First of all, if you don’t know why I’m doing this or where to start (hint: I didn’t either), I share about that more in my post Freezer Meal Plan (Round 1). There I chat about snacks, breakfasts & breads I am prepping for baby. This blog post will focus mainly on lunches & dinners that are easy to prep & throw together.
Here are the meals I am prepping
- Chicken marinades 4 ways (Italian chicken, salsa chicken, Ceasar chicken, bbq chicken) — I’ll prepare them in a marinade then freeze before the cooking stage
- Chicken Fajitas from Make Ahead Meal Mom
- Baked Spaghetti from North Carolina Charm
- Tuscan Chicken Pasta from Six Sisters Stuff
- Chili (I use my mother in laws recipe that I shared)
- Chicken Alfredo Bake from Make Ahead Meal Mom
- Baked Ziti (I use this suuuuper easy recipe from a friend in college that I share here)
- Beef & Broccoli (crockpot recipe)
- Beef & Bean Taco Soup from Six Sisters Stuff (instant pot recipe)
All the meals are linked above. Below I will share my checklists/shopping lists so you can start with those if you want to make similar/the same meals. I wanted things that would be filling. I know some are carb heavy, but we’re having baby in December so I really wanted warm meals that are super easy to cook. I am also relatively picky. My mom and grandma also live close by, so I didn’t pick a few of our favorite meals because I knew they would bring them over around baby time (pot roast, taco bowls, chicken noodle soup, chicken and wild rice soup).
I knew I would need to purchase freezer storage containers, so here is what I got. Also note that I am only cooking for TWO adults so most of the meals, I am taking from a 9×13 and splitting into two smaller containers so we can have it fresh twice.
Tin Foil Containers (4 – 8″ or 9″ rounds & 4 loaf pans):
- 2 – 8” square/round pans (baked spaghetti)
- 2 – 9×9 foil tins (tuscan chicken pasta)
- 2 – smaller dishes/loaf pans (chicken Alfredo bake)
- 2 – loaf pans (baked ziti)
Large Ziplocks (14):
- 5 for Chicken 4 ways
- 2 for Beef & broccoli
- 1 for chicken fajitas
- 2 for Beef & Bean Taco Soup
- 4 for Chili
I edited the meals a tiny bit, but here was my grocery list (hint: I did a lot of it as a Walmart grocery order so I wouldn’t miss things)
Dinners:
- Chili Beans (5 cans)
- Petite tomatoes
- 2-3 cans for chili
- 28 ounces diced tomatoes
- 16 oz flank steak sliced thin
- Ground Beef
- 1 pound chili
- 1 pound baked ziti
- 1 pound for beef & bean taco soup
- Chicken
- 8 breasts
- 1 pound sliced into thin strips (fajitas)
- 1 cup cooked & cubed
- 2-3 breasts cooked & diced
- Italian dressing
- Ceasar dressing
- Salsa
- BBQ sauce
- Pasta
- Spaghetti/angel hair (1 16 oz box)
- Bow tie pasta (1 box)
- 16 oz penne pasta (x2)
- Spaghetti sauce
- 1 26 oz jar
- 1 large jar
- Eggs (3)
- cream cheese
- 8 ounces
- 2 ounces
- 8 ounces sun dried tomatoes
- grated parmesan cheese
- 1/3 cup
- 8 ounces
- 2 cups
- ricotta cheese
- 2 cups
- 2 cups
- shredded mozzarella
- 4 cups
- 1.5 cups
- 2 cups
- Green bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 2 broccoli crowns (4-5 cups)
- Soy sauce
- 1 cup beef stock
- 4 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 ounce taco seasoning
- 15 ounces canned corn (1 can)
- 15 oz black beans (1 can)
- 8 ounces tomato sauce (1 can)
- 4 ounces canned diced green chilies (1 can)
If you have any other questions, let me know. I can tell you right now that the best tip from a novice is to plan ahead and know what you need. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of making something or all geared up, only to realize you ran out. Also, shop the sales. I live in Florida so we have Publix. I stoked up on shredded cheese & pasta noodles & sauce when it was BOGO to save some money. Buy your meat in bulk if you can. Write on all your ziplock bags ahead of time. I included meal name, thawing & cooking directions, and if there was anything I needed to add/have when making the meal (aka buns or Hawaiian rolls for BBQ chicken OR a salad to go under the Caesar chicken).
Lastly, these can be made even easier if you just double meals of whatever you are cooking for dinner now. Making baked ziti for dinner? Double the recipe and freeze one. Then all the dishes are already out & dirty and it doesn’t seem like you’re taking an entire day to cook food for later. You could get a pretty solid freezer stash just doing this your last few weeks of pregnancy.
Okay, I think that’s all I got for you.
XOXO,
Hil
hrmarciano 