Today begins our new series–“After Baby Comes: Postpartum Recovery Tips & Blessings for New Moms.” I’m blessed to have a full line-up of very talented guest posters, so I can recover and enjoy my new sweet baby! Today, Kayse is giving some great tips on how to bless new moms–or any friend–with freezer meals! Please pay her site a visit!
Guest Post by Kayse Pratt
Hello, Humbled Homemaker Readers!! I’m so excited to be here! Today I want to talk to you about my favorite way to bless a new mommy: Freezer Meals!
Let’s face it, those last few weeks before the baby comes, every pregnant woman is going a little insane. So anything we can do to make her life a little easier, well, it’s worth it!
Stocking her freezer with a few essential freezer meals is one great way to do that. When a brand new mommy (or an expert mommy with a brand new baby and a handful of other munchkins) comes home from the hospital, the last thing on her mind is cooking a hot, healthy meal. Here’s where you come in!
There are a couple of handy ways to do this:
- Double Up: In the week or two before her due date, and even into the first couple of weeks after she’s home, simply double the recipe for your own homemade meals. Before cooking, split the batch in half, and use a disposable pan (we don’t want her to worry about dishes, do we?) to freeze a full meal for your new mommy friend!
- Cooking Day: Make a day of it! Invite a buddy over and get cooking for the day. You can find tons of meals online that freeze well, and you won’t believe how much you can accomplish with one day of cooking! My friend and I did this just a couple of months ago, and we successfully made 112 lunches in 7 hours – all freezable!
I guarantee you, if you show up at the door with a few days’ worth of home-cooked goodness, you’ll be rewarded by a great big emotional hug! Just make sure you call before you stop by. 😉 And don’t forget the fresh goodies – salads, fruit, and veggies always make great snacks for the busy mom!
Now, I know you’re all busy, and perhaps you’re not quite as addicted to Pinterest as I am, so I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite freezer meals. These not only taste great, they also make for great comfort food during those late night feedings!
- Baked Oatmeal
- Stuffed Italian Chicken Meatloaf
- My Famous Chicken Chili
- Easy-Peasy Pasta Bake
- Cheddar and Cracker Chicken
- Cheesy Zucchini Enchiladas
- Chocolate Caramel Cake (Ok, so this one isn’t for freezing, but every new mommy needs her some chocolate! And you’d better make two of them – one for her and one for yourself!)
- Check out my post on our huge cooking day. There’s tons of great freezing recipe links in there too!
One more thing…Make sure that when you drop off the meals, you leave instructions on how to cook/reheat! There’s nothing worse than a freezer full of meals and no idea what to do with them! A simple sticky note on top of each dish, with reheating directions written out clearly, works perfectly fine!
Alright friends, have fun cooking! You’ll feel accomplished, generous, and you’ll seriously bless the socks off of the newest momma on the block.
Have you ever blessed a new mom–or any friend–with freezer meals? What are your best freezer meal recipes/tips?
Kayse is a wife to her musician hubby and mommy to her
crazysweet toddler-girl. She writes daily over at Kayse Pratt, where she talks about life like it is and tries to recognize the hope of Christ in the middle of dishes, diapers and devotions. Go visit her blog and show her some Humbled Homemaker love!
Come check out our other “After Baby Comes: Postpartum Recovery Tips & Blessings for New Moms” posts!
Kayse Pratt
Well, friends, I need to apologize! Between the time that I sent Erin this post, and today, I’ve changed my blog address. So those recipe links? They don’t work. 🙁 I’m sorry! Here are the new links below…
Baked Oatmeal: http://kaysepratt.com/2012/03/baked-oatmeal.html
Stuffed Italian Chicken Meatloaf: http://kaysepratt.com/2012/06/recipe-round-up-italian-chicken.html
My Famous Chicken Chili: http://kaysepratt.com/2012/05/my-famous-chicken-chili.html
Easy-Peasy Pasta Bake: http://kaysepratt.com/2012/02/tasty-thursday-pasta-bake.html
Cheddar and Cracker Chicken: http://kaysepratt.com/2011/12/tasty-thursdays-cheddar-and-cracker.html
Cheesy Zucchini Enchiladas: http://kaysepratt.com/2011/12/tasty-thursday-cheesy-zucchini.html
Chocolate Caramel Cake: http://kaysepratt.com/2012/02/tasty-thursday-chocolate-caramel-cake.html
Hope you enjoy those! They are some of my favorites. 🙂 Thanks for letting me share with you today!!
Jennifer
Such a great post!! Thanks Kayse! 🙂 My #1 bring-freezer meals-to-a-friend tip is to ask first if she has enough freezer space!! lol Seems silly but I’ve had some friends who politely decline freezer meals because they just don’t have enough room! So I always try to confirm first with them what is going to be most helpful! Whenever we have a new mommy, someone usually puts together a meal website for them where others can sign up to bring the family a meal. It’s fast, easy and super helpful for the new parents. My favorite websites to use are Mealtrain.com or Foodtidings.com
Kayse Pratt
GREAT ideas!!! Love those. I’ve used MealTrain.com too, and it’s awesome!!
Lottie
One of my best friends has recently passed away leaving a husband a 2 girls. He does not cook. I am going to get on this TODAY! Such a great idea for anyone in need!!
Kayse Pratt
Oh Lottie, my heart goes out to that family!! And you. Yes, I’m sure meals would be a blessing! They definitely were when we lost my mom. Praying for everyone involved.
Lisa @ A Little Slice of Life
Freezer cooking for new moms is a great idea. It lets them eat when they want to, not just when the food is dropped off. I also love the idea that they meals can be used when it is convenient for the family, even weeks later.
Gabrielle
I’ve been both the giver and the receiver of freezer meals. Here’s what really helps:
-Ask about dietary restrictions! My 1 year old has a peanut allergy, so this is huge!
-People don’t do this often enough for large families, but they often need it the most! When my friend was pregnant with her 5th baby, I started bulk cooking a couple of months before her due date so that I could be sure to have plenty of food for their family. Think about huge pots of chili and big pans of lasagna.
-Make something special. We have friends who love Cajun food and seafood, and we are Cajun. So when they were expecting, in addition to the usual lasagna & chili types of things, I also made them a huge pan of Crawfish Fettucini. It was their favorite thing, of course.
Tulip
I loved when people brought me meals. I also did it for many of my friends after labor. I like to use the site www.takethemameal.com to schedule them. Stopping by from Deep Roots. Hope to see you at True Aim!
Journey11
That was one thing I learned after my firstborn was the need to have plenty of easy meals stocked up for the busy weeks and months following the arrival of my second daughter. One of our favorite freezer meals was homemade pot pies. I used the leftovers from the Thanksgiving Turkey to make several pot pies and mixed up an extra large batch of pie crust dough. I lined the pie pans with foil, assembled the pot pies, then once they were solidly frozen I took them out of the pie pan and wrapped them in freezer paper. To cook, take the frozen pie out and put it back into the pie pan, cover the crust edges with foil and cook at the regular temp until the center of the pie reaches at least 165 F.
If you pressure can, you can also set back a lot of quick meals that way, doing prep work and cooking meat ahead of time so that you only have to combine the ingredients and heat them up. We made a lot of soups and chili too.
Thanks for sharing your recipes. I will add them to my arsenal! 🙂
Teresa
Chicken burrito recipe?