Baby Prep - Meals and Desserts!

**In preparation for the arrival of our little one, I have prepped some posts in advance.  As soon as our lives have some semblance of order (hah!) I will get back to my regular posting and be able to respond to any questions/comments you may have :)

In order to prep for the arrival of our little one I cooked and baked up a storm during the last month or so.  I am hoping that it will make things easier when I can just grab a bag from the freezer, throw the contents in the crockpot, and let it cook away until supper time.

I also baked up some treats so that it will be a bit easier to entertain the visitors as everyone comes to meet the new additions!

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but I have had a few people ask me what I have prepared and where I have found the recipes, so here is a list :) If you have any questions, just let me know!



Freezer Lasagna's

I used my go-to lasagna recipe to make four smaller lasagnas to keep in the deep freeze.  I made two full recipes, and then split them between four smaller dishes (you can get these freezer pans at the grocery store). I froze them before cooking the lasagna's, so when we are ready to eat I will pop them in the oven at 375F and bake until cooked through and the cheese is all bubble on top!  Each lasagna should be good for dinner and enough leftovers for lunch and an additional dinner as well for the two of us.



Freezer Crock Pot Meals

I spent a lot of time browsing Pinterest and came up with a list of crock pot meals I thought we would enjoy.  Each recipe makes two meals worth (fills two large freezer ziploc bags) so with a few hours worth of chopping and measuring I was able to come up with 8 meals that are ready for the crock pot!  I also wrote any final instructions on the bags to make it as easy as possible.  The meals I made were (click on the names for the original links):

• Slow Cooked Beef Fajitas
• Teriyaki Chicken
• I added 4 chopped celery stalks to this recipe as well
• Coconut Chicken Curry
• Crock Pot BBQ Chicken
• I also chopped up a small onion and 4 stalks of celery for this recipe.  This chicken is awesome in sandwiches, on nachos, on BBQ chicken pizza, etc!

Cookies for Guests (and when we need a treat!)

I wanted to make sure we had some treats on hand that I could take out in a pinch when guests came over.  Also, I wanted to make sure we had access to something tasty and home-made when we need a pick-me-up too!  For every batch I kept a dozen out for ourselves to enjoy while we wait, and then froze the rest in batches of 1 dozen.  Here are the different cookies I prepared:

• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Butterscotch and Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Maple-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
• Milk Chocolate Cookies (please see previous post)
• Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

So hopefully this will help make mealtimes easier as we get used to life with a newborn!  

Have a great day everyone!