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I have done a little bit but I think I might add to it today- honestly we keep eating the stuff I stored away!

I precooked a bunch of rice and froze that in meal sized bundles to go with frozen stuff from trader joes. I have shredded chicken in meal sized bags for tacos etc. I also have some macaroni and cheese and calzones.

The other thing I have done is freeze some snack items like coffee cake and blueberry muffins.

I want to add a few more things and maybe prep some crock pot meals.

I did last time, but DH wasn't a fan of how some of them tasted, so this time I think I'm going to do more prep work than full meals. I want to stock the freezer full of meat so we don't have to buy any when I'm on maternity leave and freeze a bunch of vegetables for crockpot meals. And I plan on making and freezing sauces, soups, and breakfast items. These are more for my use when I'm on maternity leave for lunches. The crockpot is my best friend, I can throw things in it and leave it to cook all day while I take care of baby. Also I'm hoping it's nice enough to grill and that takes some of the dinner planning off my plate and onto DH.

I desperately need to. I know that once baby comes life will be even more crazy than it already is, so freezer meals would really help. Just have to find some good recipes!

I did and was REALLY glad of it after LO arrived, I just made double of one meal each week and froze it. Lots of stews and vegetable casseroles. Some of the stuff did not taste quite as good as it would have fresh, but at that point in time anything edible and vaguely nutritious was just perfect!

I plan to. I just made http://pinchofyum.com/garlic-parmesan-chicken-lasagna-bake and was thinking it would freeze well for this purpose. I need to come up with more but I won't start making them for a few months and will come back to this thread for ideas.

@ChiCalGoBee: I'd love to hear how you did you cheese and bean burritos

@Cole: do you have to do anything special when freezing rice?

@winniebee: not freeze, defrost! I think you have to really undercook it, because you have to heat it up again, and then the pasta breaks down a lot and becomes way too mushy.

I need to start doing this, with LO#1 having freezer meals ready to go was amazing.

What kind of containers are you guys freezing in? I've used those disposable aluminum pans before but I feel like the seal isn't super air tight.

I need to get on this.

I didn't make any myself but we were fortunate to have several people make things for us. It has been a huge help since we've been home, especially with a toddler running around! I also bought a chest freezer and stocked up on lots of frozen things from TJs than we can eat (bread, muffins, quinoa).

I will make a bunch of good spagetti sauce but the croc pot is so easy, I will just have a handful of recipes that require few ingredients. I am going to do Safeway delivery.

I hate freezer meals! They never taste fresh to me. I also hate leftovers though. We will have to budget for eating out!

@MrsMccarthy: Do you have a garage with room for a freezer? Our freezer is pretty tiny, too. We don't have ton of garage space, but have found some smallish deep freezers at pretty affordable prices that we're considering buying for both freezer meals and to freeze breast milk. Before I made the freezer meals I went through our entire freezer and threw out a lot of stuff that wasn't good anymore and was just taking up space. It really helped!

@mrswin: Haha, the one thing I am picky about is my lasanga, I still don't like it using your method. I've tried, and it just isn't right.
Good suggestion though, for the non picky folks.

I do a lot of freezer meals in general, especially in the colder months b/c I tend to think of heartier dishes coming from the freezer. My friend and I are starting to swap freezer meals so that we have some variety. I bought a bunch of the foil pans from Costco and freeze in those or in ziploc bags where I can dump the contents in the crockpot. I have a Pinterest board specifically for my freezer meals. Here are some things I currently have in the freezer:

Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken fajitas
Chicken cacciatore
Chicken enchiladas
Chicken florentine
Chicken Parm casserole (I added a base of cooked quinoa) http://thrivinghomeblog.com/2013/07/chicken-parmesan-casserole-recipe-an-easy-freezer-meal/
Buffalo chicken lasagna
Chicken taco meat (cooked in crockpot and frozen in portion sizes)
Pulled pork (pork shoulder cooked in crockpot with various seasonings and frozen in portion size)
Polenta pie (AMAZING!!!) http://www.strawberryplum.com/polenta-bake-with-italian-sausage-lacinato-kale/
Sausage and peppers

I would appear that we eat a lot of chicken I'm going to start doing some soups too. I'll make and then freeze flat in ziploc bags so that we can pull some out for dinner.

