Postpartum Meal Prep Guide (2024)

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Baby girl is almost here and one of the most frequent questions I’ve been asked lately is how I’m preparing for postpartum (food-wise!). Today I’m sharing some of my favorite freezer-friendly, quick meals and healthy snacks that will make meals WAY more simple once she arrives and to help with postpartum recovery!

Make Ahead Meals To Prepare for Baby

One of the biggest things I’ve heard throughout pregnancy is how beneficial it can be to meal prep nutritious meals for once baby is here.

I can only imagine how adjusting to a new schedule while also managing trying to get some rest will impact my desire to cook. The last thing I want to be stressed about is food! That’s why I’ve made an effort to prep some of my favorite freezer-friendly meals and recipes that I’ll be able to pull out for a quick meal or snack!

Not only will preparing meals in advance be extremely convenient once the new baby arrives but it’ll definitely be way more healthy and economical than getting take-out or delivery for every meal!

Another benefit of preparing different freezer options is that you’re on no timeline to eat them! Many times friends and family will start meal trains or provide gift cards for take out so these meals are great so you don’t feel pressured to eat something before it goes bad and can enjoy the gifts from friends!

What Are The Best Meals for Postpartum?

So what are the best kind of postpartum freezer prep meals? Well that’s up to you!

You want to make sure to prep foods that you know youloveand are going to want to eat! Yes, it’s great if they’re healthy and nutritious but if you make meals that you’ve never wanted to eat before, you’re most likely not going to want to eat them after having a baby either!

If you’ve ever tried an LFF recipe before, you know we focus on simple recipes that deliver in both flavor and nutrition. I’m focusing on prepping meals that will help my keep up my energy levels, provide essential nutrients to help milk production and are also good sources of comfort food!

You also want to fix easy meals that are relatively simple and easy to reheat! Whether that’s the microwave, oven or air fryer, try to fix easy postpartum meals that require very minimal additional prep!

What Are The Best Type Of Foods To Freeze?

Some of the easiest meals to freeze are casseroles, soups, stews, muffins and breads, bulk proteins, burritos, or egg cups or quiche.

When preparing meals to freeze, I typically try to avoid recipes with a few specific ingredients like mayonnaise, cheese, cream, or high-water content vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, and potatoes.

What’s The Best Way To Store Freezer Meals For Postpartum?

A few of my favorite tips when deciding what to prepare for my postpartum freezer meals:

1. Think About Freezer Space

When meal planning what you want to prepare for postpartum, be sure to think about what available freezer space you have! Different meals will take up different space and you want to make sure you can fit everything in your freezer without overstuffing it.

Think about how casserole pans may be able to stack on top of one another or how you will be able to fit individual meals like burritos into smaller spaces in between bigger containers.

One tip someone recommended that I thought was really helpful was to make sure to keep some space free in case you want to freeze breastmilk (of course this is totally dependent on your plan) but if you think you might want to breastfeed it can be helpful to plan ahead!

2. Divide Into Portion Sizes

Another thing to think about and to plan ahead for is portion sizes! Think about if the meals are for you or the whole family. Also, think about how quickly you will be able to eat a recipe once it’s thawed and reheated!

It can be really helpful to freeze meals with various portion sizes that way you can pull out a meal for the proper crowd when needed without wasting anything!

3. Label EVERYTHING!

My number one piece of advice: label everything! Be sure to include the type of meal, date made, serving sizes, reheating instructions and any additional notes you may think of while preparing that you most likely won’t remember when reheating.

This will also help a family member or friend be able to reheat any meals if they’re over helping while you try to get some rest!

You may also want to create a “freezer inventory” list of everything you prepare that way you can keep a running list of what you have left as you begin to eat the different meals throughout postpartum.

4. Storage Containers

You know I love using glass containers to store most of my weekly meal prep recipes and leftovers. But when planning freezer meals, glass isn’t necessarily the best choice. Glass can be bulky and can also sometimes crack in the freezer.

For meal prepping postpartum meals, I recommenddisposable aluminum baking pansthat are not only easy to thaw and bake in but can also be thrown away so it makes clean up even easier! And trust me, I don’t think you want unnecessary dishes when you already have a bunch of bottles to wash!

Food is always going to taste the best and most freshest when you let it defrost in the fridge overnight, but if you do plan to reheat from frozen, I do recommend portioning out into servings when storing. For casseroles, you can store them insmall aluminum foil pansthat are the perfect size for 1-2 servings.

For individual meals and portion sizes, you can also just wrap up tightly in tin foil and place in a freezer-safe Ziplock bag. Soups and stews are also great to store in Ziplock bags because you can lay them flat so they take up less space.

A Few Quick Tips For Reheating Easy Freezer Meals!

Freezer meals are so great for new parents but don’t forget about the reheating process! Just be sure to consider the amount of time needed to properly reheat any frozen meal so that you can enjoy all the healthy meals you worked so hard to prepare!

