How I Prepped Freezer Meals for Baby #2 (including recipes!)

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I’m excited to share this post, now that I’ve decided I’m officially done with all the freezer meals I want to do! 🙂 If you count each individual meal, I have made 18 meals, plus some grab-and-go breakfast/snack items. Each meal should technically feed our family for more than one meal…so I’m pretty pleased with how this project turned out! 🙂

I prepared a lot of freezer meals back when I was expecting Sophie 2 years ago as well, so this is my second time prepping this way! However, back then I went the crockpot meals route…and we ended up rather tired of them. Sometimes crockpot meals feel like they all have the same texture.

My helper girl! 🙂 This was on a particular afternoon when she wasn’t napping…so we just worked on a couple freezer meals together. 🙂

So… I went a different direction with our freezer meals for baby #2! While I did do a couple slow cooker meals, I definitely leaned more towards meals that could be frozen in aluminum pans! I think we’ll really like that this time around.

First, I wanted to share some tips for freezer meal prep, now that I’ve done this twice, and with different approaches. And then I’ll be sharing the exact recipes I made, plus a whole list of other recipes I looked at but didn’t end up buying ingredients for! Hope this helps you!!

A few tips for freezer meal prepping before I share the recipes I chose:

  • I should mention that we do have a chest freezer. We got it while we were expecting Sophie and it has been an amazing appliance to have around! It’s not the really large-sized deep freeze, but it’s still really roomy! (And honestly, it wasn’t that expensive from Home Depot! It must’ve been about $150 or something. We keep it on our back porch which stays super cold in the winter time anyway.) So, that’s how I’ve been able to store all of these freezer meals as I’ve made them.
  • Make sure you’re stocked up on aluminum pans – both 9×13 and the smaller square pans. I’ve been liking the square pans a lot because I can take a recipe that makes a 9×13 pan, and split it into two pans. A square pan is still going to be a great size to feed our family when we need a nice meal.
  • Stock up on good aluminum foil, too. I like to buy off-brand kitchen products most of the time, but I’ve learned that buying good quality aluminum foil really matters. It’s more sturdy. You’ll find yourself less frustrated – plus it should help to keep out freezer burn. I always cover each pan with TWO layers of aluminum foil, too, just to keep everything more sturdy and fresh.
  • Make sure you have some freezer Ziploc bags as well. If you’re making all the recipes in today’s post, you’ll want a good number of snack-size bags (these ones don’t have to be “freezer”) and some gallon-size Ziploc freezer bags.
  • Buy label stickers! I know many people like to write cooking directions on the aluminum foil with a Sharpie, but I really prefer writing with a smaller pen on a white label. I had a lot of rectangular white label stickers on hand, so that’s what I used!
  • Print your recipes out. And jot notes down on them if you plan to double them, or if you will be turning the 9×13 pan into two square pans, etc. That’ll keep everything organized as you work, especially if you end up preparing more than one meal at a time. That leads me to…
  • Decide if you’re preparing more than one meal at a time! Multi-tasking can be great with freezer meal prep like this. For example, I had a couple recipes involving red potatoes, so I decided to just wash and cut up all of the potatoes I’d need in one evening! That night, I did at least a couple recipes. And recipes that require browning ground beef could be nice to accomplish all in one session. However, there is a flip side to this: if you’re pregnant/tired, you may just feel up to doing one meal a night. That’s what I did most of the time, actually. Instead of a giant day of meal prep, I used an hour or so on multiple evenings after Sophie went to bed. I kept my meal prep sessions smaller and it honestly worked out better for me this time around, even though it’s my natural inclination to want to do a huge meal prep day. So, decide what works best for you! My friend Courtney also mentioned that it works well to double recipes you’re already planning on making throughout the week, and freezing one meal’s worth each time! That’s a great way to chip away at freezer meal prep!
Sweet Sophie often likes to sit at my feet to play near me while I do the dishes. She’s an independent girl so much of the time, but she also likes to be near Mama. I love these moments so much!

The Freezer Meals I Prepped For Baby #2:

I will link all of the recipes I found on other sites; a couple of these are my own and I’ll just list the ingredients/steps here, too.

