A couple years ago, before this new little baby was a twinkle in my eye, I reached out to Erin Chase from 5 Dollar Dinners to ask her for her EASIEST tips for new moms trying to get dinner on the table.
She went one better. Rather than a few handy tips, she shared with us her strategy for avoiding cooking during the witching hour altogether.
At the time I reached out to her, she and I both had two little guys, age two and four. Soon after, she added a third baby boy to her family (congratulations!) along with all the challenges of feeding her family healthfully, cheaply, and with an infant (and toddler and preschooler) hanging off her at all times!
Luckily, she stocked her freezer before baby Tyler arrived and we can learn from her planning. She worked with (and highly recommends) Tricia from Once a Month Mom to plan, make, and stockpile all the foods she’d need for feeding her boys.
I don’t know how large her freezer is, but can I just say Wow?! In addition to baked goods, snacks, side dishes, breakfasts, homemade jams (!), she also cooked up 13 main dishes (some of them doubled up!) like Chicken Parmigiana, Taco Soup, and Zesty Slow Cooker BBQ.
We wish her an easy recovery and hope that her hard work means she can rest a little more this week.
Read her entire freezer stock up list.
Learn the way of the Once a Month Mom.
Another trick for filling the freezer, rookie mom style, is to freeze little cookie dough balls and then eat them one at a time as needed.
This is actually an excellent idea. When I was pregnant, my mother-in-law stayed with us for 2 weeks before the birth and she spent a lot of time cooking these kinds of food for when the baby arrived.
I didn’t see the genius of it yet while I was carrying the big belly, but when the little one arrived, this was one of the best “birth present” we got. It was so nice to have food waiting to only be reheated during those days when we were too tired to cook.
See? In-laws can be of some good use. Bless her
Erin and Tricia are awesome! I had a baby shower for the two of them at my house and I was very afraid to cook things that these two gourmets were going to eat. I *think* they approved…anyway…the once a month/freezer cooking is a great way to go! Makes it so easy to give a meal to someone else who is sick or just had a baby, too, when your freezer is full!
I’m about to “pop” another one out too, and with a full freezer I might add. I really does help! Thanks for telling your readers about my site. Good luck!
This is the best advice ever! WE did this with mostly Trader Joe’s food and it was a life saver. We also stalked up on homemade food by doubling a recipe and freezing half. Best thing you can do before you have a baby. Even more helpful than setting up a crib.
[...] Moms writes about filling your freezer before the baby arrives and mentions many of the OAMM resources as well as Erin of $5 [...]
What a great post! I had my mom to cook for me after the birth of my second, but this is a wonderful idea if mom is not around/able to cook. Easy prep is so important for feeding older children and nursing moms! Will check out these sites further.
This is truly good advice — I’d like to point out that not only were we too tired to cook, but also too tired to make decisions about what to eat. Although we did stock our freezer ourselves we also got frozen meals/ingredients as gifts from people. We looked for dishes that we liked that were freezer-friendly, and then made two at a time — one to eat and one to freeze. A colleague gave us breakfast burritos which was a godsend — we had totally forgotten about breakfast!
I’d just like to add the idea of making sure a bunch of those meals are crockpot ready because dinner time always seems to be the time when Baby needs to be nursed or changed or something. My crockpot saved my life when my first baby was born. I’m expecting baby #2 in early Feb and I’m already working on my freezer plan. I’m hoping to fit 3 months worth of meals in so from mid January through early April I don’t have to do alot of cooking. *crossed fingers*
I have a 2 and 3 year old but I also travel a lot for work so this is a great idea for me to leave easy meals for my husband and girls. Thanks so much!
This a great idea. Especially if you’re just starting a family of your own and no in-laws to be with you at least the couples can do the preparation before the baby comes out. Thanks I can do this also.