So what should I stock the freezer with?

[yellowflowers]

So everyone says stock the freezer pre baby with nice food for first few weeks. Any ideas what to get?

I thought I'd make some lasagne and some bolognaise sauce. Also maybe a shepherds pie. So lots of minced based things! I'll also get some sausages. And crumpets (yum) for snacks and some biscuits for visitors.

But other than that I am lacking inspiration. Any ideas?my dh is good cook and we have an open all hours supermarket near us so I just kind of thought he'd cook whilst on paternity leave. And simple plain stuff like omelettes and jacket potatoes we wouldn't do in advance anyway. And pasta with nice sauces we'd make on the day too.

Any suggestions gratefully received though - there must be more too it as all the magazines etc say stock the freezer as a pre birth task.

Bread and fruit and veg I thought I'd just send dh out for as needed.

I did bolognaise, lasagne, chilli, casserole, and also made a couple of cakes.

I recommend buying and freezing some bread - loaves or rolls or whatever, and some crumpets/fruit loaf etc so that you've always got something to snack on. Have some soup in the freezer too, and make sure you've always got some cheese/ham or whatever in so that you can grab something to eat when you get a moment.

You will be astonished at how much of your time will be consumed with the baby! We didn't really raid the freezer while DH was on paternity leave, but it came in very very handy once he was back at work.

Don't rely on being able to pop out to the shops. We are only a couple of hundred yards from a huge supermarket which is open 6am-10pm, but some days I wouldn't get there because that involved having a shower, getting dressed, getting the baby changed and fed and getting out of the house - which can be harder than it sounds!
Since then I have seen the light and do an online shop every week, much easier.

We froze pesto, curries, fresh pasta (like tortelloni), soup, chilli, tagine, and a few ready meals such as pies.

Basically you need things that are quick to cook, and easy to eat with one hand (assuming you're bfing)

Roping in visitors to bring you a meal that you just need to heat up is ideal too.

The less you have to prepare from scratch, the better. It's amazing how much time newborns take up!

Chilli (not too spicy if planning on breast feeding), curry (ditto), soups, stews? Some frozen veggies maybe. I didn't do that much to be honest and if your dh can do a bit of cooking you should be fine until you get into the swing of things!

Tins of beans, jars of pesto, filled pasta, stirfry sauce sachet thingys and noodles all good to have on standby I found...

I froze some pizzas/quiches/pie type things as well. Plus some tomato pasta sauce.

I'm hoping to freeze some lasagne, soup (prob Covent Garden I have to admit!), filled pasta and pasta sauces I've made with loads of veg & protein. I'll also make sure there's plenty of bread, tea cakes & milk in there, as well as ready frozen basics like fish fingers, sausages, chips, scampi, etc.

Then store cupboard stuff like dried pasta, rice, jars of sauces, etc.

I'm also going to stock up on things that I know it's easy to run out of without realising and then really needing - like loo roll and fabric detergent!

Just so that when we really should've gone/ordered shopping days ago, there's something to eat in the hosue and nothing we're desperate for.

Great ideas thank you. Will def make soup and get some fresh past. For freezer and stir in sauces too. And bread for freezer too - great idea.

Maybe some cheat things like fishfingers too.

Problem is we have small freezer.

All sorts of things, whatever is comfort food to you.

After you have the baby you might be a bit tired and if you bf will need a lot of high energy food. I always felt better after eating something homemade than a ready meal.

And for the dinners it is really for you and dh, for when he has gone back to work and you would like him to take over with the baby when he gets home in the evening.

And definitely agree with online shopping as mentioned above.

I also use milk and more from the milkman. Can order stuff like milk (!) bread, cheese, and other household stuff up to 9 pm the night before to be delivered the next morning. Slightly more expensive than the shops but its free delivery and great if you don't think you are going to get out of the house...

Cross posts with japhrimel! Nothing wrong with fishfingers of course.

Wish we had a milkman. Not one in our area.

Cheese and ham great ideas too.

If you buy Olive magazine, you get 2 vouchers in it for ten quid off a Sainsburys online order and fifteen quid off Ocado. So that's 25 quid of free food!

I have filled my freezer with
beef bolognaise sauce,
lamb shepherds pie filling (just add mash), roast pepper, lentil and tomato/oniony sauce (just add sausages/couscous/jacket potato)
veggie soup with chickpeas
carrot and leek soup
cheese scones
fruit scones
M&S lasagne which can be cooked from frozen
Meatballs and sausages (currently 4 quid for 2 packets from Waitrose)
Fishcakes and fishfingers
Cod fillets
Large blocks of cheese
Applesauce
Flapjacks

In the store cupboard: tins of fruit, beans, pulses, soup, pasta, pesto,noodles, tapenade, various sauces out of jars, tinned sardines, pilchards, tuna, crab, peanut butter (which makes a good satay sauce mixed with coconut oil cayenne pepper).

Will make a few more casseroles eg: beef and Guinness, bacon and lentil, chicken curry.

Then I think I will have run out of space.

I have been enjoying maternity leave nesting. Well, the cooking side of it; the cleaning less so. :)

In addition to the above (not all of them!) we also had fish pie (nice and nutritious!); soups, stocks; pie mix so all that had to be done was potato/pastry on top.

That was the plan, anyway. But worked up until due date and then had to sit and take it easy due to high blood pressure!

I ate a lots of Dorset Muslie in the first couple of months. Just add milk or yoghurt, tasty, nutritious & one handed!

I didn't have a huge freezer but as well as lasagnas I did some risottos - which froze really well too.

I found that I was a bit disorganised at switching on the oven so some baked dinner things like lasange just took too long to cook.

Try to freeze a few things that can be microwaved as well and make sure not to put them in metal containers (like I did the first time)!

Handy housewifely hint if you are tight on freezer space.

Sloppy sauces, soups and stews can be put into freezer bags, then placed in freezer overnight in a takeaway carton/tupperware box/foil container thing, until frozen into a handy brick shape, then labelled and stacked up. This creates more space in the freezer. :)

You need to leave a bit of air in the bag before you seal it up and freeze it as stuff expands when it freezes but not loads, or you get freezer burn on the food, which doesn't taste so good.

I sometimes defrost my frozen-slop-brick-in-a-bag by putting it in a pan of warm water. Good for veggie sauce/soup/stew things, not so good for chicken, pork etc as it risks food poisoning and so these are better defrosted in the microwave or in the fridge overnight.

I mean you don't need to keep the slop inside a container in the freezer; once it is frozen into a brick shape it can just sit in the freezer in its bag, stacked up.

good tip miffster.

we don't have a microwave.