A Month of Freezer Meals

In order to prepare for our baby girl's arrival, Dan and I decided to make a bunch of food and freeze it. We have no idea what our days will be like once Baby Cookie is here, and we want to be prepared so we don't grab fast food every night.

To do so, I compiled a list of recipes that we already enjoy (and a couple new ones for fun), typed them all out, made a giant shopping list, and we got started! *You can find a free PDF download at the end of this post, which includes the meal plan, all of the recipes, and a shopping list!

We ended up making 15 recipes, and we doubled each one so that we will get a full month out of them! It's just the two of us eating, though, so if you are feeding more people, you'll only get half a month out of these recipes unless you make more of each one!

In total, we went to three grocery stores (Sam's Club, Aldi's, and Kroger) and spent a total of $110. Not bad for a whole month's worth of dinner, right? Keep in mind that we already had most of the basics, like spices and most sauces.

Some of these recipes were SUPER easy to prep - literally just gathering the ingredients and dumping them in a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Those are the recipes that will simply be thawed and placed in a crock pot to cook. The ones we put in foil baking dishes we had to cook ahead of time, which definitely took more time (but will be well worth it later!). If you only have a little time, you could make the freezer bag meals one day and the foil pan meals another time.

Here's a list of what we made -

HELPFUL TIPS

• For bagged / crock pot meals: I highly recommend writing the meal name and cooking instructions on the bag in Sharpie BEFORE putting the ingredients inside. Also, lay the bags flat in the freezer so they will take up less space when frozen and be easier to grab later.

• For foil dish meals: Use a Sharpie to label each meal on top, AND write the cooking instructions so you remember what to set the oven to and how long to cook it for. On some of mine, I even wrote suggestions (like serve with garlic toast, etc.) We let ours partially cool before stacking them in our chest freezer.

• To make these meals vegetarian, simply replace the meat with other veggies or your favorite brand of mock meat products, and of course replace the broth with vegetable broth!

To download the free meal plan, recipes, and shopping list, CLICK HERE to get it from my Dropbox!

Do you make freezer meals?
What are your go-to easy recipes?
Did you stockpile dinners before your baby was born?

    

Bumpdate: Weeks 37-38

If you missed my previous bumpdates, you can check out weeks 5-12 here, weeks 13-14 here, weeks 15-16 here, weeks 17-18 here, weeks 19-20 here, weeks 21-22 here, weeks 23-24 here, weeks 25-26 here, weeks 27-28 here, weeks 29-30 here, weeks 31-32 here, and weeks 33-34 here, and weeks 35-36 here! I've decided that at the very end of this, I'm going to make a book out of all of my weeks so Baby Cookie can look back and read through them someday. I also hope to make one giant blog post compiling all of my weeks together to see the progress.

How far along? 38 weeks (almost 39!)

Size of baby?

37 weeks: swiss chard

38 weeks: leek

Total weight gain? I'm finally gaining... and I hope it's all baby! I'm up 10 pounds now! 

Gender? GIRL! You can read about it here! 

Maternity clothes? Yep - all the time still except for some huge t-shirts!

Sleep? I'm now waking up at least once and hour - sometimes twice... I always have to go to the bathroom, but I think I'm waking from hip pain (despite the giant maternity pillow between my legs)... so I have to pee AND switch sides after I hobble back to bed...

Work outs? I'm trying to go on more walks... sometimes alone, sometimes with Dan and Smudge. I usually go 1.1 miles because there's a nice loop around our neighborhood that I like. 

Cravings? Pumpkin everything! But I totally blame that on social media and not on being pregnant... though I did make some delicious pumpkin muffins this week that I'll be sharing the super simple recipe for soon.

Aversions? Anything spicy in the evening. I can handle the heartburn during the day, but being awoken by acid in my throat is not exactly fun...

Best moment of this week? We saw the Royals play in Cincinnati, and it was a blast! Dan got me tickets for my birthday a month earlier, and we sat right behind the Royals dugout... we made a couple fun signs (about Baby Cookie, of course), and it was so much fun! There were (by FAR) more Royals fans than Reds fans at the game... and we won! 

Worst moment of this week? I've still been cramping a ton and having contractions... though my twice weekly NSTs are NOT showing anything. Boo. 

Looking forward to? Meeting Little Miss Baby Cookie... soon!!! 

    

Chocolate Candy Cookies: Recipe

It's been a while since I've participated in my own little Food Friday... which is disappointing since I've still been making things. I just haven't found the time to share the recipes.

Today's is a winner, though - super duper easy cookies... and all that chocolate. Mmmmm.

But really - these are SO easy. I made them when the Air Force Academy flying team was in Ohio to compete at Nationals. Dan was on the team while he was a cadet, so we drove to Columbus a couple times to see some of his friends and watch them compete. And who would I be if I showed up without goodies for them? Exactly. 

They loved these. And they were a big hit with my pregnant taste buds as well. Enjoy.

Easy Chocolate Candy Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package chocolate cake mix

• 1 egg

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 2 tbsp chocolate syrup (or water if you don't have any)

• 1 1/2 cups M&Ms or other chocolate candies

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. In a large bowl, combine the egg, butter, syrup, and cake mix with an electric mixer on low speed until completely mixed.

3. Add candies, a little at a time, and stir in with a wooden spoon.

4. Drop rounded tablespoonfulls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet about two inches apart.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

6. Cool on wire racks.

Do you like chocolate?

What's your favorite kind of cookie?

Professional Maternity Photos

Three weeks ago, right when I was 35 weeks pregnant, Dan and I had maternity photos taken! I had been looking forward to these, and I am SO glad we had them done.

They will be great to look back on as Baby Cookie grows, and I'm sure it'll be fun for her to see life before she was born!

Our good friend, Megan (of Magical Moments by Megan), took the photos for us on what has probably been the sunniest / brightest day in Dayton all summer - no joke!

We love how they turned out - and we did so many poses! I wanted to make sure I had enough so I can make a collage to match the rest of ours for our home.

Have you had maternity photos taken?

    

Baby Shower in Kansas City

Way back at the end of June, Dan and I drove back to Kansas City, Missouri for our baby shower. We were lucky enough to spend several days there before, and we had the best time seeing family and friends!

The day before we had to drive back, my mom and grandma threw a baby shower for Baby Cookie! There was a small problem in the logistics (as in there was a huge thunderstorm two nights before, and the power was out at our location), but everything worked out, and we had a blast!

Our cake was from Hy-Vee (shout out, MidWest!) and was so delicious. I wish we had one here...

My grandma and my husband unintentionally matched, and it was awesome.

The coolest gift we could ever receive was this old wagon full of blocks. It was my dad's when he was a kid, and I played with it when I was little too. It's so special to have for Baby Cookie!

My friend Megan (you may remember her as the Maid of Honor in our wedding) made this adorable pink tutu for Baby Cookie, along with two taggie blankets and an awesome belt! She is so creative and thoughtful!

My mom and grandma did such a great job putting this together for us!

We were so happy to see everyone (some for the first time in forever!), and we will definitely never forget this day!