Meals to Cook for a New mom...suggestions?

Chicken spaghetti is really easy and great, and freezes well. Cube and cook the chicken. Toss with a can or two of condensed cream soup (any combo of chicken, mushroom, celery soups work well - I add a third to half a can of milk for each can of soup (enough to make it "saucy" but not "soupy")), garlic salt, pepper, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce to taste. Cook the noodles and toss it all together. Place in a cassarole dish and cover with white cheese. You can freeze it at this point or cook it. (350-375 degrees until warmed through and the cheese is melty.)

Things that are freezable are always great...stews, chili, lasagna, ziti, etc. Even better if you make a big pot/pan and then freeze it in meal-sized portions so they can mutliple meals but not necessarily back to back of the same thing. We do this using Ziploc freezer bags so we don't have to thaw the whole pan at once.

You can also cook some chicken or pork and freeze for use in other meals (like grilling or frying some boneless skinless chicken freezing for later...then your sister or BIL can easily thaw it and add some veggies and have fresh made fajitas one night or a salad.

Make double portions of whatever your family is eating for the next week or so and freeze portions of each item in oven and microwave safe containers! After my children were born, my mom stayed with us for nearly three weeks and this is what she did. Each night, whatever she made she made more than we needed. She froze enough of each thing (separately) for two of us...
- Chicken breasts (cooked and sliced)
- Pork Loin (cooked and sliced)
- London Broil (cooked and sliced)
- Pulled pork
- Meatloaf
- mashed potatoes
- rice sides
- Shepherd's Pie

All of it was frozen and dated. All we had to add were a few "fresh items" and dinner was ready. No need to go crazy making separate "entire meals", just make more of whatever you are having and freeze!

For the trip, pack the items in a tightly sealed cooler with plenty of ice and don't open the lid until you get there!

Set aside a day for cooking there rather than try and bring food 8 hours on a car trip.

Go to allrecipes.com for lots of suggestions. Ask them what they like to eat and ask them if they were to be able to go out to any restaurant, what would they order. That should give you plenty of ideas as to what to cook. If they like BBQ, and you have a smoker, then that is something to do before you leave.

Be sure to find out in advance how much freezer space they have. If they have no freezer, then a good baby present might be a freezer. Don't get anything smaller than a 12 cubic foot freezer

Thanks for being so kind to her to pre cook meals. Sis, you are a good sister and a good friend.

Good luck to you and yours.

My SIL is in the hospital with cancer treatment has been for more than a week and will be for at least a few more days. Her prognosis is not good. So I cooked. I couldn't offer much other help - but I could make meals. I made about 50 meatballs and packaged them in 4 separate ziploc freezerbags with sauce. I also made lemon chicken (dredge boneless chicken with flour (I add rosemary), brown in pan with oil, remove from pan as they are golden on each side, make roux with the flour and fat in the pan, add chicken broth add juice of a lemon for each pound of chicken, add chicken back in until tender) and packaged in a bunch of ziploc bags. I made a pound of pasta and put in another ziploc bag and did the same with rice. I brought them to her house after having been refridgerated but not frozen. Once at her house they went in the freezer. So they can take out a package of lemon chicken or meatballs as needed. They can use rice or pasta or pick up rolls or sub-rolls on the way home. I've also grilled a few packages of chicken cutlets (spray with Pam, sprinkle Montreal Chicken seasoning and grill) put them in ziploc bags with the freezer as the eventual home. They can be used with pasta, rice, salad, sandwich, chicken salad, etc.

Then, when you're there visiting go to Costco or BJ's and pickup a package of frozen pizzas. Costco has a box of Kirkland 4 frozen pizzas for $12. They are very comparable to DiGiornios pizzas in qulaity but much less costly. Also pick up flour tortillas and shredded cheese. That, with the chicken cutlets makes a fast quesadilla!

Enjoy your visit with your sis and new baby! LOVE visting family with new births - such a wonderful time.

Lazagna, chilli, chicken or turkey noodle casserole are some of my favorites to make and then freeze.

You've gotten most of my go-to frozen suggestions already. My in-laws live across the country and as they aged we always set aside 1 day of our visit for marathon cooking. We would always make a protein-heavy stew (with beef and lamb - a Mark Bittman recipe), pulled chipotle pork that could be used as a BBQ sandwich or in Tex-Mex meal and quiche. We'd freeze in 2 meal-size potions.
We always made the quiche with veggies, cheese and meat so they were an all-in one meal. Broccoli, sauteed onions, swiss and ham and/or bacon is a good combo. We'd bake, slice and then freeze - trying to leave them with as many as 12 quiches a visit. That way they could get out a few slices to microwave or defrost a whole one. My MIL had dementia, my FIL Parkinson and they always gained weight (much needed) after our visits.

I made 4 months worth of food before baby three came. I froze: lasagna, shepherds pie, pork and beef taco meat, Mexican rice( better from frozen!) black beans, Refried beans, chicken pot pies, enchiladas, chicken soup, potato leek soup, mushroom soup, 10 lbs of meatballs, sausage, meatloaf, two different kind of dahls(lentils freeze great), vodka sauce, arrabiata sauce, pizza dough, a few loaves of homemade Italian bread, pancakes, waffles, shredded motz cheese.....I know there is more, but I can't remember.

What I am very glad I did: pot pies and Mexican dinner stuff. I love that I can put all the components of a Mexican dinner in the microwave, make some fresh Gauc, and feel like we had a fresh meal... Pot pies are great too because they can go into the oven frozen --during preheat-- and we have a wonderful comfort food dinner without any work-- we made enough for 9 dinners for 10 bucks!!! i make mashed potatoes, and everyone is happy.

Chili is good. Also, a meat sauce to trow over pasta. Lasagna freezes nice. Pulled pork.

Google freezer crock pot recipes. I made 12 meal and froze them. Then you just take out of freezer put in crock pot and done. If the recipe calls for rice or pasta, you can cook and freeze that in separate freezer bag. I also used crock pot liners for easy clean up.