Preparing for Baby: Meal Preps

I’ve always liked preparing for things – events, holidays, school, projects, etc. It’s no surprise I carry the same enthusiasm in preparing for baby’s arrival. I’ve been reading books, forums, Mum groups, so that I’d know what to expect and what can make our lives way more manageable. One of the things I read was that it could tremendously help to have frozen meals ready for the first few weeks once the baby arrives.

And that’s exactly what we did! Last weekend, we were able to produce double serve of 43 frozen meals!

Here’s how we did it:

1. Have a list of the meals to be cooked and prioritise the order of cooking

I had to have varied choices of meals because I get tired of eating the same things over and over. We chose Filipino foods, a mix of vegetable and meat dishes. While completing the list, I have also factored in the time every dish cooks and which equipment I can use so that I can prioritise which to prepare first.

2. Do grocery shopping – preferably in places where you can bulk buy, especially the meats

We are fortunately located in the city centre so we are spoilt for choice with vegetable and meat shops so we were able to get the best prices for the ingredients we needed.

3. Clear a working space for chopping ingredients

We cleared 2 tables and the kitchen counter so that everything is organised. All cooking utenstils and equipment were washed as soon as they were used.

4. Have all cooking equipment ready.

Here is a list of the useful equipment we used. I don’t think it’s completely necessary to have these but it definitely did help for us to get things done.

Crock-Pot (for slow cook and pressure cook)

Vacuum food sealer

Upright freezer

Freestanding oven

5. Lay down and sort ingredients for each dish that needs to be prepared

6. Howell did the chopping of ingredients and packing of the cooked meals while I cooked up a storm and did the dishes

Having specific assignments for tasks makes everything easier. We also did assignments based on our strengths. Howell is great at organising things and dealing with spaces so he did the packing and clearing space in the freezer for storage while I cook well so I took it on.

We cooked 11 dishes for about 6 hours. Howell did the packing of meals for about 3 hours. Next time, though, I wouldn’t recommend doing this all in one go. It was too exhausting for both of us but I’m glad it’s all done now. We’re hoping these meals would tide us through for about over a month after baby arrives.