Pregnant Lady Cooking

First, NO I am not pregnant again. This is just a service to my friends and family who are expecting.

While I was pregnant with my 7 year old, I learned that it was a good idea to have meals prepared ahead of time. Unfortunately, this lesson was learned the hard way when I went on bed rest for the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy. Next time, I did my best to have plenty of meals in the freezer and it came in handy third trimester. I had my freezer full, as well as the one at the Masonic Lodge, where my hubby is a member. I didn't have my own deep freeze yet. When I was pregnant this last time, I got my deep freeze, and boy did it make my life easy. I cooked up a storm while I still felt decent, before the ligaments in my abdomen reminded me that they do not like to be stretched. I had enough food in that freezer that if I didn't want to cook during the 3rd trimester, I didn't have to. I also kept inventory in an Excel spreadsheet, just because I am that OCD.

I made soups, casseroles, dirty rice, jambalaya, spaghetti sauce, chicken pot pie filling, burrito meat, sloppy joes, and pretty much anything else that I could think of that would freeze. My favorites were the pot pie filling, burrito meat, and spaghetti sauce. Very little space used and a lot of food. A good bit of it was done just by doubling or tripling a recipe that I was making for dinner that night and freezing the leftovers. The burrito meat is a crockpot thing, so that was done just for the freezer.

The really nice part about doing all of this cooking ahead of time was that since I felt pretty decent through most of my 3rd trimester, I didn't have to cook when Zac was in and out of the hospital and I was sleep deprived. (Was sleep deprived? Heck, I still am!)

Several recipes have already been posted here. Now that the frozen breastmilk is gradually coming out of the deep freeze, I'm replacing it with meals for us to eat on activity nights. Those recipes will get posted as I get to them, or just ask for them.