5 Freezer Meals for Postpartum

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When the baby’s due date is quickly approaching, the nesting instinct comes around in full force. In September, I found myself cleaning all the nooks and crannies of our house. In October, I started packing our deep freeze with freezer meals. Now it is baby month and I am so happy that I have made the time to prepare a few freezer meals ahead of time so that I can soak in those first few weeks with our newborn. (I started writing this post in November and am just now finishing it up)

Keep It Simple

You are already tired and a long day in the kitchen will take it out of you for sure. My 5 postpartum freezer meals are simple and easy to put together. The idea is to put all the ingredients together ahead of time. There is actually not a ton of pre-cooking with two of these freezer meal ideas which makes it easier on you as a third-trimester mama.

5 Postpartum Freezer Meals

Breakfast Burritos

In the mornings, you are going to be hungry! And so is your baby. Breakfast burritos are easy to make ahead of time, store in the freezer, and pop in the oven on a newborn morning.

They are also very customizable. You can adjust the ingredients based on your diet and preference.

Ingredients

• Scambled eggs seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley
• Crispy potatos
• Breakfast sausage or breakfast ground beef
• Sauteed onions and peppers
• Grated cheese
• Tortillas

Prep Directions:

Eggs-make sure to add a dash of milk when you scramble the eggs. The added moisture helps when you heat up your burrito on a newborn morning. Oil your pan and cook them over medium to medium-low heat. Don’t overcook them. Set aside and allow to cool completely.

Crispy Potatoes-Preheat a castiron pan over medium heat. Add coconut oil to the pan and allow it to warm up too. Cube your potatoes to the desired size and cook them in coconut oil. Try to flip/stir them as little as possible to achieve a nice golden brown outside and a thoroughly cooked inside.

Breakfast Meat-If you have breakfast sausage, it goes great in these burritos. At our house, we have a lot of ground beef because we raise our own cattle. So I cook up 1-2lbs of ground beef in a cast iron skillet seasoned with 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 tsp sage, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 2 tsp basil, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp marjoram, 1/8 tsp of red pepper flakes.

Add all the ingredients together on a flour or gluten free tortilla. Wrap the tortilla in foil and store it in the freezer. If you don’t want your tortilla touching the foil wrap it in parchment paper first and then foil.

Heating Instructions:

Allow the burrito to thaw in the fridge overnight. Leave it wrapped in the foil and heat it in a toaster oven or oven for 10-15 minutes around 300 to 350 degrees. Then remove the burrito from the foil and microwave it for 30-45 seconds to finish heating the burrito.

Sesame Honey Chicken

Ingredients:

• chicken breasts cut up into bit size pieces
• 1/3 cup of cornstarch
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds (optional- I rarely have these on hand)
• 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

Prep Directions:

1. Slice the chicken breasts into bite sized pieces.
2. Toss the chicken with the cornstarch in a gallon sized freezer bag.
3. In a 1 cup measuring cup or small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients to make the sauce.
4. Pour the sauce in a sandwich sized bag and seal it. Place the bag in the gallon sized bag and store the meal in the freezer.

Cooking Directions:

1. Thaw the meat ahead of time or thaw it quickly by placing the bag in a bowl of warm water.
2. Heat 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. I prefer to cook mine in a castiron skillet.
3. Once the skillet is preheated, add the chicken. Stir occasionally until the chicken is cooked through and golden. (4ish minutes)
4. Add the sauce and cook stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes until the sauce is boiling and begins to thicken.

What to Serve it With:

I like to serve this with rice. It’s quick, simple, and easy especially if you have an Instant Pot. I like to make my rice with homemade bone broth to make it extra tasty and nutritious. I canned 3 huge batches of bone broth early in the fall in preparation for postpartum and to make room in our freezer for harvesting all of our meat.

Potato Soup

Potato soup is delicious and reheats great after being frozen!

Ingredients:

• 6-8 potatoes
• 1 onion
• 4 cups of bone broth
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil or butter
• 1 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of pepper
• 2 cups of milk
• 2/3 cup of heavy cream

Prep Directions:

1. In a dutch oven or soup both saute your onions with olive oil or butter over medium heat. 5ish minutes.
2. Add the minced garlic and cook until fregrant. (30-45 seconds)
3. Add the bone broth and stir to deglaze the pot.
4. Then add the diced potatoes to the pot. The smaller you dice them, the faster they cook.
5. Stir in the milk and heavy cream.
6. Bring the pot to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
7. Once the potatoes are tender, you can either mash them with a potato masher or add half of the soup to a blender to blend them smooth. Be sure to leave some whole pieces of diced potato in the soup.
8. Stir in the salt and pepper.
9. Allow the soup to cool completely before storing.

Store in mason jars, freezer containers, or gallon-sized zip lock bags.

Heating Directions:

Heat the soup on the stovetop. Add milk or bone broth if needed.

Add any additional toppings your family likes: bacon, cheese, sour cream, etc.

Turkey Enchiliadas

Enchiladas are one of my favorite meals. They’re super filling, nutritious, and freeze really well. Check out my from scratch enchilada recipe for all the prep directions!

Heating Directions:

Bake them straight from the freezer at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Make sure they are covered with foil for those 30 minutes. Then over the, and bake an additional 5-10 minutes.

Take Them a Meal

Don’t try to do it all on your own. Take Them a Meal is a great resource to help people help you. Essentially it’s a platform to allow friends and family to sign up to bring your family a meal. You select what days you’d like meals to be brought to you and then people can sign up for those specific days.

Even your friends and family from far away can sign up and send you freezer meals through Take Them A Meal.

Since it’s an online platform, you can share your sign-up link via text, email, or social media.

The best is that it’s free to use this platform!

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