Freezer Meals to Make Before Baby Arrives (One Big Cooking Day)

Pick four recipes and make a double batch of each. That gives you eight dinners from one shop and one afternoon. Write one shopping list, buy bags and foil pans, and clear a freezer shelf the day before.

Ask a partner or friend to help. One person chops, one person cooks. You'll finish faster, and you can sit down for some of it.

Tip: Brown all the ground meat at once, then split it between the chili, the pasta bake and the burritos.

Chili is the easiest freezer meal there is. Brown beef or turkey with onion, add canned tomatoes, beans and spices, and simmer for 30 minutes. Cool it, then freeze it in flat bags of two or three portions each.

Serve it over rice, on a baked potato, or in a tortilla. One bag can turn into three different dinners.

Tip: Keep the spice mild if a toddler will share it. Add hot sauce at the table.

Simmer chicken thighs with carrot, celery, onion and stock until the chicken falls apart. Shred it and freeze the soup without noodles or rice, which go mushy. Cook those fresh when you reheat.

Soup is great in the first days, when you want something warm in a mug you can hold in one hand.

Tip: Freeze some in 1-cup jars, leaving room at the top, for a quick lunch.

Mix cooked pasta with tomato sauce, browned meat or lentils, and lots of cheese. Pack it into foil pans with lids and freeze it before baking. On the day, bake it from frozen, covered, until hot in the middle.

Foil pans mean no dishes, and you can hand one straight to a friend who has a baby too.

Tip: Slightly undercook the pasta so it doesn't go soft in the oven later.

Scramble a dozen eggs with cheese, beans and peppers, roll them in tortillas, and wrap each one in foil or paper. Freeze them in a big bag. Microwave one for about 2 minutes, out of the foil, and eat it with one hand during a feed.

These freezer meals before baby are the ones you'll use most at 10 a.m., when you suddenly realize you skipped breakfast.

Tip: Let the filling cool fully before rolling, so the tortillas don't go soggy.

Cook carrot, zucchini, onion and red pepper soft, add canned tomatoes, then blend it smooth. It's a sauce for pasta, pizza or meatballs, and it hides a lot of veg.

A regular pot and blender work fine. But if you plan to buy a steamer-blender for baby food later anyway, it steams and blends veg in one jar now. Our steamer-blender guide explains how it works. The downside: the jar is small, so big batches take a few rounds.

Tip: Freeze the sauce in muffin tins, then pop the portions into a bag.

Bake a big tray of meatballs and freeze them on the tray before you bag them, so they don't stick. Then reheat a handful in your veggie sauce.

For a meat-free option, cook red lentils with coconut milk, curry paste and spinach. It freezes well and reheats in 10 minutes. More family meals live in our toddler recipe collection, and many of them double easily.

Tip: Make the meatballs small. Toddlers and tired adults both like bite-size.

Bake oat muffins or banana bread bars and freeze them in single pieces. Take one out at night, and it's soft by morning. You'll want snacks you can eat on the couch, at any hour, without plates.

Put a few next to your feeding chair. A water bottle there helps too.

Tip: Add nut butter or seeds to the batter for a more filling snack.

Cool cooked food fast, and get it into the fridge or freezer within 2 hours. Keep your freezer at 0°F. Squeeze the air out of each bag and label it with the meal, the date and the reheat steps.

Clear labels mean your partner, your mom or a friend can make dinner without asking you anything. That's half the point.

Tip: Keep a list of what's in the freezer on the door and cross meals off as you go.

Months from now, when your pediatrician says your baby is ready for solids, the same freezer habits help. Steam and purée a batch, freeze it in small portions, and thaw only what you need.

Before then, ask your pediatrician when and how to start. Our feeding hub has guides for that stage, and our registry builder helps you decide what to buy now and what can wait.

Tip: Don't buy baby food gear yet if money is tight. You'll know more by 5 months.