^^I started off the other morning by baking up a couple of new recipes that looked really. Those mini chocolate glazed donut holes on the left were SO good. A and I finished them all up that day (there were only 12!). The blueberry muffins to the right had no fat added and were moist from nonfat greek yogurt plus the added chia seeds made them a little "healthier."
After that, it was a full two days of finishing up all the freezer meals I wanted to have stocked up before Baby Senso's arrival. At 37 weeks now, I knew I wanted to get the freezer completely full with meals to have on hand in the first hectic weeks of having a newborn.
The Plan:
I researched a bunch of different blogs plus Pinterest for easy freezer meal ideas and came up with a list of meals I knew I wanted to have ready to take out of the freezer and reheat. In the end, most of the meals I made were ones I already made before and didn't really need a recipe for. One interesting tip I read about was freezing uncooked and cooked marinated chicken breasts, which I never thought of. Some of the links I used:
Then it was time for grocery shopping. I made sure to go through all of the recipes, even the ones I knew by memory, to make sure I didn't forget anything. There were a few of the meals on the list I made in previous weeks from leftover meals, but a majority I made and prepped in two days total.
^^So much meat to deal with, my least favorite part.
Chopping and prepping took the most time for everything, but I chopped one ingredient at a time for multiple recipes to save on time.
^^Scooping out all of the meatballs with a cookie scoop to make sure they all came out the same size. Also, I baked them rather than frying them, which cuts out some fat and took less time.
^^Here's the sauce with meatballs simmering away.
Containers & Labeling:
I usually freeze soups, stews, sauces in small plastic storage containers that hold enough for one portion, but due to our small freezer, I decided to use mainly plastic storage bags which could lie flat instead. The ones I bought from a store called Lakeland here in the UK were great and feel much more solid than an ordinary Ziploc. I also used a bunch I had bought in Italy from IKEA, which hold up pretty well too. For the individual portions that are oven-friendly, I used small foil trays that I can just pop directly into the oven. Of course, I used my Sharpie to write on all everything, either either with a label or directly on the bag.
^^These are the raw chicken breasts in lemony, garlic marinade ready for the freezer. There are two chicken breasts per a bag so I can defrost in the refrigerator then cook.
^^The tomato sauces were all stacked on top of one another which saved so much space compared to if I stored them in glass jars or plastic containers.
^^Whoops, spelled shepherd's pie wrong. Here are some of the individual oven-ready foil tins. To the left are the blueberry muffins wrapped individually in plastic wrap, then sealed in an IKEA bag.
Portioning:
Most of the meals are portioned for two, but there are a few things like the butternut squash soup, lasagna, and mac & cheese which I also portioned out for one. I figure I will be eating something quick during the day for lunch and most of these meals will be for dinner, which will be for both A and myself. All the baked goods/bread are individually wrapped so I can just take one out at a time to snack on.
The List:
Here is the final list of everything in the freezer with links to recipes if I have them:
- White Chicken Chili
- Tomato Sauce (just cans of whole peeled tomatoes with sauteed garlic & onion, oregano, salt & pepper then blended with my immersion blender)
- Roasted Eggplant Sauce (tomato sauce from above as the base with added eggplant that has been roasted in the oven)
- Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna (ricotta, mozzarella, tomato sauce, lasagna noodles)
- Meatballs with Tomato Sauce
- Beef Stew
- Zha Jiang Mien (sauce and a bag of noodles frozen separately)
- Baked Macaroni & Cheese
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Shepherd's Pie (kind of made this one up with ground beef, carrots, celery, onion with a beef broth sauce thickened with flour topped with mashed potatoes)
- Marinated Chicken Breasts (lemon juice, garlic, herbs, olive oil, salt, pepper)
- Marinated Chicken Breasts (soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, shaoxing wine, lime juice)
- Cooked Chicken Breasts
- Turkey Burger Patties (seasoned with salt, pepper & herbes de provence, then shaped and ready to cook)
- Superfood Blueberry Muffins (I omitted the hemp hearts and used an extra tablespoon of chia seeds)
- Carrot Cake Bars
Store Bought:
- Whole Wheat & Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
- Whole Wheat Pitas
- Challah Bread
In addition, since I have had more time on my hands, I've been trying new recipes before Baby Senso's arrival. Here are a few I've recently tried that will definitely be on the menu again:
The freezer meals were the last major to-do on my list. My and the baby's hospital bags are now packed, Baby Senso's clothes are washed, the bedside crib is ready and the car seat is installed. We've done the hospital tour, and I've met with the Health Visitor who will do home visits after the baby is born. The nursery is still a work in progress since it also will double as a guest room the first few months of the baby's arrival for various visitors, but since she will be in our room during that time, I will take my time to make it perfect. Now, we're just waiting and cannot wait to meet little Baby Senso!