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There were a few things I wish I did before my first baby arrived and making freezer meals was a huge one. I thought I was too tired to do any extra cooking at the time.
What a fool I was. I had no kids, and sure I worked 40 plus hours a week, but I had weekends off. I had all the time in the world and I wish I had utilized it.
You think you’re tired when you’re eight months pregnant, and you are. I won’t take that away from you. But mama you do not know tired until you’ve had a newborn.
They are the cutest but the neediest little creatures in the world. At the end of a long hard day of crying and nursing, changing diapers, and getting spit up on, cooking dinner is going to be the last thing you want to do.
I’m due to have my second child in two weeks and I learned my lesson the first time. A couple weeks ago my mom came over and helped me stock my freezer with dinners and breakfasts to last a month!
That means no cooking, no clean up, no dishes, and less trips to the grocery store for that first precious month. I’m telling you, if you do anything on my pregnancy to-do list let it be freezer meals and I promise you will thank me.
Below for you I have a few tips on how to make freezer meals and then 20 freezer meal ideas with links to recipes to inspire you.
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my disclosure here.
Freezer Meal Do’s And Don’ts
Do only freeze “freezer friendly” meals. Not all dinners taste good after they’ve been frozen and reheated. I got all my freezer meal recipes off of Pinterest and only made meals that had freezer directions. Or you could check out this great freezer meal book with over 100 recipes.
Do store your meals properly. All meals should be stored in quality freezer bags with the air sucked out. Or in disposable foil pans tightly covered in aluminum foil. You can also use your own baking dishes and cover with foil but then you’ll have dishes to do.
Breakfast sandwiches and burritos should be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, then tin foil, and then stored in a plastic freezer bag.
- plastic wrap
- aluminum foil
Don’t forget to label everything with a sharpie marker. Write what the meal is, what date it was made, and thawing and reheating instructions.
Do keep an inventory sheet and put it on the fridge. I have a sheet will all the meals listed and notes for some meals that need things to go with them. For example, when I make use the crock pot beef and broccoli freezer meal that night I will need to cook rice to go with it.
Don’t freeze any meals while they’re still hot. All meals should be put in your fridge to cool and then put in the freezer.
20 Freezer Meals To Make Before Baby Arrives
Below I’ll link to all of the freezer meals I made. I recommend you print out the recipes but if you can’t then make a freezer meal board on Pinterest and pin all the recipes to that board.If you plan on making a bunch of freezer meals in one day like I did with my mom then you’ll want to be organized.
Make Ahead Freezer Breakfast Meals
Freezer Eggs & Cheese Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches
Follow this recipe to make freezer egg & cheese breakfast bagels.
You can get creative and add whatever toppings you’d like. I added cooked bacon to mine or you could add cooked breakfast sausage too.
Make Ahead Freezer Breakfast Burritos
I followed the direction for this recipe mostly for the prep and to get the reheating directions.
I don’t like ham though so I made bacon egg and cheese, sausage egg and cheese, and spinach mushroom onion and cheese burritos.
Freezer English Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches
We made freezer english muffin breakfast sandwiches with sausage egg and cheese.
I chose whole grain english muffins to make them a little healthier.
Oh my goodness you are going to love this French toast bake. I’ve never had it before so I made two. That way I could freeze one for after the baby comes, but because we’ve never tried it we ate one.
It is to die for. I might make a few more if I find the energy. I plan on taking it out on a Sunday morning. A delicious breakfast and baby snuggles sound so good 😊
Freezer Breakfast Oatmeal Bake
This is a great breakfast for oatmeal lovers but also good if you’re planning to breastfeed since oatmeal helps boost your milk supply.
This recipe calls for strawberries and bananas but you can add whatever fruits you’d like.
Freezer Friendly Blueberry Danish Breakfast
I promise there are a bunch of healthier recipes in this roundup but a new mama needs to treat herself too.
This freezer friendly blueberry danish looks too delish not to make one, or two or maybe three. I don’t judge.
Make Ahead Freezer Dinners
Some of these dinners you reheat in the oven and some go in the crock pot. I found these awesome crockpot liners so I don’t have to wash the crockpot when I’m done.
