what are you freezing for when you get home from the hospital?

[Sillyness]

i want to be prepared for when we bring baby home after the birth, so am thinking of freezing meals.
what would you make that would freeze well?

[Northernlurker]

You want to freeze things that don't need a lot doing to go with them iyswim. So bolognase, curry (fairly mild), sweet and sour chicken, casserole you can eat with rice. Cottage pie. Only things you can eat one handed because that's how you will be eating!

[Sillyness]

thanks. can i freeze cottage pie with the potato on top?

[LDNlady]

Nowt cos my husband is the cook in the house!! :o

[AppleyEverAfter]

Cottage pie should be fine frozen sillyness. I am planning on doing lots of pasta bakes and just whacking some cheese on top when we're ready for them. Can put lots of veggies in the sauce. Weight Watchers do a good lamb pilaf recipe which should be good to freeze too. Think it's got apricots in it.

[iWILLdothis]

Lasagne
Stew
Soup (if autumn/winter baby)

[somersetmum]

LDNLady it's still a good idea because you are both going to be knackered too busy to cook

[TransatlanticCityGirl]

Eh... i'm like LDNLady. DH is the cook in the family. Maybe I'll suggest he freezes something if he's worried about it. ;)

[superchick]

Cakes!

[gapants]

chunky wholesome soups that can be a lunch or dinner.
Chiili- can be with a jacket pot, taco shells or rice as you fancy
Cooked chicken breasts that can defrosted chopped up and made into a salad.
Meat balls
basic tomato sauce for pasta- you can add tuna/meat/anchovies/meatballs as you like

Keep some nice dips/sides in your fridge to jazz up salads, sandwiches,wraps

Easy delicious idiot proof meals with little/no laborious cooking--
Pesto pasta with crumbled up feta and finely chopped salad onions on top
tapas- cold meats, olives, hummus, nice bread, crudites
tortilla wraps with defrosted cooked chicken,dips and bag of pre made salad

IME everything freezes. My mum froze cheddar! I freeze home made hummus.

[BrassicaBabe]

I'd add a fish pie to the already good suggestions.

[NatzCNL]

I made a huge batch of bubble and squeek which I put into single size portions and froze, doesn't take much to prepare and can fill it with veggies, I load mine with small chunks of lamb for iron. My lovely mum kept me stocked up when low. It only takes a few mins to defrost and fry in a pan. Delicious, filling and full of yummy goodness.

Also froze lots of bolognese, chillie con carne, fish pie, cottage pie and lots of frozen pizzas (guilty pleasure).

Am expecting number 3 and am getting very excited about a few weeks living off bubble and squeek - my all time favourite meal for any time of the day!

[Sillyness]

Excellent ideas guys, thanks!

[lolajane2009]

lol hubby is also cook in this house and hopefully he will keep me fed if i deal with everything baby related.

[colditz]

make cottage pie, and put soome horseradish in the mash

[Wigeon]

Just had DD2 two weeks ago and we stocked up the freezer with:

Chilli
Bolognese
Meatballs in tomato sauce
Fish pie
Pasta bake
Chicken in rice and peas
Stew

And remember not to cook things specially for the freezer - cook double amounts of meals, eat part of the meal fresh on the day you cook it and freeze the other part.

[LisMcA]

DS is 4 weeks old, I batch cooked:-

Lasange
Spag bol
Steak in ale (topped with frozen puff pastry when required)
Mince
Chicken in white sauce (see steak in ale)
Chicken stuffed with cheese wrapped in parma ham (freeze raw and thaw before cooking)
choc chip cookie dough, although used most of it before DS arrived 2 weeks late . Roll into a sausage and slice off when required
chocolate cake, see above!
potato rostis (cook then freeze and stick inthe oven when required)
Mash in one portion servings
potato gratian(sp?)
Soup (broth, tomato and lentil)

I also bought in grolshy things like chicken nuggets, oven chips, fresh tortelini pasta. Also those steam bags of veg are quick and easy.

All has come in handy, but I'm actually finding time to cook most nights. I'm very lucky that DS likes to sleep most of the afternoons.

[PipPipPip]

All good advice above!! My additional geeky tips are:

• put food into plastic tupperware in single serves. Once frozen, tip it out of tupperware and store in plastic bag with contents written on outside. Saves room in freezer AND single serves useful in case it is just you home OR you have guests.
  

• while pregnant, I did an online grocery shop and saved the trolley. When we had the baby, my partner just had to select a delivery time and 'checkout'.
  

• visitors all brought sweet treats (brownies, chocolate, cake - bless them!!) but good to have some quick savoury food on hand. Stock up on salted nuts, instant noodles, cous-cous, tinned soup, tinned tuna etc.

[OompaLumpa]

Um another dumb q from me. Do you have to allow it to totally defrost before heating up in microwave? Or oven? Have a.ways been nervous of freezing food after particularly nasty food poisoning experience. Does it only last a certain amount of time?
Sorry for being a dufus.

[Sillyness]

OmpaL - I actually dont know! I have a very good immune system and generally get away with breaking ome food hygiene rules, however wouldnt want to risk it with new baby!

[shmoz]

Vodka

[DomesticGoddess31]

OopmaLumpa...I'm no expert, but I think the main aim is to not leave food at room temp for too long and make sure its hot enough to kill any bacteria when you eat it, so you can cook from frozen, just make sure its piping hot all the way through before you tuck in. Equally, if you do decide to defrost first, do so preferably in the fridge over night, or if you're like me and have no patience/organisation for that and prefer to risk defrosting it on the side, make sure you put it in the fridge/cook it as soon as it is defrosted and don't leave it hanging around for hours. Again, when you cook it make sure its piping hot all the way through.

Also don't re-freeze anything once defrosted.

[Secondtimelucky]

Soups were no good for us because DD wouldn't be put down in the evenings for a good few weeks - so things you could eat which were less runny were good - the curry/pasta bake type suggestions. That way you could hold them off to one side.

[ZacharyQuack]

Don't freeze pumpkin soup.

After you've seen your newborn baby's nappies, you will not be desiring pumpkin soup.

(Chucks out 2 litres of freezer burnt soup)

[nunnie]

Chilli
bolognaise
soups

DH cooks here, but he found it easier to cook and freeze for the first week, but he did it all when I was in hospital last time because DS came early.

My MIL also bought a few tubs of food to put in the freezer and lovaly cakes and ice creams.

[Earwiggo]

M&s tins are also worth having in!

I think it is wise to run down batch cooked things about every 3 months, otherwise you risk the odd meal hanging around but I don't know what is the longest safe time to leave them.