Freezer Meals Recap

As my maternity leave comes to an end, I finally remembered that in my freezer meals post, I promised a review of each meal! So, here it is :)

We barely touched our freezer meals for the first month or so after Annie was born because SO many people came over and brought us food. Ben also has this weird thing where he wants to hoard things and save them for a "better" time (which was... when?? not sure) so we actually cooked if we didn't have food brought to us.

Still, I am very glad we took the time to make these meals - we still have quite a few left, which will be even nicer when we are both back at work. Some of the meals (noted below) do require a little more advance preparation if you don't want them to be in the oven for like 2 hours - they bake a lot better if you have thawed them in the fridge overnight.

The one thing I didn't photograph after thawing was my FAVORITE thing from the freezer - the muffins! Pretty much my favorite part of each day was when Annie took her first nap of the day and I could enjoy a cup of coffee and 2 muffins. Yup, 2 - because 1 just wasn't enough :) I usually microwaved them wrapped in a paper towel for 1 minute and 15 seconds and they were perfect, but it depended on the kind of muffin. All of them reheated very well - I'd for sure recommend these almost over anything else if you like something sweet for breakfast!

Chicken Enchiladas

The chicken enchiladas tasted exactly the same as if they were made fresh. They were definitely better when allowed to thaw completely before baking, because then they didn't have a cooler spot in the very center. When made fresh, they take about 20 minutes to bake, but from the fridge it was more like 40.

Chicken Rice Wraps

These were a perfect quick lunch or dinner - I wrapped in a paper towel, microwaved on 50% power for 2 mins, and then on normal power for 2 mins and they were perfect. A few times I grabbed one before I had to be at Mom & Baby class because I could eat it in the car. Definitely a great thing to have on hand, and I plan to take what's left to work for lunches!

Pulled Pork

We used the pulled pork to make pork fried rice, which is probably a little more involved than necessary. Ben had some pieces plain, and said that it still tasted amazing. I loved the fried rice too - we loosely used this recipe. We also used some to make burritos with brown rice, pork, cheese, lettuce and sour cream but I forgot to take a photo. This is a very versatile thing to have in the freezer - you can also just heat it up with some BBQ sauce and have sandwiches, or make tacos.

Chicken Black Bean Chili

I love this chili, and thought it tasted just as good from the freezer as it does fresh. I reheated it on the stovetop, and we had it with some pasta and shredded cheese. I had heard some stories of breastfeeding mamas having chili and then having their babies be super fussy, but I didn't notice any additional fussiness from Annie - just her normal amount :)

Chicken Spaghetti

This is always a hit, and I knew it would be good from the freezer because we've already had it. So yup, still good :)

Breakfast Burritos

These were okay, I heated them up the same way I did the chicken rice wraps. I think I just got so into my muffins for breakfast that I didn't want these as much. We have a ton left, and I'll probably bring them to work for lunches as well.

Baked Ziti

This was DELICIOUS - we both loved it! Allison made us some ziti and we had it fresh, and I did think that might have been slightly better, only because this really does take FOREVER to thaw - I'd even say it'd probably need 2 days in the fridge to fully thaw. We took it out 24 hours before baking, and the middle was still frozen. Still delicious, just a little cool in the center :)