To order a whole load of food from cook for after the baby is here or should I just buy groceries as usual online?

[roundligament]

I used them a fair bit after my son but I thought a lot of their dinners were sort of below average (we cook a lot from scratch)
Some of the things I really liked
Eg nasi goreng

If I do order what can I eat

I didn't really get the whole "can't cook because I have a newborn baby" thing. Can't eat two-handed, sure, mine always woke up when he could smell food, still does, he's very keen on food. You'll be able to get more variety of things just doing a normal grocery shop; spend the extra money on some good steak, a wider range of fresh spices, nice berries etc. You can look up recipes all over the place without buying any books; BBC ones tend to be straightforward and I like the Jamie Oliver ones for meat.

Like any ready meals it would be very boring to eat too often. I like their chilli and veg lasagne. Coq au vin is also good.

But there are so many super simple things to cook I wouldn’t really stress. Salmon fillets with pesto baked for 15 minutes served with peas and a pouch of microwave rice- hard to beat and tastes fresh. So many variations on this sort of thing.

Make extra portions of your favourites in the weeks beforehand and freeze.

Or get Gousto or similar so you don’t have to think about dinner. I found them really good when dd was tiny and I hadn’t slept for days.

I’d just have some extra portions of stuff you cook already in the freezer.

I’ve got a 10 week old and I found stuff that just needed chucked in the oven and gave plenty for leftovers helpful, like roast chicken or a slow cooked pork shoulder.

After we had our first baby, my sis in law who lived 200 miles away sent us a week’s worth of Cook! Style freezer meals. It was the best present we ever got - not having to think about what we were eating. I say do it!

Long term, you can mix it up. A few nights a week of cook! Stuff is no bad thing if you can afford it. Mix with simple meals like pp suggest and we also used those supermarket stir fry meals where you buy a bag of ready chopped veg, a bag of noodles and a sauce. Supermarkets now have lots of variations on that easy theme. But i would happily use cook if I had my time again - wholesome, delicious and easy.

I found head space to think about what to put together more difficult than actual cooking just because I was so tired. It will get better, but do make your early days as simple as poss. Some people are super efficient. I wasn’t. Suit yourself, don’t worry what others think.

I’d always rather eat what we’ve made than convenience food- could you cook double and freeze for a while before the baby arrives? Then use the money you’ll save on not using Cook! on a few more take aways than usual!

@TeddyIsaHe
I love gusto but some of the meals involve a lot of prep and generate a ton of washing up.

We did! And did you know Cook give 10% off to new parents!

I just got normal shopping.

Harder cooking now with a toddler attached to my leg lol

@Shitholiday2018 we had the same present and agree it was hands down the best we received.

My DH isn't a great cook and baby was cluster feeding for a few weeks in the early days. These were a massive help to us. I also batch cooked and stocked up the freezer. We also are a lot of sandwiches in the early days.

New parents get 10% off at cook.

I think it's a good idea, it depends on your personal circs of course. If you are likely to be on your own looking after a newborn and a toddler, and trying to prep meals, that is tricky. Personally I lived off jacket potatoes and beans on toast in those early days.

Freezing your own stuff is cheaper but there is a lot more work involved as you are probably freezing in tupperwares which can't go straight in the oven. So then you are faffing about defrosting stuff before you can cook it. And possibly needing to cook rice, pasta etc to go with it. Microwavable packs of rice could be a handy idea.

I've just done online shops and been using the slow cooker to make bigger meals and freezing individual portions to reheat.

I tend to batch cook for the week when toddler is at nursery anyway, so just doing a few extra meals in the last few weeks before baby arrives.

I think it depends on what kind of baby you have

DC1 I needed food that could be shoved back in the oven to keep warm if needed as she basically screamed on and off between 5-8pm for the first 4 months of her life and it was virtually impossible for us to sit and eat together at the same time in the evening.

DC2 lived attached to me a sling for the first 3 months and was unputtable down. I needed non drippy/ non sloppy food to account for the fact there was a sleeping child between my plate and my mouth.

When I had dc3, my mum bought us a week’s worth of Cook dinners, with the explanation that we had everything we needed for the baby, but would never get the time to just sit and gaze at her back, especially with two high energy other dc running round. It was the best present anyone could have given us, and I do Cook vouchers for friends who have just had a baby now, taking a ‘chore’ away to just enjoy time with the baby is a nice idea I think. We were exceptionally lucky though, and my dh had also batch cooked and stocked the freezer, and my in laws dropped off lunch and took the boys out to the park so I could sleep/dh could spend time with the baby. I loved all the babygrows and teddies and other stuff we were given, but what really made a difference was the help with everyday chores that we didn’t have to worry about. It was blissful!

Such a mixed bag of answers
Our groceries are already at least £200 a week because we just don't eat out and take away here is really crap. There's nothing nice on offer honestly unless you drive 30
Mins to collect it each way

It's just for the first few weeks because I will be having another c section and I know this baby will need to go to SCBU for observation again for I guess a week unless I discharge them like my son.

The problem is that once I'm sort of mobile again my husband will need to get back to work we run our own business (not working from home) and my parents live in Switzerland so it's not that easy for me.

I think I'll do some cook, some normal fast groceries like steak, Hake etc
And some pre cooking but I'm struggling to manage my pain at the mo.
My friend has said she will batch cook with me. We love cooking in this house it's just it's quite messy isn't it to make food and freeze it and knowing us we will just use it once we made it because we will be tired in the week

Is there an alternative to cook? I've seen Potage but they don't deliver to Kent

Thanks so much

I’ve just had a nose at the website.
It’s £16 for lasagna!!
You could get a decent one from M&S or Waitrose for half that price...

It depends on the kind of baby you get but it’s useful to have some nice, don’t have to think about it, food on hand for the more challenging ones.

I like the shepherds pie from cook and they do ‘the’ most amazing steak, shallot and merlot pie. It’s a stupid price (£24 ) but it’s huge and is delicious cold too. I have tried to recreate it but not managed it yet.

I would definitely use Cook. I sent some to a friend when they had their first baby. They really appreciated having easy good quality meals. We often use Cook when friends come around for dinner and they all comment on how lovely the food is. Do anything which makes things easier for you.

Oh god Cook is amazing.
DS cried constantly when he was small so i couldn't leave him to cook anything/no room to have him in the kitchen with me. I didn't use it that much but wish i had, i missed so many meals constantly bfing.

Note- the meals are small so get sides etc. The pulled beef is actually a decent size with a good amount of beef and if you get the larger size is a good meal for 2.

Check which are microwaveable as not all of them are and it's useful when you have 10 mins to cook and eat your meal.

Also havent rtft but you can get a discount card for your first 6 months as a new parent, dont need any proof of id to get this.

Sign up to the mailing list and you will get loads of 10£ off vouchers

I came up with a list of my own 10 min easy meals and usually got from Tesco. E.g cooked chicken and veg you micro in the bag, ready meals also featured heavily in the first year

I would combine ready meals/takeout with batch cooking and simple stuff as I think those services are expensive, but YANBU at all if that's what you want to try.

What about getting Hello Fresh? Choose your menu, they deliver it all, you cook it. You won’t have to go out, shop but still have fresh meals. Portion sizes are large too.

I just bought loads of freezer food for the early weeks that could be bunged in the microwave or oven, and as things have got more settled gone back to making fresh stuff.

I would say no to Hello Fresh, prep will take you 30 mins, whereas baked chicken and potatoes has prep of two minutes.