Food For New Moms

[winnied]

My friend is having her baby any day now and I'd like to provide food for her and her husband post-baby. What are some things you liked or disliked that people brought?

I know I'm definitely going to bring muffins, fresh veggies with a dip or two, and I'd like to bring a dinner or two.

[huey]

Our friends brought us a pasta casserole and we loved that. It fed us for 3 meals, was easy to heat up. She also brought us some veggies and rolls.

That is very sweet of you

[Deleted]

I liked one dish meals that I could just scoop some out microwave and eat. Lasagna, broccoli and rice and chicken casserole, Shepard's pie etc.

[Deleted]

I snacked on a giant bag of trail mix from Costco. Anything baked (cookies, bars, muffins) would be great.

For meals, you really couldn't give me something I wouldn't have been grateful for. I had made lasagna, enchilada bake, chili for the freezer.

[fortmyersbride]

Casseroles were awesome, as anything I could eat one handed while BFing was a godsend. Veggie and fruit trays were really nice too for when it felt like carb overload from all the baked goods.

[Deleted]

I loved having meals but I also loved snacks - I didn't always have a hand free to eat whenever I was hungry (which was all.the.time) so I loved things like granola bars, grapes, animal crackers, etc. My mom brought me a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies and I devoured those in a few days haha.

For meals definitely one-dish - lasagna was awesome, so was chili. DH made a lot of turkey burgers .

[Ashley&Scott]

Things that are easy to eat with one hand are great, so are pre-made meals.

We stocked our freezer the last month of my pregnancy: we had chicken pot pie, cheesy meatloaf, enchiladas, baked ziti, taco meat, sloppy joes, homemade soup...

[ijack]

muffins are awesome because she can eat it with one hand. Things that are portioned into individual (or double) servings are also great so you don't end up eating a giant pan of lasagna for a week.

[egishere]

We got a lot of meals and I personally got sick of so many pasta dishes. One of my favs was baked potato soup, salad and brownines. I don't know if that sounds good during the summer but it was awesome. Also liked when we got take out from people-fajitas, home cooking type of food, PeiWei.

[jenjen]

So nice of you! I agree that fruit/veges would be amazing. I did have a friend bring me a fruit salad which was awesome because we didn't have any good fruit in the house after being in the hospital for a few days. I loved the people who sent them in aluminum pans so that I didn't have to worry about returning tupperwear/dishes.

Also, snacks listed above would be great. I had a lot of muffins and a lot of granola bars because they were easy to eat in the middle of the night while BFing.

I've made these recipes from a blog which would be awesome to deliver as meals. I think the only things that would need to be delivered would be tortillas (for the fajitas) or rice, other than that one of them could throw it in a crock pot for 3-4 hours and have a meal. www.savingyoudinero.com/2012/06/12/1-hour-1-mess-5-crock-pot-meals/

[winnied]

This is great, thanks everyone! I know lots of people bring baked pasta dishes so I was thinking of not doing that. Is delivering an entree for the crockpot in a Ziploc bag helpful enough?

Jen, thanks especially for the link. That is super helpful!

I'll definitely add more snacks since that seems to be popular.

[blue1980]

My two favorites - one couple brought us breakfast stuff (bagels, cream cheese, fruit salad, oj, bag of good coffee beans, etc) and my mom brought a ham (smallish) and a giant bag of salad mix. It sounds silly but I ate a ham sandwich and big salad for lunch every day for at least a week or two and it was so great because it was easy and pretty healthy.

[aspentosh]

Frozen food that was easy to pop in the microwave and heat up
Finger foods are KEY
Fresh fruit/veggies

[6fsn]

Something for the crockpot would be fantastic- espcially if it's got nothing to do with noodles or a red sauce. I was greatful for every meal people brought, but 5 huge pans of some sort of baked pasta was too many.

I never understood the one handed thing. DH and I would either eat separately or one of use would just take a few minutes to cut things up before sitting down.

[starlily]

Chinese food & cupcakes, but I had been on the GD diet and had been feeling deprived of noodles & sweets.

[froggy76]

Snacks! I was so hungry all the time, but I rarely could figure out how to sit down and eat a hot meal with a fork.

A crockpot meal sounds great, too. If you have those bags that go in the crockpot to make clean-up easier, I'd include one of those.

[froggy76]

Aug 23, 2012 12:12:04 GMT -5 6fsn said:

I never understood the one handed thing. DH and I would either eat separately or one of use would just take a few minutes to cut things up before sitting down.

We'd take turns for dinner, but during the day I was alone. I either ate one-handed or didn't eat at all.

[zarapipe]

I liked a sandwich platter with all the fixings. That way people can just grab what they want and eat. I had a lot of family stop by so I offered it to them to when they were visiting baby.

[whitterbugk]

I would have loved a bunch of granola bars and a case of bottled water.

I didn't have much of an appetite for the first week, so I mostly ate snacks.

[6fsn]

Aug 23, 2012 13:22:46 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

Aug 23, 2012 12:12:04 GMT -5 6fsn said:

I never understood the one handed thing. DH and I would either eat separately or one of use would just take a few minutes to cut things up before sitting down.

We'd take turns for dinner, but during the day I was alone. I either ate one-handed or didn't eat at all.

I must have blocked out lunches! I have no clue how that worked, except maybe the ergo.

[birdmom]

Casseroles that just had to go in the oven were great. Lasagna, chicken enchilidas and the like.

[crazygame]

I craved fresh fruit.

[matildasun]

A friend made us spring rolls, which I never would have thought of, but really enjoyed. We had them for dinner one night and then I had them for lunch. They were great, because they could be eaten cold.

[zeewifeandmama]

Aug 23, 2012 13:22:46 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

Aug 23, 2012 12:12:04 GMT -5 6fsn said:

I never understood the one handed thing. DH and I would either eat separately or one of use would just take a few minutes to cut things up before sitting down.

We'd take turns for dinner, but during the day I was alone. I either ate one-handed or didn't eat at all.

Yup, same here.