Pumpkin Doodle at Nine Months Old

Early in the summer, I set my sights on filling our freezer with 6 weeks worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinners so that I can fully enjoy Sidney’s “babymoon”. My mom came over once a month in June, July and August and helped me cook, and I did some on my own as well, and our very, very full freezer now contains:

*the numbers refer to full meals, not the actually number of, say, chicken breasts

Dinners
(3) lasagna
(2) baked ziti
(5) chicken taco meat
(4) spaghetti meat sauce
(3) meatballs
(3) meatloafs
(5) marinated chicken breasts
(5) cheeseburgers
(5) frozen pizzas (okay, we bought those, and there’s actually 10, but we eat 2 at a time)
(5) sausage patties (for eggs and sausage)

Lunches
(3) chili
(3) chicken noodle soup
(5) pizza roll-ups
(5) chicken fingers
(6) PB&J sandwiches

Breakfasts
(3) pancakes
(4) pumpkin muffins
(3) morning glory muffins
(3) banana muffins
(3) apple muffins
(2) french toast
(4) waffles (okay, we bought these too)
(5) chopped apples (for oatmeal)

My pantry is also stocked and includes 6 boxes of cereal, 15 cans of fruit, 12 macaroni and cheese cups, 3 bags of shaped pasta noodles, 2 boxes crackers and various snacks. And paper plates, which I’m refusing to feel guilty about because it’ll just be for a short season.

For us, the benefit is not only that I won’t have to worry about cooking during those first 6 weeks or so (something that is not my favorite task anyway!), but also that we will only need fresh fruit, milk and a few miscellaneous items each week. Sean will be able to just pick up those things on his way home from work, so we won’t need to make a big grocery shopping trip with a newborn for a while!

Now the key is to not give in to the temptation of all that yummy food in the freezer until she gets here!