Preparing For The Newborn Days: How I Stocked My Freezer
In my pregnancy I got the urge to prepare quite early, so by week 33 I was ready to start stocking the freezer to help my future self out. I’m always a big fan of doing things when I feel like it, because who knows if or when this feeling will return. Cooking and preparing food for the newborn days was no different, so although my husband kept asking if I was already doing extra cooking and freezing, I just went with it. I ordered a large pack of local grass-fed beef from Boxgum grazing at the markets and stocked up with excess fresh veggies each week, and started doing double the cooking I needed to and freezing half each week. This seemed like a more manageable option for me than doing a big shop and cook up over a few days.
Here is what I ended up stocking the freezer with:
I used leek instead of onion and garlic (I was really loving leek at the time, still am actually), added fennel and zucchini, and used different legumes.
I made a few different batches, which was super helpful as my husband used them for his work lunches late in pregnancy when we hadn’t prepared anything else.
One batch I made I used chicken stock instead of coconut milk and added zucchini. The other batch was similar to the recipe, using coconut milk. I actually dished these up with rice in the container so the whole meal was ready for reheating and cooking. This was a great idea, and I highly recommend for an easy lunch meal for either parent.
Beef and veggie pasta sauce - I slow cooked beef with leek, celery, carrots, fennel, lots of tomatoes, stock, salt, pepper and paprika. Pasta will need to be cooked at the time of serving.
Chicken stock - I like to have this in the freezer for future cooking requirements.
Lasagne - I made a massive veggie packed lasagne, it had leek, celery, carrot, zucchini, lentils, tomatoes, roast pumpkin. I layered it with ricotta and I made a delicious white sauce using parmesan and a pack of frozen spinach. This ensured we had plenty of meals the week that I cooked it and also around 10 serves for the freezer. A super easy lunch or dinner that just needs to be reheated, you can also make a side salad to serve if you wish.
Tandoori beef and lentils - This turned out really well, and was so easy! I used tandoori paste from a jar, diced beef, leek, carrots, zucchini, French lentils and a tin of coconut milk and slow cooked for a few hours, then added a heap of baby peas at the end. I portioned these with cooked rice for an easy lunch solution for when my husband returned to work.
I am so happy that I put the effort in to cook extra food when I had it, because it was a good couple of months post baby that I was back in the kitchen cooking again. In hindsight, I would have benefitted from making more easy to eat snack foods - perhaps muesli biscuits or banana bread. Energy requirements for breastfeeding are quite high and I struggled to get enough calories in without lots of snacks. I also found it difficult to eat a meal (without spilling on my daughter) so snacks were helpful in that respect too. I hope this helps any parents to be looking for inspiration with cooking to stock their freezer and I’d love to know what meals or snacks you prepared before having a baby that you thought were great.
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