After labour meals please

[xJune88]

3 days until D day. Need to sort meals out for afterwards which can be frozen and just grabbed, heated and eaten or any other simple and convenient meal for me and hubby. Thankyou.

My first meal after labour was a burger king . There was one in the hospital! Anyway lasagne, cottage pie, fish pie are all good to freeze and reheat.

I’m due in August with our second. The first one around I had loads of stuff batch cooked in the freezer - bolognaise, chilli etc. We also ate a lot of stir fry!

This time I just don’t have capacity to do the same. I found this company called cook and it had good reviews. I ordered some of heir meals jwnither week to see what they were like and worth the cost on the basis that if they were I’d buy them in for due date. Really impressed with the quality so far - we have tried two dishes from their taster box for two. We’ve had the macaroni cheese and a chicken pie.

We will be ordering in August to see us through as they do a new parents offer and one for mums. Here’s the link if you’re interested. I don’t work for them!

www.cookfood.net/

Sorry for typos I really should proof read!!

Batch cook sauces like chilli, spaghetti Bol, curry etc and if you bulk cook pasta or rice just rinse it in cold water and pop it in the fridge when it's cooled (pour a little olive oil in the pasta and toss it and it don't stick)

Don't shy away from things that can go in the microwave - Aldi some nice micro/oven meals

I do a nice Mexican Chicken - red onions, courgette, sweet corn, chicken, canned tomatoes and then a spice mix of cayenne pepper, chili, orenego and cumin.

Delicious served with tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese etc

Otherwise, meat lasagna, vegetable lasagna, cottage pie, fish pie, meatballs, bolognese sauce etc all good options.

We also had quite a few take away and easy micro meals from M&S etc in the early days.

Try Cook. They do amazing ready meals and they give discounts for the first year after you have a baby

I did a huge batch cook.

Started off with 5 packs of beef mince which I browned.

Then added veg mush (celery, onion, carrots plus a handful or so of spinach) that I'd puréed in the blender.

Cooked that out then separated to make all the following in foil trays:

• cottage pie: added beef stock, a glass of red wine and rosemary, mashed potato topping with Parmesan crust

• lasagne: added tinned tomatoes, glass of white wine, oregano. Made béchamel sauce.

• Moussaka: traditionally made with lamb, but I added beef stock, cinnamon, cumin. Made use of béchamel from the lasagna. Layered with potatoes and aubergines.

• Chilli corn bake: added chilli powder, beef stock, kidney beans, tomatoes. Then made a cornbread topping (really easy just google some recipes, basically sweet corn, eggs, flour).

All easy to freeze and reheat. Nice to have some salad to serve along side.

A while ago now for me but from memory we didn't cook again properly for about 3 weeks after DS was born between what I'd cooked and the food friends/ family kindly brought over to us.

In addition to batch cooking/stocking up with easy cook stuff, make sure you have several thermos type cups - if you bf, can take ages so if you like a hot drink it keeps you going, but can also be a thin soup for a bit more sustenance. And even if you aren't, you get distracted and still have something warm to return to.

It's also good to have crunchy things to counterbalance the microwaved freezer stuff which has the same texture - stock up on apples, celery, nuts etc.

Those instant rice or pasta things are good too.

God dérigeur, will you be my mother?!

Food sounds amaze balls

It's worth bearing in mind that if you plan to breastfeed you may well need to be able to eat with one hand! I spent the first 8 weeks eating most of my meals with one hand and by the time they had gone cold so things like lasagne are quite tricky unless you have someone helpful around to chop it all up for you

Thankyou all! X

Don’t forget peanut butter on toast, I craved it and when my children were born the health visitor said it was advised not to eat it in case of sensitivities in your child. I had eaten it throughout my pregnancy so ate it. I think the advice has been revised.But it really hit the spot when breastfeeding and I saw on a science tv documentary that it’s actually a good nutritious combination. Heaven in my eyes.

meatballs in tomato sauce.
pasta bakes.
curries.
buy pittas and wraps so you can use one hand so they serve as serving aid!
get jacket potatos in.
cheese and tomato pinwheels
make and freeze some omlettes in muffin tins.
so there is less faff and having to cook things first. get chicken thighs in and pork fillets.so you can just chuck them i na dish with your veggies and a pour over sauce and you can just bung it in the oven.lovely.
lots of tray bakes.
salmon parcels.bung everything into a foil parcel and chuck in the oven.or parchement paper and put i nthe microwave.
make and freeze chicken pie and stew base.then buy those jus rol ready rolled pastry and top for pies.
just roll ready rolled pastry as a pizza type base then top with what you have or want.
mince base then you can do what you want with it or just have it on toast!
lasagne
fish pie
shephards pie
chop and bag some peppers,onions,garlic. freeze.
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