February 23, 2019
My sweet friends are expecting their second child in a matter of days. I recently spent a Saturday afternoon helping them plan and prep a couple meals they could store in their freezer for after the baby arrives and when they need a quick, comforting meal. It was such a joy to spend the afternoon in their kitchen, and they chose some delicious meals!
I shared five recipe options with them prior to our planned prep day, and asked them to select at least three items we could knock out in a few hours. They made stellar choices of Enchilada Chicken Soup, Lemon Chicken, and Shephard's Pie (recipes all linked below). While their oldest child was treated to an afternoon out with his dad, my friend and I rolled up our sleeves and got to work.
My approach to freezer prep day is to use every cooking surface available. I plan one crockpot recipe, one recipe I can prep and let cook in the oven, and a third I can work with on the stovetop. I start with the assembly of the first two because once they start cooking there is little hands-on time needed. This allows me to select a third recipe that requires more attention. I used this same approach for the three recipes my friends selected.
My friend and I started with the Enchilada Chicken Soup since it required the longest cooking time in the crockpot. We chopped the onion, and the rest of the ingredients mostly consisted of opening and emptying cans into the crockpot. After a quick stir, the soup was ready to cook.
We moved on to the Lemon Chicken. This recipe is not a full meal prep, but with the majority of the work out of the way, they can reheat the chicken in the time it takes to cook a pot of rice and a side of veggies. This was another quick prep with minimal ingredients, and the chicken was soon in the oven.
While the chicken baked we started the third and final recipe, making the base of the Shephard's Pie. We chose to only make the base of the recipe, but you could certainly complete the full recipe and freeze the entire dish if you wish. In the time it took us to cook the Shephard's Pie base, the chicken was ready to come out of the oven. Within a couple of hours we had prepped the majority of three wholesome meals! We barely modified the recipes so I'm sharing the original links below. If you have a freezer meal prep day in your future I hope these provide some inspiration. It was a joy meal-prepping with you, Stevens! I can't wait to meet the new addition to your family soon!