I have a five and a half week old baby and our freezer meals have been saving my life. I do all the cooking at our house and for the first month or so LO was screaming day and night because of colic and reflux and I was breastfeeding. I hardly had time to sit down to eat even WITH the meals AND my mom around for 3 weeks helping and my supply tanked! Just now getting it back up.

I did fully cooked frozen dinners in individual portions for the most part. From 24-34 weeks, I made a point to cook dinner from scratch 2-3 times a week and made the recipes for 6-8 people. That meant we could eat dinner, pack leftovers for lunch, and pack the other half away in the freezer. If I made meatloaf, I'd pack a few slices with mashed potatoes, allow everything to cool on the counter, and add a scoop of frozen veggies before packing up the container with a label (date + name of entree). I bought a box of Reditainers (the black containers with clear lids that you get at Chinese take out) from Amazon for $40 for 150 containers. They are freezer, dishwasher, and microwave safe.

By the time baby got here, I had something like 60-70 individual meals packed away. On top of that we premarinated meats in Ziploc bags to thaw and grill/bake, froze chili, coney sauce, and spaghetti sauce in gallon size bags flat, and froze things like muffins, bread, and cookie dough. We also stocked the freezer with a lot of meat - bags of frozen chicken, 1lb portions of ground beef, bacon, hot dogs, etc. Also we stocked up on cereal, coffee, deli meat, frozen fruit, baking supplies (chocolate chips, nuts, oats, flaxseed meal, sugar, flour, butter), and frozen veggies (corn, peas, mixed veggies, green beans, which hold up great in frozen dinners) when they were on sale.

So right now, DH's days look like this: cereal in the morning, sandwich with fruit, carrots, and hummus for lunch, and a frozen dinner of his choice. We make a big pot of half-caff coffee every other day and stick it in the fridge for iced coffee. I'm eating things like muffins, avocado toast, hard boiled eggs, smoothies, fresh fruit, lactation cookies, homemade granola with almond milk, homemade soups, and whatever frozen dinner I feel like.

Each week I make a quick grocery list and its usually fresh fruit, some snacks, almond milk, juices, yogurt, salad fixings, baby carrots, and more sandwich bread. I use the perpetual grocery list posted on HB and I can either fill it out and have DH go make the run, or I will do it as a break/treat for myself.

If I had to go back and change anything, I would make less tomato-based foods and spicy foods (chili, soup, spaghetti sauce, jambalaya, red beans and rice, etc. etc.) because LO has acid reflux and I think it aggravates him when I eat these foods. And I'd prepare WAY MORE nutrient dense one-handed foods like lactation cookie dough, muffins, and breads. There were a few days I subsisted on (storebought) muffins and wished I had more homemade ones!

All of our soups, beef stew, meatloaf, tuna noodle casserole, chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice casserole, mild coconut curries with rice, stirfries with rice, and dirty rice have been wonderful reheated.

Are the frozen dinners as good as fresh? No. But its still really good. And we can pull a variety of entrees from the freezer every few days and thaw in the fridge. 3-4 minutes later, hot and tasty homemade meal from scratch. Better than a frozen TV dinner or fast food for sure.

I still cook fresh dinners but its usually a crockpot situation that's hastily thrown together during naps on top of pumping, washing bottles, eating, showering, laundry, and HOPEFULLY mom catching some sleep too. And in these first six weeks, its only in the last week or so I've felt able to even do that.

Right now,

Yes, we have a chest freezer, plus an extra garage fridge.

@gingerbebe: That was super helpful, thank you!

It reminded me that the other thing I have done was create a list of meals that require very little prep work and a basic grocery list so it is easier to send my husband or mil. If the baby stays put through the weekend I think we will do a big stock up run for stuff like cereal, coffee, cheese and some more freezer staples like frozen berries for smoothies.

Oh! Also, this is really bad for the environment, but I took a page from my baby meal delivery rules and stocked up on paper supplies. Like Costco-sized packs of paper plates, utensils, napkins, red cups. We still do dishes between the baby bottles, pump parts, water bottles, cereal bowls, coffee mugs, our freezer meal containers, tupperwares of leftovers, the frying pan, and crockpot, but at least its just every other day instead of constantly trying to clear out space in the sink for the baby's stuff.