Freezable Food Suggestions

I freeze big batches of chicken noodle soup (minus the noodles), spaghetti sauce... Easy to reheat, just serve over fresh noodles (b/c noodles don't freeze that well.)

I freeze batches of ground beef with onions and seasonings. Can be thrown in spaghetti sauce, tacos, chili, tortilla soup...

The only things that don't really freeze well, are potatoes and pasta. But, if you cook the pasta slightly undercooked, then it should reheat okay. Maybe something like shepherds pie would freeze well though.

I freeze a lot of veggies. Chopped onions, peppers.. that kind of thing in little ziplock bags. Makes cooking something a breeze.

Freezable stuff:
lasagne
meatballs & tomato sauce
chicken tetrazzini
store bought raviolis or tortellinis
ground beef for bolognese sauce, tacos, etc.
grilled chicken
cubes of pesto sauce, or other fresh herbs, herbed butter (You can can add these to pasta, or chicken or veggies to make it feel like you cooked a real meal!)

Also, after our 2nd was born, we started doing a lot more "batched" cooking. On Sunday, we'd grill or saute a lot of meat & veggies for the whole week which we could then add to salads, pastas, sandwiches during the week. We do a family pack of chicken or steaks or ground beef or sausage (whatever's on sale), along with some roasted peppers, zuccinis, mushrooms, eggplant, or whatever. If we don't grill the veggies, we'll at least do the slicing & chopping. Sometimes, we'll even pre-cook a big batch of B. rice or penne pasta. All of this is stored in the fridge for the week. Then we assemble our ingredients each night, & vary the condiments & starch to make completely different meals - pasta, pesto & parm for italian night, Rice or pita with yogurt, oregano, lemon & feta makes the same ingredients greek, Rice, Ginger, peanut sauce makes the same stuff asian, tortillas & salsa makes it Mexican... you get the idea. In a pinch, you can also add packaged chicken or beef stock to a lot of the same ingredients & make a great soup. Or add some packaged salad greens and you have an easy high-protein salad. It means we only do the big cooking one night per week, assembly & reheating in a skillet takes no more than 15 mins, and we don't feel like we're eating the same thing every day.

We make up lasagna, meatloaf, and porcupine meatballs and freeze them. We've learned to put them in the breadloaf tin pans for a serving of two adults (+littles who very little).

We also make up chicken enchiladas (fill the tortilla with shredded chicken (plus onions, peppers, etc.), and shredded cheese) and roll. Put a piece of wax paper in a large rectangle pan, line the rolled-up enchiladas on top of the wax paper and freeze for about 30 - 40 minutes and then move them to a ziploc bag in the dinner portions (3-4 for two adults and a kiddo). When ready to eat, pull from the fridge, pour some enchilada sauce on bottom of pan, put enchiladas in pan, top with rest of sauce, and top with cheese.

You can also portion out chunks of meat (pour marinade on them in a ziploc bag) and put them frozen into a crockpot when ready.

Have lots of easy to make snacks and foods on hand for you and the 5 year old. Apples, carrots, bread, etc. Don't forget about deli meats (you will no longer be pregnant!). Cheese ravioli's that come frozen and cook in a few minutes with garlic bread and salad!

If it also helps (and isn't one more thing on your list) plan out the meals for the days you know you will be home. I write on a separate calendar the meals we regularly eat and space them out so I don't have the same type of meal two days in a row. And then, I just use that "formula" and repeat it.

Good luck and congrats!

chicken pot pie
individual meat patties seasoned and ready to grill/fry/broil
boiled/cooked chicken cubed that can be added to soups, make soft tacos, tossed into a pasta salad or mixed with mayo/sourcream for chicken salad
Stew
Chili
Congratulations and good luck :)

Lazagna
Enchiladas
Cook up a bunch of gr burger to thaw and use for spaghetti, tacos, sloppy joes etc.
chili
any soup - not noodles though.
pulled pork for sandwiches

Mini Meatloaves!!!! ( I made them in muffin tins!) Just use your favorite meatloaf recipe, bake then freeze and put in ziplocs! Makes it very easy to pull out one or two for lunch or a whole bunch for dinner. Just add a microwave baked potato and "something green" (salad, green beans or brocoli) and you have a meal hearty enough to satisfy even new nursing mom hunger! Best thing I had in my freezer during my maternity leave!

ETA-- Oh, one more thing-- more of a short cut than a meal! I buy ground beef in the 10 pound tubes. It fits perfectly in my crock pot with a bag of frozen chopped onions, a bag of frozen chopped green peppers, some garlic and salt and pepper. I just break it up with my potato masher off and on while it cooks on high until it's done. Freeze flat in ziplocs and take out for a great head start on Sloppy Joes, Maid Rites, Spaghetti, Tacos, Home Made Pizza, shepherds pie, or almost any other recipe that starts out with "B. gound beef"

Hmm. The only thing I have ever frozen cooked and just about ready to serve was pot roast meat. I cooked it, froze half of it, ate on the other half. When I thawed the meat, we threw it into a pan with salt and seasonings and made pot roast tacos, enchiladas, nachos, or taquitos.

If it were me, I'd freeze already chopped bell pepper, already chopped jalepeno, already chopped onion, and already cooked rice. That way you have less to do/cut/wash once baby arrives. You can just toss in a half cup of frozen onion and a tablespoon of frozen jalepeno and then whatever your meat/sauce is. Cutting jalepeno early is good too b/c then you don't run the risk of having that spicy residue on your fingers and then touching your baby. Rice is easy enough to just throw into the fridge the night before you want to serve it. You won't have to wash a pot or wait for it to cook if you just add it to your large dish or microwave it.

Hi. The soup here is great to freeze, as are the muffins and bread. Good Luck!! http://www.happyhealthymom.com/newsletters/Healthy-Family...

Check out onceamonthmom (dot com). I've decided almost everything can be frozen! I started freezing random things and am yet to come across something that didn't thaw well. Definitely anything you can throw in the oven or anything cooked in sauce. I always have a ton of spaghetti sauce in the freezer. I recently went through a chinese food phase from recipes on blogchef (dot com). Good job planning ahead!!

BBQ chicken! Put about 2lbs boneless chicken in your crock pot, add a bottle of BBQ sauce and a cup of Coke. Cook on low 6-8 hrs until chicken is falling apart. Shred the chicken and freeze it in small freezer bags in portions enough for a meal or two for your family. It makes great sandwiches. We also put it on baked potatoes. My picky 4 year old loves it.