Easy meal suggestions I can cook with a newborn

[RaisinGirls]

I have a 10 day old dd (my first) and my DH is shortly to go back to work. I stocked the freezer with meals before she was born but not many meals left.

Any suggestions of easy and quick to cook meals, that need little attention / fiddling with I can start making once I'm home alone. Really trying to eat healthily so don't want to go down ready meals / takeaway route.

pasta bakes, cottage pie, fish pie . Freeze leftovers of pies and sauces to use another day.

Halved new or baby potatoes, sliced onions, red peppers (de-seeded and cut into eighths), a couple of chicken breasts cut into chunks and some chorizo cut into strips/small chunks. Put the lot into a metal roasting tray and sprinkle with a pinch of thyme. Cover with tin foil and put into the oven on about 180 degrees for an hour.

Take the foil off and cook for a bit longer (about twenty minutes/half an hour) until the potatoes go brown and crispy.

I use three peppers for 4 people but we like peppers. You can also chuck in some cherry tomatoes. There is some juice at the bottom of the pan that mops up very nicely with crusty bread.

Baked potato with tuna mayo and salad. Ready cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket with salad and baguette. Omelette. Fresh ready made soups like the new Covent garden soup company ones, with bread and cheese. See if anyone can batch cook for you, or hold the baby while you do it.

Congratulations OP

Pasta pesto with green veg and salmon. For green veg you can just add peas and/or broccoli to the pasta a few mins before the end or saute some little cubes of courgette if you have the inclination. Also lovely with asparagus. You can cook the salmon in the microwave (cover with clingfilm, pierce a few holes, only takes a couple of mins)

Couscous is super easy to prepare and ready in 5 mins or so. If you get a chance to do the prep while the baby naps, you could roast some veggies in the oven then mix them in with the couscous. I have a nice recipe where you roast butternut squash and red peppers together then mix with couscous, fresh spinach and chickpeas - serve with a quick dressing made with natural yoghurt, lemon juice and a little garlic. Couscous is also good with lamb (lamb steaks cook v quickly) or fish or chicken.

The secret is possibly to prep while the baby is asleep or cook big pots of things you can reheat? What about things like bolognese/curry/chilli?

Rose harissa is one of my go to ingredients for mid week dinners. I mix with low fat yoghurt to make a sauce then bake in the oven with chicken, prawns, fish and veg. It's the easiest thing I make.

One thing I wish I'd bought before my DS arrived is a slow cooker. Then you or DP/DH can prep things like soup, bolognase etc when you get a moment, keep in the fridge overnight if need be, then throw in the slow cooker for the day.

Other than that, I second pasta pesto type dishes. For the moment frozen, prepped veg is your friend for things like that.

We lived on pasta, toast and ready meals at that time.

It wasn't cooking the damn meals that were difficult for me with a newborn it was eating them before they went cold. I ended up living off salad.

Frittata with loads of veg - added bonus can be ate hot or cold the next day.
Quesadilas with anything you have left in the fridge with pasta sauce and cheese.
Pataks curry pastes are a god send for quick currys, just mix with tinned tomatoes after frying up some chicken and onions.
Oh and buy frozen veg and already chopped onions, Aldi do a nice frozen mediteranian veg mix. And micro rice.

Anything on toast. Tinned tomatoes are surprisingly good on toast. Pesto and cheese.

Tortilla wraps stuffed with grated cheese/ham to be put in the toaster.

Green eggs (frozen chopped spinach microwaved for 2 or 3 mins, put in a pan with some butter and add eggs once the spinach looks dry, scramble or not as you prefer. Add bacon. It is good to replace iron lost by bleeding.

I ate lots of cornflakes.

Porridge is an excellent breakfast/snack if you are breastfeeding.

Smoked salmon, dill, single cream, pasta. Warm the cream, cook the pasta, toss it all together. Eat a salad alongside if you must

I also make rootypig's dish and something's and capers or a touch of Tabasco. Can be made with creme fraiche as well

Bit of nice fish. Oven under foil at 200 for 20 mins. Some boiled or baked potatoes and veg on side. I just wash potatoes don't peel them, skin is nutritious.

You can get little foil takeaway pots from supermarkets and bargain shops which, whilst environmentally rubbish, are great for bulk cooking and freezing...

Slow cookers are great, you can throw stuff in at any time before lunch and have dinner ready. Babies and children are nearly always more fussy around dinner time so it's good to have it all done.

Pre chopped frozen onions or peppers are great so you can just shake them into the slow cooker and no faffing.

I love chicken thighs, onion, pepper, tinned toms, chopped chorizo, splash of wine, smoked paprika and saffron. I serve it with cous cous, or you could use microwave rice.

You could also batch cook chilli or bolognese sauce in the slow cooker then you have the basis for chilli/tacos/wraps etc or bolognese/lasagne/stuffed peppers.

We also have a rice cooker I use to make a risotto or paella.