How I've Stocked My Freezer Before Baby

Spilling all the details on the recipes I've stocked my freezer with before baby arrives! Lots of easy and healthy freezer meal ideas!

Hi hi hi!

Popping by today, somewhat unplanned. The other day, I shared my freezer-stocking efforts on my Instagram stories, and there were some questions and e-mails, and general interest in the recipes I used.

So I thought it would be worth writing up a quick blog post to share with you the recipes I've used to stock it up.

1. Freezer Slow Cooker Meals

You can watch me prep five of these meals on Facebook Live, plus get your own printable shopping and prep lists to make the same recipes! I've expanded on the 5 recipes I shared with you that day and have added a few extras in (and plan on adding at least one more!)

• Slow Cooker Maple Pulled Pork
• Make Ahead Freezer Chicken Fajitas from New Leaf Wellness; slow cooker instructions in the comments (low 4-6 hours)
• Thai Slow Cooker Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
• Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Daal
• Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs
• Slow Cooker Ethiopian Chicken Stew
• Slow Cooker Smoky Turkey Chili
• Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Quinoa Stew
• Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chicken Curry

The first five recipes were batch prepped in 2 hours, and the rest I've added in when I had a minute or two to spare. The Ethiopian Chicken Stew and Sweet Potato Chicken Curry require pre-cooking but I am so in love with the extra flavor it gives that this doesn't bother me.

2. Freezer Chicken Marinades

The MOST popular post on my site is this 7 Freezer Chicken Marinade Recipes post...so popular that I decided to do another post with 7 More Freezer Friendly Chicken Breast Marinades. So this photo is showing the freezer stocked with my experiments. You can check out the final product on the links above!

3. Muffins!

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's being hungry, with no 'snacking' food available. That's just a recipe for disaster (translation: Denise + bag of chocolate chips). So I've stocked up the freezer with three batches of muffins:

• these Skinny Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins
• these Healthy Strawberry Apple Crumble Muffins (minus the strawberries!)
• and these Healthy Pumpkin Muffins from Cookie + Kate

4. Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches

Nursing works up a huge appetite, and I'm sure there will be days when my yogurt + fruit + granola won't cut it. I've stocked up with a double batch of these Healthy Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches, which are so filling.

Also check out these Mushroom Bacon Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches and stay tuned for a Herbed Cauliflower Freezer Breakfast Sandwich recipe coming your way this fall!

5. Lasagna

I'm rarely up for the effort involved in making lasagna, but I wanted to have some special dinners waiting for us. I used my go-to recipe on Allrecipes. It's not healthy, requires a bit of effort, but is SO tasty! FYI I reduce the salt in this recipe by ⅓.

I ended up (almost) doubling the recipe, assembling in 9x9 inch metal baking pans, and freezing un-baked. I hope to be able to pop them into the oven completely frozen on days when are craving comfort food. I'm guessing 375°F for 45 min covered and 15 min uncovered, but I'll keep you posted 😉

5. Pasta Bake

Testing a Tuscan Chicken Pasta Bake for a post in December. It's super tasty baked fresh but I'm hoping it can be the type you can pop right in the oven from frozen. Will keep you posted 😉 UPDATE: it can be baked from frozen too!

The drawer is a mix up of a whole bunch of different recipes!

6. Freezer Turkey Meatballs

I made the hoisin ginger and the Italian turkey meatballs from this Baked Turkey Meatballs 7 Ways. They are super fast to thaw, and easy to plan a meal around.

7. Lasagna Stuffed Portobellos

One of my most popular recipes from this year are these Lasagna Stuffed Portobellos...can't wait to pop these in the oven (completely frozen!) and enjoy them for lunch or dinner one day.

8. Healthy Pumpkin Bread

Love this recipe from my girl Natalie at Tastes Lovely...I made a double batch and froze one loaf. It's perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.

9. Pancakes

For a recipe that hasn't been perfected yet. I'll have to keep working on it, but leftover pancakes freeze great and make for a great breakfast or snack!

10. Soups GALORE

I love love love eating soup for lunch, and seeing as we're heading into fall/winter weather, it will be nice to have a soup supply on hand.

Here's what I made:

• Thai Curry Sweet Potato Lentil Soup
• Roasted Cauliflower Soup (hoping this won't give baby gas!)
• Slow Cooker Chickpea Tortilla Soup
• Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Quinoa Stew
• Minestrone (I haven't actually written this recipe down or posted it on the blog, do you want it?)
• Greek Lentil Soup

11. Energy Bites

Because nursing makes you hungry and these would probably be a good midnight snack 😉

I made the cranberry, lime & coconut and the trail mix energy bites from this post of No Bake Energy Bites 7 Ways, as well as these new Nut-Free Energy Bites!

That's it! I still have some space, and will probably add a few odd and ends in there. Let me know if you have any questions about these recipes or the products I used to stock the freezer!