My best friend just had her first baby this week, and I'd like to bring the new family a meal. I'm looking for a recipe that can be frozen and cooked later when they need it. Thanks!
Chili, Lasagna, Mexican lasanga (it's so good), broccoli cheese soup (homemade,) beef and rolls (for italian beefs), any casseroles! Hope this helps
How about easy chicken pot pie.
2 cans store bought chicken gravy
1 can of biscuits for topping
1 can mixed veggies
2 potatoes microwaved and diced
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and diced
I make this all the time. You can either use a muffin tin and insert the biscuts and then put the filling in or in a large caserole put all the ingredients and top with the biscuits. Keep the biscuits seperate if freezing. Then they can microwave the caserole seperately and just put on the biscuits until they are brown in their oven. (About 350 for 15-20 min.)
www.rachaelrayshow.com or www.copykat.com have quick and easy ideas.
A meal I like to make for new parents is 3 cheese pasta shells.
(makes 2 or more meals)
1 box large pasta shells
2 containers of ricotta cheese
1 c parmesan cheese
2 pkg shredded mozzarella cheese (reserve one pkg)
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
2 eggs (beaten)
pepper
2 jars pasta sauce
Boil shells until done, drain, set aside
Mix together all but pasta sauce and 1 pkg of cheese
Spoon into shells
spread small amt of sauce on bottom of casserole dish, add one layer of stuffed shells, cover with sauce, repeat until full and all the shells are covered with pasta sauce, cover with remaining cheese and cook for 45 min @350 or until cheese is brown.
Like I said this is a huge batch so you can make on to breing over hot and ready to eat and give them one to freeze for later. I often cook some sausages to go with it and bring a long a caesar salad kit and its a complete meal. When I freeze the shells I usually just freeze them plain without the sauce and top layer of cheese and add those later but you can make prepare it
I often go to kraftfoods.com to get quick and easy recipes and a lot of them will tell you if they are good to freeze so you might want to check there if you need more ideas
Good luck K. H
Take a look at the "recipe" button on this site:
http://www.30daygourmet.com/default.asp
This would be great for you to start getting meals in your own freezer before your baby comes. It will free up your time to be a mommy later. :)
Enjoy for yourself and your friend! -K.
Tater-tot hotdish is one of my favorites to make for friends having babies. It was given to me when I had my first baby and was wonderful--I had never had it before then. It's easy too. I'm sure there are variations, but the one I make you just brown a pound of hamburger (add salt, pepper and onions to taste), add about a cup of velveeta cheese, a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of green beans, mix that all together and put in a casserole (or those great disposable aluminum pans), top w/ tater tots and then bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes or until the tater tots are browned.
You can even just put the tater tots on and then freeze it immediately and then when your friend reheats it the tater tots will crisp.
Everyday Food magazine has a Freeze It section every month with delicious recipes that are meant to be frozen. You can find them online at their website: www.everydayfoodmag.com. We made several of them before our second baby was born in Jan. and it worked out really well. Hope that helps!
Check these out...for you AND your friend...
http://www.savingdinner.com/5/crock_1.html
They are WONDERFUL!!!
Lasagna or speghetti sauce is always good. I like to make my homemade sauce and then take that with a box of noodles and a loaf of garlic bread. Soup is good, too. My Aunt makes really good homemade soups, bean, vegetable, etc.
OK, not a recipe...soup and Chili are good. No need for a recipe for either. Just throw what you want in them. Burritos work well also.
I agree with the tatortot hotdish - always a good choice and easy for you. You can also do a potpie I have a recipie if you'd like. You just use the pie crusts you find in the frozen section of the grocery store.
My mom traveled for her job so she'd cook up meals and freeze them for us when I was younger so I can get you quite a few ideas if you'd like - let me know!
Why not try a mealprep store. Here in the Twin Cities we have MealTime, as well as a variety of others. For more about this concept, visit MealTime.biz.
Lasagna or stew or you would need to cook it then they could thaw and heat when needed
You can always make soup or chili. It re-heats very well. Also something like pot roast or beef stew.
I was thinking tater tot hot dish too. Here's my recipe. It's sooooooo good! I made it from scratch recently and it was so good I jotted down the recipe right away!
Christy’s Chicken-n-Tot Dish
1 lb boneless chicken breast (could use ground beef or no meat for a veggie version)
1 large can cream of mushroom soup
1 small can cream of chicken soup
large bag frozen mixed vegetables (32 oz), thawed
1 can corn
1 cup frozen peas
1 medium onion chopped
1 ½ cup milk
1 T olive oil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp pepper
1 bag tater tots
Cut chicken into cubes, sauté in 1 T olive oil and chopped onion, garlic powder and Italian seasoning until browned. In a large bowl, mix all vegetables. In another bowl mix cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, pepper and milk until blended. In a 9x13 pour in the meat and onion mixture, and ¼ of the tater tots. Pour in vegetables, then pour the soup mixture over all. Gently mix until soup is blended in. Top with remaining tater tots. Bake at 375 for one hour or until mixtures bubbles and tater tots are browned.
If you happen to have too much mixture to top the dish without it spilling over, take some out and put in a smaller dish and freeze for a later date. Or this could be easily split in half and frozen. If frozen, thaw partially before cooking.
If frozen in a microwave safe dish, this can be defrosted and even partially warmed in the microwave and put in the oven for final warming and toasting of the tots!
C.
That's nice of you, Lasagna works nice or most casseroles will do. Another idea is to brown ground beef and freeze it and make her a taco basket than all she has to do is heat the meat in the microwave and season it and it's done.
I like to make a double batch and freeze one for next week whenever I make lasagne and meatloaf. Chili or spaghetti sauce freeze and re-heat well too.
