The Best Way to Do Postpartum Meal Prep

Stocking your freezer for postpartum? This might be a hot take, but I have determined that the best strategy to prepare postpartum freezer meals is to just make double as you go. Batch prepping, while quick, is much more difficult to do when you are in your third trimester of pregnancy. Whether you already have kids or you don’t have any yet, doubling recipes will make the process much less overwhelming, exhausting, and time consuming.

My experience

The reason I can speak to this issue is because I did freezer meal prep for both of my postpartums. I also batched prepped both times. Even though I knew it would be miserable the second time, I refused to just double recipes. I figured, well it’ll be really hard but then it’ll be worth it afterwards, right? Not really.

The first postpartum that I meal prepped, I had quit working and did not have any kids at home. I even recruited help for making some of my breakfast meals. But by the time I was done with the batching sessions, my feet hurt, my back hurt, and I didn’t want to do anything for at least a day after.

Second go around was a little better because I had some experience that made the planning part a little easier. But I also had a 1 year old to watch at the same time. My poor daughter got so frustrated and I was so overstimulated by the end of the sessions. After that, I accepted the reality that doubling recipes to make freezer meals for postpartum is the best way to do it.

advantages of doubling recipes for postpartum meal prep

As I mentioned in my own experience, batch prepping meals is exhausting. So while doubling recipes makes it take a lot longer to get your freezer stocked, it is much less stressful. You don’t even necessarily have to make an elaborate plan for stocking your freezer with 20 meals. All you have to do is just consider a meal that you think would be helpful to have and make it when you’re cooking dinner for you family on a random Tuesday night.

Another huge advantage of doubling recipes for postpartum meal prep is that the planning and shopping is much simpler. So if you do decide to create a little more of a game plan for putting away a bunch of meals, you don’t have to sit down and figure out what the best order would be to prep the meals. You’re not thinking about which meats to prep first, whether to make all your soups on day 1, or if you should do the casseroles first. You’re just doing it as you go in a much more manageable way. Plus, you’re not making a special shopping trip to get all of the ingredients. You can just buy what you need for your normal meals and get a little extra.

disadvantages of doubling recipes for postpartum meal prep

There are some potential issues with trying to double recipes, but in my opinion they are far outweighed by the advantages. Especially because the problems only really occur if you are wanting to make a whole bunch of meals. Your food may wind up being in the freezer for longer and not be as fresh, especially if you start in the earlier part of your third trimester. You will also have to start sooner to have enough time to accumulate the meals. Plus, if you have limited freezer space you may find it harder to manage and fit all of the meals you prepped.

Even still, you can probably find a way to fit what you need. And let’s be real, the freshness is not really a big concern when you’re just trying to have some good homecooked food while you’re holding a newborn on your couch!

What if meal prepping still sounds overwhelming?

I’d say don’t even make a plan. Just make a goal to freezer (x) number of meals and make double of your normal recipes when you can. This keeps you out of the kitchen for a lot of extra time which saves energy big time. It might look like buying a little extra at the store and making one of your family’s tried and true recipes that you know will freezer well. Or, it might be more along the lines of purchasing items that you know will be easy to cook postpartum. Maybe some easy buttons meals. Whatever the case, don’t make it complicated at all. Just make extra of your normal food, no strings attached.

What if I know I want to make a lot of food?

If you want to make at least a week’s worth of meals or more, you might need to have a little bit more of a plan in place. But, making double is still the best way to get it all done. It would probably take longer to get all of the meals made though so you’d need to start early enough that you’d feel confident that you wouldn’t go into labor before you finished. I’d recommend that you plan to be finished around 38 weeks for most people, earlier if you know that you typically deliver sooner than that.

Need help planning your freezer meals?

• Check out my FREE customizable postpartum meal planner!
• If you want a done-for-you plan, grab my 2 Week Postpartum Freezer Meal Plan.
• Looking for something simpler? My Postpartum Freezer Meal Plan Checklist walks you step-by-step through the simplest meal prepping process.

FINAL ENCOURAGEMENT

Whether you choose to batch prep or make freezer meals for postpartum as you go, I would encourage you to do what you can. Even though I’d do it differently next time, I was thankful both times that I went to the trouble of prepping all those meals while I was still pregnant. If you’re not sold, you can even consider prepping parts of meals rather than the whole thing. Anything you do in preparation will be helpful for you when you’re adjusting to your life with a new baby.