What did you batch cook before baby arrived?

[popopop]

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

Nothing! DH took two weeks annual leave and cooked every night. And DD2 arrived at a Christmas, so MIL and FIL were staying with us and did the Xmas dinner etc. At the time we didn’t have a freezer, just a small compartment in the fridge, so batching wasn’t an option.

Personally found lunch harder than dinner once DP was back at work. Wished I'd prepped more single portions of things like soups to freeze that could just be zapped and drunk from a cup one handed.

Check BBC for freezable soup recipes.

Nothing you really don't need to, il never understand why people do this.

Not a damn thing because I have a DH quite capable of cooking meals.

Surely it's not that difficult to understand that some people prefer to do this 🙄 what about when your DH goes back to work?

With youngest, I made some bolognese sauce, specifically to have on day baby was born and just after (I had a home birth so all meals were us cooking from the start). We got some Cook meals that we planned to have with whatever fresh veg we happened to have. I think I got a Tesco lasagna and froze it.

But mostly I just planned meals that are easy to cook. Cheesy spaghetti with garlic bread (frozen). With my first birth, we did a lot of veg and chickpea curries from the jar with naan. Naan could be frozen, everything else just got dumped in a pot to cook, took dh like 5 minutes of prep.

Nothing you really don't need to, il never understand why people do this.

I had four weeks off work at the end of my pregnancy before DD arrived and I was bored out of my mind waiting for her to turn up. Batch cooking some food for the freezer passed some time, felt productive and meant that I had some healthy meals to eat very quickly. What's the problem with that?

OP things I found helpful were the types of meals that had lots of veg already included in them e.g five bean chilli, chickpea and spinach curry, cottage pie with sweet potato mash, soups etc so at most all I did was microwave them from frozen, add a bag of microwave rice or some bread and I had a complete meal that was also healthy. Then I didn't worry so much if some nights I just had something beige from the freezer for a quick dinner.

Things you can eat one handed are helpful so anything where you can use a spoon rather than a knife and fork!

You just get up and cook! Life goes on around a baby, Iv got 2!

Never said I had a problem just said I don't understand it.

Mostly stuff for our three year old!

but lots of chilli (spicy as hell and had zero effect on feeding, not sure why it would), shepherds pie, bolognese, soup, and fajita mix. Chose things that could be eaten one-handed while feeding – so no lasagne or anything that needed chopping.

My baby clusterfeeds in huge long bursts all day, I’m not standing over a hob with a baby latched on! And when he’s sleeping I’m glad to sleep too, relying on my batch-cooked freezer food, rather than staying awake and cooking. Plus I cooked for my three year old so I could spend more time on weekends giving her attention when the baby was sleeping, Vs fobbing her off to cook instead. Lots of reasons to do it.

Seconding this! Dinners were easy - we just live simply for the first few weeks. But lunches you can eat with one hand and heat up easily are a godsend.

Before the first, beef casserole, chicken casserole, ratatouille, spag bol, lasagne. He was early so not as much as I'd have liked. It was helpful.

When dd arrived 3.5 years later, we had a lot of chicken, coleslaw and new potatoes with bagged salad for weeks.

Nowadays I'd probably just fill the freezer with stuff like boeuf bougignon, other casseroles, lasagne, etc., straight from the supermarket.

I recall things like chilli, anything spicy or beany being very evident in nappies so avoided.

Bored of lunches is a great slow cooker recipe book. Minimal effort for yummy food.

We were so shattered that we couldn't be arsed to cook or have much appetite but knew we needed to eat. Having stuff in the freezer was great because we didn't have to think or cook when we really didn't want to. It's a pretty simple reason!