A few of my favorite tips and things to remember when defrosting and reheating freezer meals:

1. Try to slowly defrost soups and casseroles (if possible!). I like to put the freezer meal in the refrigerator overnight or up to two days.
2. If you don’t have time to let something thaw overnight, you can place it in a bowl of cool water to speed up the thawing process.
3. Try to reheat meals as they were intended to be cooked (i.e. soups over the stove, casseroles in the oven, etc.)
4. Baked goods (like muffins and breads) will typically defrost pretty quick at room temperature so you can generally take those out 30 minutes to an hour before hand.
5. Items like frozen burritos don’t need to be thawed, just remove from tinfoil and pop in the microwave or air fryer and reheat until heated through.
6. Consider how your item is stored when reheating (be careful if you chose to freeze in glass or if you can just reheat directly in the pan (like the disposable aluminum tins).
7. Lactation cookies (or any kind of frozen cookie dough) does not need to be thawed before you bake. Just add to a cookie sheet and bake according to directions (you may want to add 1-2 additional minutes, depending on how you like your cookies).

Postpartum Meal Prep Ideas

Here are just a few of the quick and healthy freezer meals I’ve prepared for postpartum! Like I said, the best freezer meals are ones you know you already enjoy and that will be relatively simple to make, defrost, reheat and cleanup!

Quick Postpartum Meal Ideas

In addition to having my freezer stash of easy, healthy options, I’ve also included some staple recipes to have on hand when you want to throw something quick together! These recipes all require minimal ingredients, minimal effort and minimal prep work.

Postpartum Pantry And Kitchen Staples

As much as new moms can try to prepare in advance for the postpartum period, you will still need to have a few kitchen and pantry staples on hand for easy snacks or single-serving meals!

These are just a few of the grocery store staples that I keep on hand most of the time so I can always have nutrient-dense snacks to grab or whip up something super simple and easy.

Also, a lot of these items are are great way to add more macro and micronutrients to other recipes like additional protein, fiber, carbs, healthy fats, etc.!

• Eggs and Egg Whites
• High Fiber Bread – I love Dave’s White Done Right.
• Crescent Roll Dough – you can make so much with this! Egg white pizza, Pizza Pockets, etc.
• Protein Bars – currently loving Fit Crunch Chocolate Peanut Butter Whey Protein Bars (Costco) but also love Healthy On The Go Bars and G2G Bars.
• Protein Shakes – I love Fairlife Vanilla and Chocolate.
• Chomps (Costco)
• Pancake Mix – my favorite is Kodiak Cakes.
• Energy Balls Mix
• Peanut Butter – to eat with fruit or make banana peanut butter toast.
• Apples and Bananas – easy to eat with peanut butter or fruit dip.
• Cottage Cheese or Greek Yogurt – great source of protein and probiotic
• Cereal – I love eating cereal with frozen bananas and a Fairlife vanilla protein shake for a macro-balanced breakfast or snack.
• Coffee Cake in a Mug – easy to keep ingredients on hand for!
• Protein Molten Lava Cake – easy to keep ingredients on hand for!
• Jarred pasta sauces and dried pasta
• Nut butter (either grab a spoonful from a jar, or buy the packets)
• Granola bars/energy bars
• Nuts
• Dried fruits
• Canned tuna or chicken (makes a quick meal / snack)
• Whole wheat crackers
• Oats (for overnight oats)
• Seeds (chia, hemp and flax) to add to smoothies
• Deli meat or precooked breakfast meal like chicken sausages
• Hummus, tzatziki or other dips
• Bone broth– great for gut-health! You can use for soups, rice, grains, or drink by itself.

Postpartum Freezer Staples

In addition to packing the freezer with premade meals, it can also be really helpful to just have a few staples on hand! These are some of the items I keep on hand on a regular basis and they’re always so helpful with I need to make a quick meal at home with little preparation time or thought!

• Cooked turkey breakfast sausage
• Ground turkey breakfast sausage
• Chicken breast and ground beef – to thaw and cook for a quick dinner
• Waffles
• Frozen fruit – blueberries, bananas
• Frozen vegetables – Streamfresh broccoli, green beans, diced peppers and onions (for egg scrambles)
• Frozen pizza or crust
• Just Bare Chicken Nuggets
• Just Bare Chicken Fillets
• Bread – fresh is best but just in case you run our it’s always helpful to have on hand! I try to keep sliced bread, tortillas and yeast rolls (for chicken minis, cooked turkey sausage or to just eat with an entree).
• Shredded cheese – doesn’t go bad as quickly and you can use it for so much!
• Frozen cauliflower gnocchi or chicken wontons
• Good quality frozen meatballs

I hope you found this postpartum meal prep guide helpful. I am excited to use these recipes and grocery staples in the next few weeks to help my own postpartum journey and recovery and can’t wait to add more ideas as I learn along the way.

If you make any of these recipes or found this postpartum meal prep guide helpful, be sure leave a rating and review letting me know how you liked it! Or if you snap a picture, please tag me on Instagram or hashtag #Laurenfitfoodie so I can see your creations!

xx, Lauren