Nourishing Postpartum Meals

I have been nesting big time & my strong urge to cook & freeze meals became part of it. I quickly ran out of space in our refrigerator freezer, which prompted my husband to buy an extra mini-freezer for our garage. :-) I still remember the complete exhaustion from taking care of a newborn during those first few weeks & having to resort to fast & junk food because you simply have no energy or brain power to come up with anything else. I wanted to avoid the same situation this time so I have been scouting for good recipes, grocery shopping, cooking & freezing for the past week.

Main courses:

1) Stuffed bell peppers
There are many recipes on the internet. Here is one variation . I substituted the white rice with brown rice & textured vegetable protein with organic ground beef. I also replaced mozzarella cheese with Monterey Jack cheese for sharper flavor.


2) Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup
I love this curried version. I substituted the lentil with organic Sprouted Bean Trio (mung beans, green lentils, adzuki beans) by truRoots (which I found at Costco).


3) Oxtail Soup
It's one of my favorite soups to make during fall & winter. There are many recipes, but mine is closer to this one.


4) Split Pea Soup
I substituted the ham bone in this recipe with sauteed bacon.


5) Baked Macaroni & Cheese
It's not the most nutritious, but nice to have when craving comfort foods after delivery (see recipe here).

Desserts:

Since reaching the 3rd trimester I've been having strong craving for cranberries (that's what you get having your baby around Thanksgiving!), so 2 dessert recipes contain them.


1) Pear Cranberry Crisp
I doubled the cranberries & lemon juice & added 1/2 cups of sugar in this recipe.

2) Apple Quinoa Muffins
See recipe here


3) Walnut Pumpkin Pie
I've added fresh ground ginger & 1/2 cup of ground flax seed to this recipe.

Other foods I chose to have readily available in the freezer:

- Cooked brown rice
- A couple of whole raw chickens (to make simple, but nutritious Lan Lan's Chicken Soup)
- Shelton's turkey sausage patties (can be found at our local PCC)
- Baked Cranberry-Orange Sauce (Thanksgiving is not that far away, see recipe here)
- Ice cream

Today was my last of cooking & I am exhausted. The mini-freezer is more than half-way full. I will not be touching the stove for a while. :-)

Additional Resources:

Once a Month Mom - fill your freezer by creating monthly menus using seasonal recipes