies I’ve doubled the dough, rolled them into balls, frozen them on a cookie sheet and then put them in a baggie. Perfect for when you want to bake a couple in the evening without all the work!
Favorite Store Bought Options
If you aren’t a mega meal prepper, no sweat! Costco and Trader Joes both have amazing frozen options! Some of my favorites are…
Costco
- Chicken Tiki masala
- Three Cheese Tortellini (with jarred pesto!)
- Chicken tenders/mozzarella sticks/pizza
- Shrimp
- Kodiak Cake Protein Waffles
Trader Joes
- Orange chicken
- Pot stickers
- Sweet Potato Gnocchi
- Stuffed Gnocchi (put this in their boxed tomato soup and it’s amazing!)
- Party Meatballs
- Fish Sticks
There you have it! We are already struggling to resist breaking into the stash, but I really am trying to save it for once baby is here. If you are pregnant you might feel overwhelmed by looking at this list but don’t! Get the right supplies for freezing things in your house and just start with doubling one or two dinners a week. You’ll have a pile of prepped meals in no time! And if you aren’t having a baby I’d still totally recommend doubling dinner once a week and freezing it! Then each week you can pull a homemade meal from the freezer on a night you aren’t feeling like cooking! A beautiful freezer food circle of life!
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