I am in the countdown to baby #2, and the nesting has kicked in like whoa over the past few weeks. So far, I haven’t gone too crazy into baking or cooking mode, but I know that it’s just a matter of time. I have been cleaning, organizing, purging and generally driving my husband crazy trying to “get stuff done” before the baby comes and life ends as we know it. Ok, maybe not quite ending.
And so I reached out to my friends and family to get suggestions on great recipes to stock my freezer with over the coming weeks to have yummy meals at the ready for me and my family after baby arrives.
In addition to specific recipes, they had some great general suggestions, like freezing pre-marinated chicken, so you can bake up an easy, flavorful dinner at any given moment. Genius!
Another great suggestion? Freezing cookie dough. A local bakery I know scoops out individual cookies onto baking sheets and then freezes them until ready to bake. So when those cravings hit, you can pop one or two (or seven) cookies in the oven for a warm treat without baking up a whole batch of tempting treats.
Bake a large batch of challah, let it cool just slightly and then immediately wrap in foil and place in plastic bags in your freezer. When Friday night comes along, you will have delicious homemade challah at the ready. Here are some of my favorite recipes:
When my daughter was born, a dear friend made about 10 individual containers of mac and cheese for my freezer. They were a total godsend on frantic days when I was ravenous from breastfeeding and needed lunch in a pinch. Instead of making one large batch of mac and cheese, spread any of these recipes among several smaller containers, cool and pop in the freezer:
Green mac and cheese from Weelicious
Gluten free butternut squash mac and cheese
Pumpkin swiss chard mac and cheese
Soup freezes well and is an easy go-to dinner or lunch. When packed with veggies, beans or lentils it’s even healthy too.
Butternut squash tomato soup from Tales of an Overtime Cook
Pumpkin red lentil soup from MyRecipes.com
More freezable recipes to try
Spinach feta pie from Ronnie Fein
Black bean chili with butternut squash and swiss chard from Epicurious
Make-your-own frozen pizza from The Kitchn
Vegetarian stuffed shells from Two Peas and their Pod
Pumpkin corn ricotta enchiladas
Turkey chili from Ronnie Fein
