Postpartum Meals

HI L.,
I see you have gotten lots of ideas. If you want more, you can go to onceamonthmom. com
My friends and I have cooked her meals and really enjoy them.
However, DO NOT try to do on of the entire cooking days. It is a very long day - but the recipes all freeze well.
To find them, look at the 'menus' then you can look at different months to get ideas.
Good luck.
C.

Most hearty soups as long as there are no potatoes or pasta in them until you reheat them. You also could go with the old lasagna, enchiladas, broccoli/rice/chicken casserole, chicken tettrazini (sp?). Good luck!

Try the following:

2 lbs ground meat
1can each cream mushroom & chicken
1 small/medium block Velveeta (chunked)
1 small can Old El Paso chopped green chilies
2 can enchilada sauce (I use mild)
1 small diced onion
Flour Tortillas

brown ground meat with onion and green chilies
add remaining ingredients
simmer 'til creamy

Get 9X13 cake pan. Use slotted spoon to dip out filling and roll in tortilla. Place in the end of the pan. Keep filling and rolling 'til pan is full. Stir remaining filling and pour over rolled tortillas 'til pan is full. Place any remaining filling in bown for chip dip.

Bake in 350 degree oven 30-45 minutes. Use knife to cut rolls in half and scoop out with spatula. This recipe keeps GREAT and is just as good after freezing. We top servings with a handful of salad and catalina dressing or picante for a great meal. You can also put refried or ranch style beans with it.

:-) Enjoy

T.

Here is one of my "go-to" recipes for us when I'm rushed, want to put something in the freezer for later, or to take to someone else.

Chicken Spaghetti

Spaghetti - about 7 - 8 oz. dry
2 - 3 C cut-up, cooked chicken
1 can Cream of Chicken or Mushroom soup
½ - ¾ C milk
¾ lb. Velveeta, cut into small cubes
Nature's Seasons or salt & pepper – to taste

Cook spaghetti; drain. Combine all ingredients in 1½ - 2 qt. casserole or may be divided into smaller dishes. Bake at 350° about 30 min. till bubbly. (Vary amount of milk, cheese, & seasonings according to your taste. Freezes well. May need to add a little milk when reheating leftovers.)

Chopped broccoli or peas can also be added in with the other ingredients before baking for a complete meal in one dish.

Then just add a salad or vegetable and garlic bread to complete the meal.

I'd vote for a chicken pot pie

Try our Recipes Page: http://familyeguide.com/Recipes.html

The Chicken Pot Pie and Taco Soup are SUPER easy - As long as your husband can use a canopener, he can make them on the spot!

Good luck! And Congratulations!
www.familyeguide.com Free guide to local family activities.

If you don't want to go to the expense of Super Suppers, etc., you might be able to get some ideas from their menu.

Even though we had lots of help from friends in the first few weeks, we still stashed some meals in the freezer when I was about to have our second. It was so wonderful because when the parade of friends ends, you're still quite tired. It was nice to not have to start cooking just yet!

Quite a few things are freezeable. Lasagna, casseroles (as simple as rice, chicken, broccoli cuts, can of cream of anything soup, throw in whatever else you want -- onion, pimentos -- add half cup or so of chicken broth), meat loaf, meatballs, chicken fajita meat, taco meat. Also, you can buy frozen pasta, which takes just 3 minutes to boil.
Freezing spaghetti sauce (with meat) is also a great idea.

Be sure you freeze one or two portions at a time, rather than a whole vat of sauce, etc. That way you're not defrosting tons of pasta sauce for just the 2 of you.

You may also want to pick up some aluminum or otherwise disposable pans to freeze things in. Not only will you not have the energy to cook, you won't have it to wash dishes either :-).

my favorite was chicken spagetti made with Barilla plus pasta. It has 17 grams of protein and omega 3. Really good for nursing mamas.
pasta cooked
cooked cut up chicken (half of a rotisserre chicken cut up)
can ro-tel tomatoes
can cream of mushroom soup
1 lb block velveeta cheese 2%
mix and melt everything besides pasta (while it cooks)
toss together and put in large freezer bags

I would also contact the chef I listed below. She is wonderful and she specializes in post partum meal plans.

> Chef Jessica Griffith
> Blissful Personal Chef
> "Meals for Growing Families"
> ###-###-####

You can also cook up brisket in advance, because it is so fatty, it stays really moist when you reheat it. Just chop it up and you can even dump some in your crock pot to let it thaw. Enchilladas reheat really well, so does bean soup and sloppy joe meat.

You could also do a breakfast casserole and your DH could just cut some fruit or do something frozen (like waffles) for a brunch on the weekend.

I made a bunch of stuff up ahead of time when my daughter was born last year and put it in our deep freeze..it was life saver! I had so much made ahead of time I didn't "really" have to cook for over a month.

Many soups freeze well. I made up a chicken cheese corn chowder, chicken noodle and spinach sausage. I put them in ziplock bags. I placed the bags in 2 qt juice pitchers and when they were frozen solid, I removed the bags from the pitchers and stored them in the freezer.

Baked ziti and lasagna, both do well in the freezer. The recipes I have make large batches, so I split them and got two meals out of each one.(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Ziti-I/Detail.aspx) (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Worlds-Best-Lasagna/Detail.a.... I store these in disposable pans.

I bought a variety of frozen veggies at Sam's to have on hand as side dishes. I also bought some frozen blackened Salmon from Sam's as well. It is surprisingly good for a packaged food.

I had my husband grill up a variety of meats one afternoon. Then I vacuum sealed or put in a ziploc bag and froze them. They are definitely better fresh, but with this much chaos, who notices the difference really? These are easy to microwave or reheat on the stove top. I have noticed that pouring a little broth over the meat helps them reheat better, they don't get overly dried out.

