Meal prepping for postpartum can be a game changer
I’m in the last weeks of my last trimester preparing to meet baby, and one thing I try to do is make sure I have at least some frozen food on hand to make postpartum life a bit easier. I wish I had done this with my first child! Too often, moms spend all of their time, energy, and resources on preparing the baby’s nursery, but very little time on imagining what they want their postpartum period to look like, and setting up supports to achieve that.
One of the most important things you can do to prepare for postpartum (in my opinion) is to have some frozen food and simple meals on hand so that you (and your family) can continue to eat nutritiously dense foods. Especially when you are recovering from childbirth, it is so important to eat nutritiously dense food! And too often, moms are too busy to feed themselves well, and their health suffers for it. Setting yourself up in this way can make a huge difference in your mood, energy, and stress levels as well as aid in physical postpartum recovery.
I find that most postpartum meal prep resources are geared towards the concept of spending an afternoon throwing uncooked, crock pot, “dump and go” meals into freezer bags, but doing this in bulk. Or just cooking in bulk at one time, and freezing it. I have tried this, and I think it can be great for some people, but it’s not for me. When I tried to prep a dozen meals at one time in bulk, I ended up exhausted, and it just required too much time and mental energy. Luckily, I have a system that allows me to freeze a good amount of food, but I get to do it in a way that is almost no additional work for me.
The easiest way to prep freezer meals with very little extra work
Here’s how I do it:
In my third trimester, when I meal plan my family’s meals for the week, I plan 1-2 meals or snack items that I can make a double or triple batch of, and then I freeze the extras. That’s it! So simple, and because I am already cooking and purchasing the ingredients, all I have to do is make and purchase more! If I do this consistently in my third trimester (I usually try to start around 32-34 weeks), I can often freeze around 8-10 meals and 4-8 snacks, which will often last my family around 3-4 weeks because the recipes I typically make can last for a few meals or be eaten with other sides to make them stretch.
For soups and stews, I am obsessed with freezing cubes. I used to store everything in either glass mason jars or freezer bags, but it’s harder to thaw the soups out this way. With freezing cubes, you just pour the soup, place in the freezer to freeze. Then once the soup is frozen, you just squeeze the cubes out and place them in a labeled and dated freezer ziplock bag. (Yes, I still use plastic freezer bags for bulk freezing foods, but if I’m not bulk freezing, I will often use stasher bags or mason jars). That way, you can just take as many portions as you need out and the cubes are small enough that you can place them right into a pot straight from the freezer without having to wait for the entire container to thaw out. Genius!
Here are some of my favorite meal prep freezer tools. I love these cubes and have a variety of them in different sizes depending on what I’m making. The smallest ones are also great for freezing things like pureed baby food, leftover tomato paste or sauce, and leftover coconut milk. I also like to freeze broth in these. It’s so much easier than waiting for an entire mason jar to thaw out!
For meatballs and muffins, it’s even simpler. I just place the extras in a freezer bag or stasher bag depending on whether I am bulk freezing or not.
How this method can be sustained for less work each week
Here’s the really cool part: I like to continue this system even after postpartum, and that way, I have to plan for and cook one less meal a week.
When I’m ready to get back in the kitchen, I meal plan like I normally do for my family, but I plan on using one freezer meal to replace a meal I’ll be cooking from scratch. Sometimes, this involves just making a quick side or two depending on the frozen meal I’m using, but that still saves me so much effort. Then, I plan a meal that I will be making from scratch, but can be double batched and the extras frozen.
This way, I am replacing the freezer meal I’m using. Each week, I have a meal in the freezer ready to go for that week, and I replace it with another meal I cook.
This reduces the amount of cooking I have to do every week, and saves me so much time! It’s my number mom hack because it literally takes almost no extra time.
My favorite recipes to meal prep in this way
Because I’m cooking the food first, and then freezing it, I like to do this with foods that are as easy as possible to freeze, like soups, curries, stews, broths, meatballs, meat patties or burgers, and salmon patties. I’ll also make double and triple batches of snacky or breakfast foods like muffins, egg cups/muffins, granola bars, snacking cookies etc.
Here are some of my favorite recipes to do this method with, but know that this method is super easy with literally any soup or chili:
GF Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
This is a recipe I’ve been making for years, and it’s one of our favorites!
- 3 overly ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons of any kind of oil
- 2 cups of almond flour + 1/4 cup of tapioca or arrowroot flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Dash of salt
- 1/4 cup of coconut sugar (you can add more if you prefer sweeter muffins, but the banana adds lots of sweetness already)
- However many chocolate chips your heart desires
Mix together well and pour into muffin tins. Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes.
GF Chocolate Brownie Banana Muffins
These are similar to the above, but super chocolatey! I use this recipe from Ambitious Kitchen, but I like to make them into muffins instead of a loaf. I’ve frozen the loaf too, but I find muffins more convenient.
One Pan Sausage and Veggies
This is one meal that I would make and freeze prior to cooking because it’s so easy to chop up and season some sausage and veggies to have on hand. This one is a staple in our home year round, and one of my favorite, fast dinners.
- 1 pound of sausage links
- 1 bell pepper
- 1-2 cups of brocolli
- 1 cup of mushrooms
- *use whatever veggies you have on hand
- 1/4 cup of avocado oil
- Whatever seasonings you desire. I usually use salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a dash of paprika
Chop up veggies and sausage, mix all ingredients together into a big bowl. Then place uncooked into a labeled freezer safe bag or container. When ready to cook, just spread everything onto a sheet pan and bake at 375 F for 20-30 minutes. Serve over rice and coconut aminos or with potatoes.
Salmon Patties
These easy salmon patties are easy to make and freeze well for a quick source of protein.
Easy baked meatballs
I love these meatballs because they are simple and baking them requires very little work. I like to make a triple batch and use a mixture of regular ground beef and ground organ meats (like liver and heart) for extra nutrients.
Have you tried this slower paced method of building your postpartum freezer stash? Let me know what you think and what recipes you like doing this most with. Make sure you also grab this free resource and this free resource to prepare for the sleep piece of postpartum- learn what to expect from your baby in the first year of life, and learn how you can optimize your own sleep while still being responsive to your baby.
Do you need safe bedsharing tips? Check out this blog post!
