What We're Meal Prepping Before Baby Arrives
t-minus 3 days until our due date!
Hi friends! I hope this post finds you well! I’m here this morning to share a post that’s near and dear to my heart with you: What We’re Meal Prepping Before Baby Arrives. Officially, Husband and I started writing the list of meals we want to pre-make back in July when I was bedridden in hospital. However! Unofficially, I started compiling this list in my head basically a handful of days after finding out about Baby Bean’s existence. I’m sorry — but I just love an excuse to stock up the freezer, and seeing as we’re now less than 1-week out from BB’s due date(!!), I figured it’s high time I tell you about the food-storm we’ve been cooking up recently!
Listed below is all the meal prep we’ve done, divided into the following categories for ease: breakfast / lunch / dinner / and baked goods + sweets. There’s also a foodstuff we’re stocking up on section — divided further into shelf stable and frozen categories — which is a list of exactly what it says on the tin.
Enjoy, friends!
what we’re meal prepping before baby arrives
I love having the freezer stocked to the max with all of these lovely meals, and it feels so great knowing we’ve already put in all the effort to cook these up now so that the pressure will be off when the baby arrives!
breakfast
Joy the Baker’s Spicy Sausage Patties // I’m sorry, but you just can’t beat a sausage patty. Yes, the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin is the inspo here, but we also had some fabulous breakfast patties in Paris that live rent-free in my head. Seeing as a. McDonald’s everyday isn’t ideal for anybody, and b. we don’t live in Paris, this JtB recipe for homemade patties is a really stellar option.
*How to freeze/reheat/serve: fully cooked, cooled, and spaced out in a freezer bag. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Reheat gently in a pan with a little oil until warmed through. We plan to serve in a bun with a fried egg & slice of cheese for an elite breakfast burger situation.
**Full disclosure: this is still on the to-make list, but I feel confident we will have time to make it before Baby Bean arrives!**
lunch
Molly Yeh’s Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos // Molly’s recipes never let us down, and these sounded too delicious to not make. Loaded with a surprising amount of vegetables, these perfectly toe-the-line of seemingly healthy while also containing a gluttonous amount of cheese.
*How to freeze/reheat: fully cooked, rolled up, and individually wrapped in cling film before being placed into a freezer bag. No need to defrost. Remove cling film, cover with moist kitchen towel & reheat in microwave for 3-ish minutes, or until heated through. If feeling fancy, grill lightly in a pan with a little oil until crispy & browned.
**Lunch has never been my strong suit, but I’m on the lookout for some good soup recipes — do you know of any? We like the look of Pinch of Yum’s Spicy Peanut Soup, so that’s on the to-make list, along with Wood & Spoon’s Buttermilk Biscuits, which we love love love. I’d also like to shoutout to my mother, who we outsourced the task of making sausage rolls to — they make the best lunch and hers are the best we’ve ever tasted!**
dinner
Joanna Weinberg’s Shepherd’s Pie // we left out the chorizo and subbed the lamb mince for beef mince — but otherwise followed this exact recipe. Warming, comfortingly, and delightfully carb-y.
*How to freeze/reheat/serve: fully cooked, and frozen in individual foil portion containers. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Oven heat at 180°C for 20-minutes covered with tinfoil + 15 minutes uncovered, or until heated through. We plan to serve with a salad if we’ve made it out shopping, or a pile of frozen peas if we haven’t.
Smitten Kitchen’s Lasagna Bolognese // a little fecky to make, perhaps, but the best lasagna recipe we’ve come across. It probably has something to do with the extra long cooking time and the insane amount of red wine…
*How to freeze/reheat/serve: fully cooked, and frozen in individual foil portion containers. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Oven heat at 180°C for 20-minutes covered with tinfoil + 15 minutes uncovered, or until heated through. We plan to serve with a salad if we’ve made it out shopping, or a pile of frozen peas if we haven’t.
Marc Grossman’s Meatballs // the most tender meatball + sauce recipe ever! We’ve made this many, many times over the years for ourselves, our families, or for dinner parties etc., and it is always such a hit!
