Meals that travel well chilled but not frozen.

[TeddyIsaHe]

I’m batch cooking for my friend that has just had a newborn, she only lives round the corner so have offered to make their evening meals while they are in the midst of the first few weeks of figuring out their tiny human.

She’s a bit of a foodie, and I’m a keen cook with lots of free time at the minute, so anything goes really.

I’ve done the usual stews/chillis/soups etc, just can’t think of any other portable food that can be shoved in the oven.

Bakes work well for cooking in advance and reheating
Quiches, pies, lasagne

Shepherds pie
Fish pie
Moussaka
Lasagne
Roast chicken to be pulled apart and eaten with French bread, salad and new potatoes, can be eaten cold too
Fajitas

That is such a great thing to do for your friend. My daughter recently had a baby but lives too far away for me to help her in that way and she said the best present ever would be to have home made food that appeared on the doorstep!

Lamb hotpot

Such a lovely thing to do for a friend.
My typical oven fare is:
Oven baked risotto
Pasta bake
Parmigiana
Lasagne
Chicken and mushroom pie

You could also do the prep and let her cook in the oven,
For example:
Roast vegetables prepped on a tray with couscous to just heat up **
Spatchcock chicken seasoned and surrounded by veg (just turn on oven and wait) **
Salmon in little tinfoil parcels with lemon surrounded by little parboiled potatoes that roast while the salmon is cooking.

A friend did this for us when we had our first, she made:
Lasagna
Cottage Pie
Chicken Risotto
Tuna pasta bake
Not very exciting dishes if you are a foodie, but they were so appreciated! I think even though your friend is a foodie, she will just appreciate easy and quick to eat nutritious food rather than gourmet experimental dishes :)

Lovely thing to do for your friend! I've got no suggestions to add to the useful ideas everyone else has had, but thinking back to those early days, I'd have appreciated things I could eat with a fork or even with my fingers, as so often I was holding the baby while eating.

These are bloody great, thank you! Especially tray bakes and the oven baked risotto.

She’s so lovely and has been an absolute rock for me so it’s the very least I could do. Also - newborn squishes when I pop over

Are you delivering food at dinner time? Or in batches?

When SIL had her first, they were living close by so I did a lot of cooking for them and would just make whatever we were having with extras for them. Roast chicken went down extremely well, served with new potatoes and salad as being the most portable. On another occasion I think I did a big sunday dinner roast and we ate ours at our house and they ate theirs at their house! .

I think I also did a couple of large salads (filling ones with avocado, cheese, meat etc) that we then sent round to their house with a nice loaf of bread

I know that when I was in those first few weeks I quickly got tired of all the casseroles and stews.

Fajitas would work - make up the meat/chicken and veg mix, pop the toppings into tupperware containers nd provide a pack of wraps for them to microwave (although possibly tough to eat while holding a baby!)

I'm about to try making vietnamese crystal spring rolls and would definitely have sent a few of those round if I was doing this now. But I haven't made them yet myself because it does seem a bit faffy!

Mary's salmon
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/salmon_fillets_with_79924
Red pepper is not needed, it's just for decoration, prepare in advance for cooking later. New spuds and green beans alongside

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-squash-pesto-lasagne

This is always a favourite

Chicken breasts stuffed with nice cheese and Parma ham, rolled in breadcrumbs.