What did you batch cook before baby arrived?

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Baby due in the next few weeks and need to stock up the freezer. Looking forward inspiration...

I just did what we liked to eat, so Lasagne, cottage pie, butter chicken curry & fried rice, chilli. A good few portions of each so it did us a few meals per week. That way it didn’t matter so much if we had a few easy dinners or frozen food. I was really glad I did it as I was pretty bored waiting for baby to arrive. This was my 3rd baby, so had school runs etc to do and other kids to care for so really did need that bit of help in not worrying too much about dinner. I also got my teenage son cooking sometimes to help out. All grown up now, youngest 15 next month and others moved out & at Uni! Good luck & enjoy

I did bolognaise and cottage pies. Absolute life saver! My sister made us a meal and it was one of the best gifts!

Pies, bolognaise, chilli, curry, casserole.
If you are planning to breastfeed becareful how much spices you use it can effect baby!

Chili con carne
Bolognese sauce
Beef casserole
Chicken curry

I've got another 8 weeks to go, but am already planning my freezer! My typical 'cook 4 freeze 2' meals are...

Bolognese
Chilli
Morrocan curry
Yoghurt curry
Coconut curry
Spanish stew
Morrocan stew.

And then I'm also going to make some savoury muffins and scones as they freeze well. I recently found out that you can freeze pasta like macaroni cheese but I'm yet to put this to the test 😁

Shepherds pie

Recommend freezing individual portions as usually my DH and I ate at different times in the early days.

I bought loads of those takeaway style plastic microwaveable tubs the cheap ones form Asda and I made the below but also portioned up and added the veg, mash etc so they were full meals.

I made lasagne
Bolagnaise
Shepherds and cottage pies
Chilli
Thai green curry
Chicken tikka masala
Chicken madras
Chicken and red wine casserole
Lamb and red wine casserole
Scouse
Banana bread

TBH nothing 🤷‍♀️

We just carried on cooking as normal although only one of us would be cooking, the other one gazing adoringly at our baby!

Is it first baby or do you need toddler meals too?

I made double of anything that would freeze rather than specifically batch cooking for the baby. Basically anything saucy freezes well.
soups - great for lunch
ragu sauce
cottage/shepherd’s/fish pie
curries (I find freeze better if you add cream/yoghurt after defrosting)
braised red cabbage
stews and casseroles
tagine - great as you can do couscous with it in 5 mins 1 handed
pasta sauces - cheese, tomato, pesto, puttanesca, arrabiata, Jamie Oliver jools pregnant pasta was a winner for me

Nothing. We have Dts and one of us was still able to cook. Two adults one baby you'll be fine. We did quite a lot of simply cook boxes to remove thought process.

Oh and all the types of chilli - veg and non veg. All freeze well

I’d also recommend that if you are in a relationship you cook while partner is on parental leave then use the batch cooking for when they aren’t around.

For those saying one of you can cook, not every family has two parents, and even if they do they may not work ‘office hours’. Trying to hold a baby and cook post a difficult delivery or section can be really tough!

We didn't bother. Some friends kindly bought us Cook vouchers so we ate quite a few ready meals in the early weeks, but generally DH would cook whilst DS cluster fed, and we'd either eat at around 8/8.30 when he usually did a decent chunk of sleep, or we'd take it in turns to hold him whilst we ate.

I found batching lunches (soup, vegetable and bean burritos, cheese muffins etc) really useful too to just grab and microwave when DH wasn't around as he would cook when he got home from work but I struggled to feed myself during the day more than just grabbing something

I also made:

Lasagne
macaroni cheese
Beef casserole with dumplings
Sausage meatballs in marinara sauce
Thai green curry
Lentil Dahl
Chicken and leek pie (with mash topping)

But saying all that, baby turned out to be allergic to milk/soya so I couldn't eat the majority of things I batch cooked as DC reacted through my breast milk 🥲
So I really wish I didn't bother to be honest.

Lasagne
Fish pie
Bolognese
An aubergine/courgette/tomato/lightly thing that either did with poached egg and rice or as a pasta sauce
Spanish chicken
Sausage casserole
Chilli
Spicy chicken mince
Mac n cheese does freeze. So does paella but you need to cool any rice down asap and freeze quickly.
Now I'd also do something like Spanish omelette/soups like chicken & sweetcorn or french onion so I had some lunch things.
The cheap takeaway boxes are good but take up a lot of space in comparison to the zip lock bags. (Still do a lot of batch cooking with work/nursery pick up & eat times)

*lightly spiced

I've done a bolognese and will also do a beef casserole and a veg heavy pasta sauce that can have meat added to it easily. I have also frozen some ready made mash, sausages, Kievs and packs of frozen veg so can throw a few more meals together easily without resorting to take away menus completely.

@DonnatellaLyman I recently discovered the trick of adding gram flour to the yoghurt before adding to the curry. It doesn't split on re heating, total game changer!

Bolognese
Chilli
Cottage pie
Beef taco mince
Fajita chicken
Soups (so good for lunches! Especially with part baked rolls in the house)
Campfire stew (gammon and bean stew)
Chicken curry
Dal
Beef stew
Chicken casserole
Apple / Black Forest fruit crumble
A few loaf cakes (chocolate, banana, lemon) - these were awesome as we basically pulled one out every few days and always had something yummy to grab a slice of if peckish or give to visitors

I went on the feed your family for twenty quid website and did their dump bags. We had everything from spag bol, sausage casserole, Jamaican curries, alsorts! Only problem was remembering to take one out of the freezer the day before and put it in the slow cooker in the morning

www.recipetineats.com/chicken-burrito/
These burritos freeze really well!! And are delicious.

I made a
Mix of veggie or meat curries, chilli, veggie burgers, lasagnes, soups, protein balls, cake. Could also marinate salmon or chicken.

The meals were a lifesaver. We only cooked fresh food 4 evenings and used our freezer stash for the others.

Amazing! Thanks so much. Yes we have 2 little ones so trying to incorporate their tastes too but tbh they will just have to eat what they're given. These ideas are brilliant.

Oooh thank you!! So clever!

My babies really hated being still so I spent months on my feet walking around with them and cooking/housework were some of the easiest things to get done, I’ve never cooked or cleaned so much as when I had new babies. Right down to baking my own bread and making my own butter, basically anything I could do with my hands whilst moving around with the babies in the endless nights to keep them quiet and from waking up the whole house. I used to go out for 2-3 hour long walks in the dark and early hours of the morning if there were no chores to do just to stop myself from going bonkers! I’d skip the batch cooking and rest in pregnancy. Probably safer than walking around outside with a baby for hours at 3am too.