Batch cooking at 39 weeks! Help me :)

[MummytoLeoX]

Morning ladies! Just about to do my asda food shop online as I can no longer leave the house as I'm in unbearable pain.
Any food ideas you can recommend that can be frozen or just whipped up quickly.
Or any little snacks you think I may need with a newborn.

Thank you xx

Batch cooking is a great idea, but if you're in unbearable pain can you manage it? In your situation I would probably get loads of ready meals to get you though the first couple of weeks. Make life easy for yourself! Honestly, it won't hurt for a little while. Now go rest!

If you're in pain I agree not to bother with batch cooking!

For snacks, especially if breastfeeding, I suggest mixed nuts (unsalted) with raisins and flapjacks which are full of healthy energy and easy to nibble one handed!

If you're sure you ok to cook, I'd go for spag bol (sauce only), shepherds pie, soups etc. Freeze them all in single portions and you can just put them in the oven or microwave when you need them. Also, the little frozen bread rolls are great to go with the soup. Good luck for the next couple of weeks xx

I would at this point just buy:

Ready made soups - the deli fresh ones can be frozen also

Ready made quiches

Bagels , cream cheese and smoked salmon

Stuffed pasta and ready made sauces

Bags of salad, tomatoes etc

Hallomi

Pre Cooked chicken

Eat natural bars and cashews and banana to snack on

it's walking I have a problem with cant walk very far until the pain kicks in. Will add some ready meals though maybe with a salad. Soup and bread! Good idea x

If you can cook

Ingredients for healthy cottage pie and bolgnese. The bases are similar, but I make cottage pie with gravy base and more carrots and add mushrooms etc, bolgnese tomatoe and red wine base!

You can prep everything sitting down first. I made around 8, 2 person cottage pies and 8 bolgnese portions which were good. Just prepped and cooke she two meat and veg sauces in large pots. Then in small dishes to cool and freeze. Left Dh the job of peeling potatoes and mashing to go ontop in the evening.

Baked potatoes with sour cream and chives, or tuna or beans are handy to have in as can cook quick in microwave and add toppings basically

As others have said - don't do it if you're going to be hurting standing at the cooker! But if you're happy to, then definitely I'd recommend:

Mince - you can make the base for both bolognese and chilli with pretty much the same ingredients - just split out some for bolognese while it's plain tomatoey-herby, and add in kidney beans/spices to the rest to make a basic (though completely un-authentic!) chilli.

Roast chicken - I have made soups with this in the past, so if you roast one to have for Sunday lunch, use the leftover bones for stock, and meat for soup. It's a bit fiddly to strip the meat away but once done it's a case of popping the bones in a big pan with onion/carrot/bit of white wine etc to create the stock. Feel free to PM me for the proper recipe if it's of interest!

Frozen pastry - puff pastry or whatever takes your fancy. Easy to then make pastry bakes if you have a bit of whatever you want to throw in - I top mine with cheese/ham/pesto/onion and it's really quick to shove in the oven for 15 mins or so.

Ready made pies, so all you have to do is add some veggies - frozen peas or whatever, especially in this cold weather!

The only thing I'd recommend not freezing is pasta! I have a spicy salmon pasta dish I make quite a bit, and tried to work out why my leftovers were a bit rubbery. It was because I was freezing the cooked pasta to reheat too - it just doesn't work!