If you’ve followed my Instagram for any amount of time, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that I really love utilizing my freezer when it comes to feeding my family. I don’t prep much ahead these days, but I do try to use it as a way to reduce food waste or as an easy way to make the most of ingredients. Did you know you can freeze whole ginger and then when you need it, just grate it from frozen without needing to peel? Another favorite trick is to buy the bulk peeled garlic and then food process it all. We freeze it flat into 4-5 Ziploc bags and then when we need garlic for a recipe, we just break a piece off. It tastes SO much better than jarred garlic, but I really despise the fiddly paper of trying to peel garlic when I’m often trying to keep up with dinner. I think the freezer is a super underutilized tool and I love sharing ways I make it work for our family! One of my best friends from middle school is getting close to her due date with her second child and I asked if I could come spend a night and help her get her freezer ready for their new baby.
With my own first baby, I prepped a lot of soups and stews. He was born in September and it was still pretty peak COVID. We were pretty isolated living out of state and looking back, I don’t think we had a meal train. (Is this a very southern, bible belt thing? lol)
With my second baby, I really didn’t have as much time to prep food so I really just tried to tuck things away as we had extras and focused on batching a few proteins. Moving back to Arkansas has been emotionally complicated at times but man, have we been supported since being back. So many friends, both old and new, rallied around us after having a baby just 5 months after moving back and I don’t think we really cooked a dinner for the first 5 weeks. One day a friend dropped off frozen breakfast burritos and they were so magical. Another friend dropped off a bag of delicious snacks. Those have become my go to for families with new babies and I love the way they help fill in some gaps. Dinners are amazing AND after being up multiple times with a newborn and trying to breastfeed, I am always RAVENOUS come sunup. A prepped breakfast I just had to heat up was so wonderful and bonus points that I could easily eat it one handed.
One of the ways I show love is through food and it was really special to get to help a friend AND spend time with somebody who has known me since 6th grade. Here’s what we made!
BREAKFASTS:
High Protein Breakfast Burritos
These smelled so good, I now want to come home and make our own. We subbed refried beans for the refried black beans (accessibility), cheddar for the pepper jack, regular sausage for turkey sausage, and ended up making 13 burritos. I love how substantial these felt with the sausage and sweet potato and the spinach was an extra punch of nutrition.
English Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches
Such a staple and truly no recipe. There are a million different recipes online for how to cook the eggs - I added cottage cheese to the eggs which was a great move. Very creamy and extra protein.
MAINS
Bean and Cheese Burritos
A staple in our house! We didn’t have bell pepper and the filling still turned out great. I love that you can shift the flavor profile based on what kind of salsa you use. If you have trouble viewing the recipe, let me know and I’m happy to send you the “gift” recipe version.
Baked Chicken Meatballs
Another staple. These are endlessly versatile and my own kids love them plain just dipped in ketchup. Flash freeze them on a tray before moving them all over to a bag. We did a double batch!
SNACKS
Brown Butter Lactation Muffins
I love that these have both oats and flax meal in addition to the flour and the texture is perfect! I’ll be so honest, we did NOT brown the butter. They still turned out delicious. Another recipe my friend found that I plan to remake for my own family.
Bonus: Preslicing and freezing bulk bagels. My friends picked up packs of bagels from Costco and took the extra step of slicing them before sticking them in the freezer.
We got so much done in 24 hours and my hope is that it makes the first few weeks of the transition a little easier.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments!
Happy Monday and thanks for being here!
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I love these ideas! After my first baby, someone brought me a fruit tray and it was the best! These are such thoughtful things to make.