Lumpia and eggrolls can also be made ahead of time and frozen. It helps to wrap them in wax paper before putting them in baggies. Fried rice, which can be served as a side or main dish, does well too.(if you want to add shrimp I would do that the day you reheat, otherwise the whole dish may taste "fishy"). Red beans and rice does well, but make sure to add a little water when you go to reheat it.

Meatballs for spaghetti and sandwiches can be frozen too. We make our own spaghetti sauce and I have that in our freezer as well.

I tried to freeze a spinach quiche, but it didn't do well in the freezer, it got a bit grainy.

Chili does great. This recipe is our favorite. It has a lot of ingredients I was wary of combining (i.e. cocoa powder, beer and coffee), but it turns out great. This is another recipe that makes more than one meal's worth, so it can easily be split into two or three meals. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chili-I-2/Detail.aspx

Stromboli freezes well too. I make these with a variety of fillings. I made a cheese steak version...filled the dough with philly cheese steak fixings. I also made a pizza version. Chicken and mushroom with broccoli was yummy too. I make these often using lunch meat that needs to get used up.

I also make up dinner rolls, garlic bread and bread bowls and froze them. You just want to bake them for about half the time, let them cool completely and then freeze. They store well in ziplock bags. When it comes time to heat them up, you can throw them in the oven frozen and cook for the remaining time.

Hope this helps!
Congrats on the new baby!

Hello!
Homemade lasagna, spaghetti sauce, chicken casseroles, stew, turkey chili. Those are all easy to make and great tasting after thawing out to cook. If you would like recipes let me know!

Things like lasagna and casseroles are always easy. You can also freeze meatballs, pesto, soups, etc. Those can be thawed and then just added to some pasta or rice. Frozen veggies are good as well-they don't take much time or effort to prepare. Also, hopefully you have some people at church or elsewhere who can help with meals-even if it's just a couple days/week for the first couple weeks after baby arrives is such a help. There's a terrific website called www.mealbaby.com that you can use to set up meals. People can even order good takeout food, or if you have family and friends that want to help but live too far away, they can send gift cards to restaurants and your husband can pick dinner up on his way home from work.

Wish you well on your upcoming bundle of joy. Children are such a treasure!

Blessings,
D.

I don't have any meal ideas for you, but I couldn't resist sending a note.
I got a giggle, because in your "A little about me:" section it sounds like you are married "to a crazy dog and two spoiled cats".
I know that's not what you meant, but it still gave me a giggle...thanks
Have a great day!

I made lasagna a full tray cut in pieces and froze. Also meatballs (mix ground beef with pkg chicken stove top stuffing) and freeze (makes good meatballs) I also froze homemade pizza and casseroles. Best of luck to u my dear! Mine little guy is 6 months old now.....its wonderful !

I know there are books about once a month cooking you could buy or find at the library that would give you ideas for meals that freeze well - plus they often have the ingredients portioned out for how many dinners of that meal you want to make. I have, Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer, and I know that Super Suppers has a book, too. You can even just google about OAMC recipes. Also, something I do that seems to help is to just cook up ground beef, some with onions and some without, as well as chicken breasts and freeze them in ziplock bags according to how much we would use for one meal (always using enough so we'll have leftovers). This makes it really easy to just throw something together because the meat is already ready (especialy when you are getting tired of casseroles).
Good luck and God bless. Be sure enjoy this last childless time with your hubby, too - You will never have it again. ;)
J.

Meatloaf, lasagna, enchilada casserole, chili... Two words of warning, though. I was STARVED in those first few weeks--bf'ing made me hungry ALL the time--so hearty is good. BUT, DD turned out to have food sensitivities: me eating anything spicy or with onions or garlic meant we were all up all night with a gassy, screaming baby. So we had to change course dramatically on what we planned to cook. I think the meatloaf was the only thing on the list above that I could safely eat, in the end. But hopefully your little one will be a bit more agreeable! GL!

Here is another recipe to add to your list that you've already gotten: Crock Pot Lasagna. I actually made some for after I gave birth and also for my SO when he had to be isolated for two weeks. It freezes really well and is easy to divide up.

Crock Pot Lasagna

-1 lb sausage
-1 lb hamburger (or use any type of ground meat that you want as long as you have 2 lbs)
-2 reg size jars spaghetti sauce
-1 box macaroni shells or any type shell pasta (about 16 oz dry)
-16 oz sour cream
-8 oz shredded mozzerella cheese
-8 oz provolone cheese (or whatever kind you wish)

Brown and drain meat. Add spaghetti
sauce to meat. Mix well. Cook and drain shells. Layer ingredients in large crock pot in this order: sauce, shells, cheese, sour cream--end with cheese. Heat on low for 3 hrs until all the cheese melts. Enjoy!!!

I have an 11 month old and a 2 year old. The thing that has saved me is using my crockpot! Infants are always fussiest in the evenings when you should be preparing dinner... so if you can prepare you dinner in the morning and let it cook all day, it is ready when you need it the most!
Good luck and congrats!
A.

I recommend Campbells soup recipes for casseroles or try Allrecipes.com it is a great website w/ reviews and freezing techniques.

When I had both of my kids my mother prepared and froze a bunch of pasta sauce, beef stroganof, tuna cassarole, and some lasangna. All easy things to thaw and warm up. I also suggest pot roast since it can be put in the crock pot in the morning and ready for dinner.

Something like Super Suppers, Dream Dinners, or Dinner Station would be great. I did that before my second was born.