Sloppy Joes:

These are SO easy and so good! A great way to get some extra protein/iron after having a baby, too. I browned 2 lbs. ground beef in a skillet along with 1/2 to 1 diced onion. Then I just like to add equal parts ketchup and BBQ sauce (I love Sweet Baby Ray’s), and continue to simmer it for a bit. I start with about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of each condiment and add more of one or the other to taste if need be. Optional: You can also add finely diced celery to the pan when you add the onion. That can add a little extra texture/crunch. Then we just serve the meat mixture on wheat hamburger buns. If we have green onions on hand, those are always great to slice and serve inside the sloppy joes. Since I made 2 lbs. of this, I divided it in half and froze each half in a labeled gallon-size freezer bag…so that’ll be two meals for us! I also froze a whole package of hamburger buns.

Yummy Energy Balls:

I make these all the time. Super easy to make, and while I usually keep them in our fridge, they freeze well, too! An added bonus: they have a lot of the ingredients people tend to make smoothies etc. out of to help with breastfeeding – oats, peanut butter, flax… I don’t know any science behind that, but I noticed they have an overlap with the ingredients in lactation smoothies people like to make so I wanted to mention that. These are great to pull out when you’re on the go, or to place in the fridge the night before so you’ll have a yummy simple breakfast.

I TRIPLED this recipe to freeze. Might as well make a big batch of these while you have all of the ingredients out!

  • 1 c. old fashioned oats
  • 1 c. shredded sweetened coconut (sweetened has a softer texture)
  • 1/2 c. ground flaxseed
  • 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips
  • 1/2 c. almond or peanut butter
  • 1/3 c. honey
  • 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients. Roll into 1-inch balls (I like to use a tablespoon measure and pack it tightly!). Put 3-4 of these in a snack-size Ziploc bag. Then you can put all of the little snack-size bags into a big gallon-size freezer bag.

Taco Rice Casserole // Makes two 9×13 pans

Chicken, Broccoli, Potato, & Bacon Bake // Makes two square pans

Slow Cooker Beef Stew // Makes one crockpot meal

Baked Mac & Cheese // Makes two square pans

Easy Cheeseburger Casserole // Makes two square pans

Slow Cooker Texas Chili // Makes one crockpot meal

Easy Beef & Cheese Enchiladas // Makes one 9×13 pan

2-Ingredient Marinated Salmon // Makes one crockpot meal

The salmon recipe is the second recipe listed in their blog post.

Herb-Roasted Chicken & Veggies // Makes one 9×13 pan

This recipe is the first one listed in their blog post.

Creamy Chicken Pot Pie Noodles // Makes two square pans

Other Freezer Meals I Found:

In case you’re on a freezer meal kick like I was, I wanted to share the list of OTHER freezer meals I was considering but didn’t end up making. It’s not that they seemed less good; many of these are for the slow cooker, though, and I was trying not to do too many for the crockpot. I was just picking and choosing, and ended up making the meals in the above list instead. Hopefully this next list helps you out in your research a bit if you’re still looking! 🙂

Slow Cooker Chili Mac

4-Ingredient Black Bean Enchilada Casserole

This recipe is the second one listed in their blog post.

Meatloaf

This recipe is the third one listed in their blog post.

Herb-Crusted Pork Tenderloin

This recipe is the third one listed in their blog post.

Vegetarian Enchiladas

This recipe is the fifth one listed in their blog post.

Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Pork Sandwiches

This recipe is the second one listed in their blog post.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

This recipe is the third one listed in their blog post.

Pesto Ranch Crock Pot Chicken Thighs

Slow Cooker Sesame Beef

Baked Ziti

Slow Cooker Chili’s Steak Fajitas

I hope that this post was helpful to you, whether you’re expecting or just wanting to get some good freezer meal prep done! This is a great time of the year to stock the freezer – then you’re ready for hosting, for more cozy winter days indoors…you name it!

Do you like to make freezer meals? What are your favorite freezer recipes? I’d love to hear!