Good food shop for week 1 with a newborn

[fanjobiscuits]

Am creating an online shopping list for week one with our first, whenever they decide to arrive. So when we get back home, we can just click 'go'. What should I put on it? I am thinking healthy tasty and easy to eat. So far I have:

Dates
Cheese
Bread
Chocolate (!)
Milk
Fizzy water
Orange juice
Nice squash
Tinned fruit
Tinned tuna
Peanut butter
Nuts and raisins

What else?!?

You need quick and easy meals ok maybe not healthy but pizzas etc for the oven. Jacket potatoes for quick easy meal. Dont forget cereal for lunchtime breakfast. Trust me when you have a newborn you wont even have the time or energy to even click 'go'. Oh and congratulations.

Teabags/coffee
Fairy non-bio
banana's

Can you make a few dinners and freeze now.. like curries or chilli and then buy express rice...

I am no expert.

Soup tinned or cup of soups maybe a couple of noodley type things fast and surprisingly filling :). Beans for beans on toast or with a j.pot.
Salad boxes or pasta the pre made types ready to eat.
Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Here are a few ideas:
Hummus
Ham
Carrot sticks
Cucumber
Rice cakes
Fruit and nut muesli bars
Biscuits!
Part baked baguettes - just 10 mins in the oven for a quick, fresh bread!

I ate my own body weight in quiche this time round. With some salad-y bits - quick, healthy, tasty and good for the coming heat wave.

Cereal bars or other 'snacky' things you can just grab and eat one handed?

Bananas, chocolate biscuits and Sainsbury's Indian ready meals. I

Definitely don't worry too much about healthy for the first few weeks. Go for quick, easy food that can be eaten one handed!
Pasta or gnocchi with a ready made pasta sauce (or you could make sauce now and freeze).
As KFFOREVER said, pizza is good!
Stir fries - buy the pre prepared packs of veg and noodles.
Nice bread and easy sandwich fillings.

I will try and have a think of what we've been eating for the past few weeks (dc2 is 6 weeks old!).

What about getting a cheap slow cooker? Pre-prepared veg etc with pre-diced meat, chuck it all in and come back a few hours later

Have you got a Cook near you? They do individual meals or a weekly batch. That's where my shopping will be :)

Prune yoghurts and granola to get everything going nicely
Pate if you missed that
Cereal bars/bananas for when you are up feedig in the middle of the night and STARVING
Good luck

Another vote for cereal bar type things for a quick fix, particularly in the middle of the night. If you're hoping to BF, some fruit juice to add to or supplement your water intake (prepare yourself for a thirst you never knew!). Berocca and rehydration salts may also be a good idea if it stays hot. And something you deprived yourself of during pregnancy that you really missed. I ate my bodyweight in blue cheese and really rare steak after DS was born. Good luck

Little cartons of juice with a straw. No worrying about leaving them lying around, easy to drink, no washing up.

Ready meals. We didn't stock up on these and ended up having take away for about ten nights out of the first two weeks

You need to book in advance if you want the food to come soon after baby and you return home. Maybe click 'go' before you leave for the hospital or just book the food to come a few days before your due date.

Cereal bars
easy savoury meals, eg quiche, jacket potatoes, salad

List is good so far!

Filled pasta
Lasagne / ready meal pasta bake type things
Slow cooker meals - throw mince and a jar of chilli sauce in first thing, micro rice at tea time (not spicy though if breastfeeding!)
Sandwich filler type things - once DH went back to work he would make buttys for his lunch and also make me some so I didn't need to remember to eat!
Jacket potatoes, can be thrown in the oven and left for ages so no worries about burning them if you are mid fees when they are ready :)

Bananas and strawberries. A smoothie maker or cheapy hand blender if you don't have one. I lived on fruit smoothies and toast for a week.

Chocolate
Tea bags/coffee
Cereal
Ice cream!
Soup
Milk.

Practical stuff

Extra breast pads and industrial strength sanitary towels, you do not want to run out of either in the middle of the night accidentally. Trust me. Cotton wool does not work as an alternative.

Anything you can eat with a spoon... It's the safest thing when you have a small fragile head permanently attached to your chest, either feeding or asleep :-) I made lots of soups to freeze, but actually preferred things like stews and lasagne, again due to the ease-of-spilling issue. Also, things that are comforting to snack on and feel like a well deserved treat at 5am... I loved nut bars and yoghurt pots. I also ended up buying quite a few BPA-free water bottles, so that I could gulp water no matter where we ended up feeding.

Of course you may be as lucky as my big sis, and have a baby who sleeps calmly in his bassinet 18 hours a day and needs to be woken for feeds, in which case you won't need to worry at all!

Congratulations and good luck

Make everyone who comes to visit bring you a meal!

I ate huge bowls of yoghurt and muesli - healthy, filling and easy to eat one handed while breast feeding.

Fresh fruit for bf snacks - one handed food and keeps you regular. Dried apricots and dates good for snacking too.

Extra nappies and washing stuff - you'll get through more than you could believe possible in the first couple of weeks.

Pitta bread, houmous, ham, salad bits, dips - all good quick nutritious lunch foods.

Cereal bars & bread for toast. Hard to eat cereal one-handed

If you want to go healthier, choose those Nakd bars. Oh, & it's entirely possible (with a large enough mug) to drink a tin on fruit salad

Congratulations too!

My top tip is fresh chocolate milk. It's packed with protein and calories and gives a massive energy boost fast. DH runs marathons - it is his recovery drink of choice and he made me drink gallons.

Second the one handed thing.

I lost a lot of blood and was anaemic. DM arrived with her slow cooker and pounds of diced beef from her favourite farm shop

YY to chocolate. Bars of plain simple Cadbury's for midnight feasts

Moist Andrex/loo roll is great if you have stiches / helps you feel fresher.

Good luck!

Yogurt, granola, tinned fruit, baked beans, crackers/biscuits for cheese and a drum of vanish for any poo explosions...

This is brilliant, thanks all! (and making me hungry!)