Who Cooks When I go Back to Work?
Updated: Jul 13, 2022
We talk a lot about getting meals ready for your postpartum recovery period, but what about the next big transition that happens: returning to work? I recently had the opportunity to help a mom of three get some ready to go meals stocked away in the freezer. Her main goal with this postpartum doula session was to have meals that would help her out during busy mornings and nights as she returns to the workplace and as her husband approaches a busy season in his work. It was so much fun, and now you all get to benefit from a master shopping list and some tasty recipes we scoured the internet for.
The goal was easy meals that can just be popped in the oven, crockpot, microwave, or instant pot on those busy mornings or nights when the parent ratio is 1:3. There are a lot of different ways to approach a meeting like this with a family, but this is how we tackled the challenge.
First, I found 3 websites I felt had a good variety of freezer meal options for them to choose from along with some ideas of my own to spark some interest as they were searching for meals they wanted to try. Here are the sites if you are interested in some new freezer meals to add to your rotation:
Second, they went through the resources and picked 6 recipes from the sites, plus 2 breakfast options, and a recipe of their own. If you are interested in what they picked, here is the rundown:
English Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches
Oatmeal Cups
Slow Cooker Spicy Pepper Beef
Chicken Teriyaki
Lime Shredded Pork
Slow Cooker Hawaiian Chicken
Honey Sesame Chicken
Loaded Potato Soup
Turkey and Butternut Squash Chili
Third, I printed off the recipes and created a master grocery list for them. They purchased all of the groceries before my arrival for our postpartum visit; however, I could have also done the shopping or picked up their order from the store if requested.
Fourth, we scheduled a 5 hour chunk of time to get the meal prep done. I did this part mostly by myself as my client tended to her baby and her oldest child. This included writing down the recipe and cooking instructions on the ziploc bags as well as clean up.
Simple as that!