*How to freeze/reheat/serve: fully cooked, covered in the sauce, and frozen in individual foil portion containers. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Oven heat at 180°C for 20-minutes covered with tinfoil + 15 minutes uncovered, or until heated through. We plan to serve with either a. pasta, for a classic spaghetti & meatballs situation, or b. maize sub rolls and a side salad if we’ve made it to the shops.
Beef Chili // Husband has been perfecting his homemade chili recipe for years, so unfortunately I don’t have a recipe to link to for you. Like most of the good ones though, his uses tons of spices, black/pinto beans, and a very delicious rib mince.
*How to freeze/reheat/serve: fully cooked, and frozen in individual foil portion containers. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Oven heat at 180°C for 20-minutes covered with tinfoil + 15 minutes uncovered, or until heated through. We plan to serve with a. rice, b. roasted potatoes for a taco fry situation, or c. alone in a bowl, with tortilla chips if we’ve made it out shopping, or frozen garlic bread if we haven’t.
Dishoom’s Chicken Ruby Curry // the most delicious buttered chicken recipe in existence. Extra creamy, buttery, and tender when cooked low-and-slow.
*How to freeze/reheat/serve: fully cooked, and frozen in individual foil portion containers. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Oven heat at 180°C for 20-minutes covered with tinfoil + 15 minutes uncovered, or until heated through. We plan to serve with rice, and, if we’ve made it out shopping, raita and kachumber salad.
Molly Yeh’s Smoky Bacon Mac & Cheese // I’m convinced this is the best mac & cheese recipe out there — once you’ve made the roux with bacon fat even one time, there’s no way you’re ever going back to regular ole butter. Trust me on this one.
*How to freeze/reheat/serve: cooked up to the final baking step, and frozen in individual foil portion containers. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Oven heat at 180°C for 20-minutes covered with tinfoil + 15 minutes uncovered, or until heated through. We plan to serve with a salad if we’ve made it out shopping, or a pile of frozen peas if we haven’t.
**Although I think we’ll be more than fine with what we’ve made so far, these are the final two dinner items on our to-make list if there’s time: Smitten Kitchen’s Taco Torte and Ina Garten’s Chicken Enchiladas.**
baked goods and sweets
Violet’s Cinnamon Buns // good as both a sugary breakfast item or an afternoon pick-me-up. Also, pleasingly autumnal for the season that’s in it!
*How to freeze/reheat: fully baked, and spaced out in a freezer bag. Leave to defrost at room temp before eating. We like to go a little step further & heat ours in the microwave for 30-seconds or so to make the insides all gooey, but you do you.
Ravneet Gill’s Chocolate Chip Cookies // we’ve essentially had a stash of these in the freezer ever since we first tried them in 2020, but I topped it up recently. Such a good last minute bake to pull out of your back pocket when you’re in need of a pick-me-up.
*How to freeze/bake: unbaked, in portioned out dough balls on a parchment lined tray; then transferred into a freezer bag. Oven bake from frozen, 13-ish minutes at 180°C.
**Also on the to-make list if there’s time: Alison Roman’s Blueberry Muffins / Husband’s Buttermilk Scones.**
foodstuff we’re stocking up on
You know, things that a. will accompany the meals we’ve prepared from the above list, or b. can be made into simple meals without too much hassle — be it chicken Kiev with fagioli for dinner, or a blueberry smoothie for breakfast.
shelf stable
all the carbs: pasta / rice / noodles
a variety of beans: black / pinto / cannellini / butter
tins of soup
canned tomatoes / passata / puree
frozen
frozen vegetable of some sort: likely, peas
frozen berries: blueberries for Husband / raspberries for me
frozen ready-to-cook foods: gyoza / chicken goujons / chicken Kiev / pizza bases
frozen potatoes of some sort: likely, waffle fries, tater tots, or realistically, whichever is the least unhealthy so Husband will give in and let us buy some
different breads: petit pain rolls, maize sub rolls, flatbreads, sliced pan, garlic bread
toaster pancakes — a dirty secret fave of mine
And there we have it, friends: What We’re Meal Prepping Before Baby Arrives! Phew, it’s a biggie — but if it helps even one person with their pre-baby meal prep then it was worth the effort! If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments, hit me up using the box below; I love hearing from you!
Hugs,
Vicki xo
