How to Prepare Meals for Postpartum

Meal prep is one of the most important things you can do to prepare for the arrival of a new baby. The good thing is that it doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated! Here are my favorite tips and tricks to easily prepare meals for postpartum.

Collage of photos of food to prepare for postpartum

As the due date for our next baby is coming up quickly, I’m starting to get serious about preparing meals for postpartum. After having my first baby, I quickly found that the most helpful thing I had done to prepare for postpartum wasn’t all the random organizing or cleaning, but meal prepping.

Now that we’ll be having a newborn again, I want to make sure that our freezer and pantry is stocked full of food that takes little or no work to prepare. I know it’s going to be 100% worth the effort!

Why Should I Prepare Meals for Postpartum?

While it’s not uncommon for friends and family to bring new parents meals, this isn’t something you should ever completely rely on. And if you have any specific allergies or dietary restrictions, you definitely shouldn’t plan on this! Postpartum is one of the most important times of life to eat well, and meal prep is the best way you can guarantee this.

Your body will also be doing lots of healing during the first few weeks (at least) after birth, and resting is one of the best things you can do to help the recovery process. In addition to other things, this means spending as little time preparing food as possible.

If you’re planning for your spouse to take care of meals for a few days or weeks, that’s likely not the best plan either. Usually neither parent gets very much sleep for the first while, and oftentimes they’ll have to go back to work quickly as well. It’ll make life much easier and less stressful on your whole family if no one has to worry about cooking for some time.

I have also found that postpartum can be the easiest time to completely forget about the food budget and splurge in areas that you usually wouldn’t like junk food or lots of takeout. While that’s usually fine in moderation, if you’re on a tight budget or want to prioritize health, preparing food in advance is a great way to reduce the temptation!

How Much Food Should I Prepare?

This varies significantly depending on your family size, freezer and pantry space, and how long you anticipate recovery to take. I recommend preparing at least 2 weeks of food in advance, but you can come up with your own meal prep goals based on your personal situation.

When Should I Start Meal Prepping?

Many women notice that their energy levels decrease as they get closer to their due date, so it’s important to start to prepare meals for postpartum while you still have enough energy. However, you don’t want to start too early or the food will no longer taste fresh.

Most foods keep well in the freezer for at least 2-3 months, so my favorite time to start meal prepping is at the beginning of the third trimester. However, if you have reason to believe that you’ll have your baby early (pregnant with multiples, scheduled c-section, etc.), you may want to start prepping slightly earlier.

You may also decide to do as much of the last-minute baby prep early (such as packing a hospital bag, installing the car seat, etc.) so that when you start coming up on your due date, all you still need to do is meal prep.

Chicken & cilantro enchiladas in baking dish

Best Foods to Prepare

There are lots of amazing options for snacks and meals! I usually like to have a combination of homemade frozen meals and easy options in the fridge or pantry.

When deciding what to prepare, make sure you’re making meals that you know you’ll enjoy. Now isn’t the time to try exotic new flavors with ingredients you aren’t familiar with. If you already have kids, think about healthy foods you know they’ll enjoy as well.

Since nutrition is so important during postpartum, try to make meals that include plenty of nourishing, whole food ingredients such as meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and whole grains. If you have dietary restrictions that make meal prep more challenging, make sure you’re getting balanced nutrition even if you can’t hit all the food groups.

Breakfast

Premade Frozen Food Ideas:

Pancakes
Breakfast burritos
Muffins
Breakfast casseroles
Baked oatmeal
Egg muffins
Turkey sausage patties
Breakfast cookies

Other Breakfast Ideas:

Granola (homemade or store-bought)
Yogurt parfait ingredients
Smoothie ingredients
Toast with healthy toppings
Eggs
Fresh fruit

Some of My Favorite Meal Prep Breakfast REcipes:

Easy Gluten-Free Blackberry Banana Breakfast Muffins with Oats

Best Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins with Chocolate Chips

Simple Banana & Date Oatmeal Cookies

Amazing Homemade Maple Granola with Nuts and Cranberries

Lunch & Dinner

Premade frozen food ideas:

Casseroles
Soups
Chili
Taco meat
Pot roast (without vegetables)
Sloppy Joe meat filling
Meatloaf
Meatballs
Enchiladas
Lasagna
Pot pie

other lunch/Dinner ideas:

Frozen meat patties
Fresh salad with toppings
Frozen pre-cut vegetables to steam
Fresh vegetables
Uncooked potatoes to bake
Tortillas

Some of My Favorite Meal Prep Lunch/dinner REcipes:

Best Slow Cooker Indian Chicken Curry

Amazing Chicken & Cilantro Enchiladas

Easy Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

Snacks & Desserts

Premade frozen Snack/Dessert ideas:

Cookies
Muffins
Energy balls
Quick bread
Brownies
Homemade granola bars

other Snack/Dessert ideas:

Yogurt
Chips & salsa
Cheese
Nuts
Fresh fruit
Dried fruit
Trail mix
Dark chocolate
Ice cream
Popcorn
Applesauce
Hummus

Some of My Favorite Meal Prep Snack/Dessert REcipes:

Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies without Eggs

Easy Dark Chocolate Almond Flour Brownies without Eggs

Coconut Date Balls – Healthy and Easy

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cranberry Bread with Chocolate Chips

Drinks

Water
Herbal tea
Coconut water
Healthy electrolyte packets
Bone broth

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Meal Prep Methods

There are a few different methods to prepare meals for postpartum, and you’ll find which one works best for you!

Meal Prep Days

Some people dedicate entire days to meal prepping various foods at ones. You could have a friend over and make it a fun day working in the kitchen together or just use the time to catch up on podcasts or an audio book. If you have young kids, this might be a good day to have someone else watch them so you can be fully focused on meal prep.

Meal Prep Time Blocks

If you don’t have a full day to meal prep, you may decide to block a few hours out of your schedule each week and focus on making one meal at a time to freeze. Kids’ nap times or evenings could be perfect for this!

Bigger Batches of Normal Meals

This is my favorite method! To meal prep using this method, each week choose a few foods to serve your family as part of your regular meals or snacks that would also freeze well. Then, when you’re ready to make the food, make at least double what you usually would and freeze whatever your family won’t eat right away. In my opinion, this is the most efficient method for busy moms who are already cooking multiple times a day.

Best Containers to Freeze Food

There are a number of ways to freeze food, and here are the containers that typically work the best for most people. I definitely prefer using glass food storage containers as much as I can, but when prepping this much food I usually use a mix of containers.

Glass food storage containers

This is my favorite option!

Pros:

Healthy material
Airtight seal
Can reheat food without moving to another container

Cons:

Breakable
If you overfill, the food can expand and crack the glass.
More expensive than other options

Plastic Freezer Bags

Pros:

Affordable
Won’t break
Airtight seal (unless punctured)

Cons:

Plastic may leach into food
Can be easily punctured
Must change containers to reheat

Disposable aluminum pans

Pros:

Easy to freeze large batches
Affordable
Won’t break
Can bake, freeze, and reheat in same container

Cons:

Aluminum can leach into food
It’s more difficult to get an airtight seal

Plastic Food Storage Containers

Pros:

Airtight seal
Reusable
Won’t easily break
Microwavable

Cons:

Plastic can leach into food
Must change containers to reheat in oven

Best Way to Freeze Food

First, choose a recipe that will freeze well. Most recipes do, however, if some recipes will change textures after being frozen. As a general rule, I don’t freeze anything that is dairy-based or has a crunchy component (such as fried foods or desserts with crumb toppings). If in doubt, you can always experiment!

Once you have finished making the food and it has cooled, place in the freezer container of your choice, and make sure it has an airtight seal.

Then label the container with the name of the food, date, and any helpful reheating/prep information. You may think you’ll remember exactly what you have (and you may), but there’s also a good chance someone else will be pulling food out of the freezer at times. Occasionally food can even get lost in the freezer (this has definitely happened to me!), and when you find it, it’s always helpful to have it clearly labeled.

When you’re ready to place it in the freezer, it’s best to have some type of organizational system or at least stack things neatly. This way, you’ll be able to clearly see what you have. Some people even find it helpful to create detailed inventory lists or spreadsheets, however, you may not find that necessary.

Best Way to Reheat Frozen Food

For best results, place the frozen food in the fridge for 24 hours or until it’s completely thawed. If you’re in a hurry, you can also thaw food in a bowl of cold water as long as the container is completely sealed. I find that leaving cold water slowly running into the bowl makes this method even quicker!

Food typically tastes the best when heated the same way it was cooked. For example, soup can be heated on the stovetop and casseroles are best heated in the oven. While the microwave is the quickest way to reheat food, I find that the food quality decreases significantly.

When reheating individual servings of food, my favorite method is to use a toaster oven. It takes much less time and energy to heat up, and the results are basically the same as if you reheated food in the oven.

How Long Does Frozen Food Keep?

As a general rule, most foods keep well in the freezer for at least 2-3 months if they are in sealed, airtight containers. If you’re worried about how long a particular food will keep, you can check out a frozen food safety list here.