With a baby on the way, having some quick dishes on hand is going to make your life so much easier. These 15 pre-baby freezer meals are perfect to stock up!

Before Zoey was born, I spent about a day and a half batch cooking a whole bunch of freezer meals. It was one of the tips I heard before becoming a new mom that having a few meals on hand and ready to go would be nice a lifesaver. It turned out to be oh so true!

When Zoey was born, Rob and I managed to cook full dinners in the beginning while she slept, but once Rob was back to teaching full time, taking grad school classes, and coaching cross country (talk about super Dad!), things got a lot more hectic and our freezer stash came in handy for those late nights and tired newborn days.

There is something about simply preheating the oven and throwing a pre-made dish in it for 40 minutes that brings a lot of peace to newborn life.

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I remember there was one day I thought Zoey was going to sleep for a while, so I started making some pasta. She woke up very unhappy just as the noodles finished and I thought I could leave them in the water and tend to her, coming back to eat when she settled down.

Turns out, pasta left in water absorbs water and turns into a disgusting blob. Into the trash it went and out came some crackers and peanut butter.

In preparation for baby #2, I decided to do the same thing I did before Zoey arrived and spent some time cooking to fill up our freezer. Before I did the actual cooking, I did a good amount of Pinterest research on recipes that were not all just pasta, or involved mass amounts of cheese and milk.

Other criteria I was looking for in meals were a mix of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks with breakfasts and lunches being items you can eat one handed.

Who has time for a fork when you are cuddling a newborn and entertaining a toddler?

Admittedly, Rob saw the list of meals I was planning to make this time around and gave me a reality check of, “You know our freezer is not that big.”

That is what I get for choosing meals at seven months pregnant when all I wanted to do was eat! Truth be told at 38 weeks, all I still want to do is eat!

After meal research and paring down my list based on projected freezer space, my organizational skills (or nesting?) kicked in and I listed out all the needed ingredients by area in the grocery store and in terms of what we would buy at Costco versus the regular grocery store.

I cannot recommend this enough as it is meal planning at its finest. (Get your free Meal Planning Guide here.) Especially if you know you are going to be shopping with a toddler in tow.

With list in hand, you can zip through the aisles knowing exactly what you need in each one. Sure, the trip to the store is still going to be on the longer side of normal, but it will not be so long that you enter toddler meltdown zone.

Even though I cut my list of dishes down, I still ran out of freezer space and could not manage to fit everything in. We have the ingredients for everything, and apart from a few of the vegetables, nothing will go bad, so we still have some tortellini, beans, corn, and enchilada sauce on hand for quick meals.

One of the reasons we got an Instant Pot was in preparation of becoming a family of four, but I still find something comforting in having a freezer full of food for those days when not even the Instant Pot is going to be quick (or planned out) enough.

If you want to tackle some pre-baby freezer cooking, which I highly suggest you do, there are a few things you should consider. A lot of the tips in my post about how to make meal prep realistic also apply to mass freezer cooking.

Consider your freezer space

Like I said earlier, I planned way too much food for the actual space I had in the freezer. Pay attention to the most important meal of the day that you are going to be eating on your own (usually lunch) and meals that are going to be hard to make (dinner because of evening cluster feeds).

Make dishes you actually like

With the lack of sleep, this is not the time to be experimenting with new meals. Go for the tried and true ingredients that you know you and your spouse and kids actually like and will eat.

Wear comfortable shoes

You are going to be doing this massive grocery shop, all this cooking, and likely chasing after another child all while being very pregnant. I am usually making dinner barefoot, but freezer cooking is a whole different story.

Make sure you wear comfortable shoes for the duration of your pre baby freezer cooking. Your legs will thank you!

Create a plan of attack

If you are making more than just a few items in the course of a day, you want to utilize your kitchen the best way possible. Make a plan for what can get mixed and into the oven while something else simmers on the stove and a third meal is being chopped and portioned out.

Freeze in small portions

Muffin tins are going to become your best friend because you can freeze things like fried rice, soups, and pastas in them. Then, just pop them out into a freezer bag, label it, and you are good to go.

When you are ready to have that particular dish, you can just grab a few and microwave them (all one handed) to enjoy.

Here is the list of dishes I ended up making. You can find recipes for all of these over on my Freezer Meals Pinterest board.

• Freezer Breakfast Burritos
• Green Smoothie Muffins
• Blueberry Muffins
• Banana Nut Bread
• Pancakes/French Toast
• Beans for Burritos
• Ham & Cheese Sweet Rolls
• Chicken Fried Rice
• Mac N Cheese
• Broccoli Chicken Rice Casserole
• Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
• Enchiladas
• Stuffed Shells
• Spinach Balls
• Almond Joy Energy Bites

Here are the dishes that were on my list to make, but I ran out of freezer space:

• Egg Cups
• Oatmeal Cups
• Summer Minestrone
• Tomato Tortellini Soup
• Chicken Pesto Calzones
• Pizza Spirals
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Tortellini Bake

Other dishes I had on my initial list before I had to cut back based on freezer space:

• Breakfast Sandwiches
• Smoothie Packs
• Summer Picnic Wrap
• Cheesy Taco Bake
• Kung Pow Chicken
• Taquitos
• Cheeseburger Mini Meatloaf
• Chili Mac
• Blueberry Almond Snack Bars
• Trail Mix Treat Bars
• Quinoa Crunch Snack Bars
• Savory muffins

Clearly you can see that I had grand plans for what I was going to make and was clearly disillusioned by how much freezer space we have!

With everything made, the hardest part is just waiting to eat it all until the baby actually arrives!

Ready to do some of this epic meal planning meal prep yourself? Get your free Meal Planning Guide here to learn all my tips and tricks to make weekly meal planning easy, realistic, and stay within (or under) budget.