If you’re anything like me then the crockpot sits on the counter for a few days before you finally wash it. With a baby around I can’t even imagine ever getting around to washing it. I am so thankful that crockpot liners are a thing.
For this one you’re suppose to cook to pot roast in the crockpot, let it cool and then freeze it. I made the mistake of putting all the ingredients in freezer bag raw.
I learned after that you’re suppose to blanch vegetables before freezing them. So I’m a little nervous that those two very expensive pot roasts might not turn out so good. I’ll see, but for your sake cook the pot roast first and then freeze it.
Cheesy Chicken Tortellini Pesto Freezer Bake
If you’ve been to my blog before you may have read about how I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes this pregnancy and how I’ve been on a strictlow carb gestational diabetes meal plan.
I’ve gone almost ten weeks without pasta ladies. So to say I’m excited about these pasta bakes would be a serious understatement. I hope you enjoy them as much as I know I’m going to!
Freezer Crockpot Beef And Broccoli
Our family loves beef and broccoli. I’ve never made it in the crockpot before but I can only imagine it’ll make the beef super tender.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, with this meal you might want to cook some rice to go with it the night you make it.
Prepare this chili and store it in a plastic freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then cook in your crockpot for a delicious flavorful slow cooked chili.
I’m planning on throwing together some easy jiffy cornbread the night I make the chili.
I cooked my pie first, let it cool, and put it in the fridge overnight and then the freezer the next day.
Then the directions say not to bake the pie first. I must of missed that so we’ll see how this one turns out too. It also says to not let it thaw but to bake it while it’s frozen.
Freezer Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake
If you’re a fan of chicken cordon Bleu then you’re going to love this casserole.
It’s super easy to make and freeze before baby comes. When you’re ready for it, thaw overnight in the fridge and then reheat in the oven for 45 minutes.
Mozzarella Stuffed Freezer Meatloaf
Freezer meatloafs are one of the more simple freezer dinner meals to put together. On the night you use it you might want to heat up a vegetable and some texas toast. Super easy.
This recipe calls for stuffing the loaf with cheese and I’m dying to cut into this dish.
Shepard’s pie makes a great freezer meal for a cozy fall night.
Since I’ll be having my baby in September I knew this recipe would be perfect to have sometime in the month after she’s born.
No bulk freezer meal list is complete without a delicious cheesy lasagna. I’m such a big fan we made two.
Throw some texas toast in the oven while your lasagna cools and put together a quick salad if you’re feeling up for it and you have a complete meal.
Freezer Chicken Cheddar Broccoli Rice Bake
Not much goes together better than chicken cheddar and broccoli. This delicious healthy bake is the perfect freezer meal to make before baby comes.
The best part is after you thaw it in the fridge overnight the next night it just needs to reheat in the oven for 30 minutes and dinners ready for your family.
This easy freezer mac & cheese is the ultimate comfort food and so simple to put together and freeze so it’s ready after baby arrives.
It stands on its own fine but you can serve it with a vegetable too if you want.
Freezer Taco Meat
Now all of these recipes are easy freezer meals to make before baby arrives but these next three are as easy as it gets.
All you do is prepare your taco meat as you normally would for tacos then let it cool. Once it’s reaches room temperature let it cool for a few hours in the refrigerator before putting it in the freezer.
Let it thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat the next night and you have taco meat ready to go for taco Tuesday.
Freezer Sloppy Joes
Same as your freezer taco meat. Just prepare your sloppy joe’s as normal, let cool and then freeze.
Make sure to put a note on your freezer meal inventory that you’ll need burger buns that night. Maybe serve with a salad and texas toast too.
Freezer Spaghetti Sauce
My daughter absolutely loves spaghetti so I cooked some ground beef and separated it into three bags and froze it.
I have three jars of pasta sauce in my cupboard. I decided not to freeze the sauce because I figured it would be less messy to add the sauce from the jar to the pan as oppose to getting it out of a plastic bag. But either or would work.
Anyway, the ground beef just needs to thaw overnight in the fridge and be heated with the pasta sauce. Then you’ll still need to cook the spaghetti that night.
Did you get enough freezer meal ideas to make before baby comes? Have you made anything that’s not on my list? Let me know in the comments below!
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