I love chest freezers and fortunately I have the space for one.
Now as a pregnant woman with 6 weeks to go and an eight-week recovery time during which my husband will need to look after both baby and myself and will do all the heavy lifting.
So, I’ve been in essence doing an extension of my pantry challenge, by doing postpartum food prep. Now my darling husband has said ‘You do realise I can cook.’, but that is entirely unfair on him. His two-week paternity leave should allow him time to bond with baby. So, when I am well enough, I am doing freezer meals, to make life easier.
Curry
I have been using the last of a red curry paste that has been lurking in the fridge.
- 1 large spoon of curry paste
- 1 tin of coconut milk
- Leftover Turkey
- 5 handfuls of assorted freezer vegetables
- 3 handfuls of chopped mushrooms.
Chilli
- Frozen minced meat.
- 1 onion
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
- 2 spoons of tomato paste
- 2 spoons of chilli flakes
- 2 tabs of chocolate
- 1 tin of kidney beans
- 1 tin or leftover baked beans
- 1 spoon of chilli powder
- 1 tsp of cocoa powder.
- 1 stock cube
- 1 or 2 slugs of chilli sauce (I like Cholula)
- A couple of cups of water
Chicken Soup
I made simple chicken soup with two boned chicken wings
- Half a cup of dried spring onions
- Salt
- Pepper
- A couple of litres of water and a cup of broth
Barley Stew
With my other two other boned chicken wings I did barley stew.
- Half a jar of spring onions
- Salt and pepper
- Two teaspoons of tomato paste
- 500g of well rinsed barley
- Some mixed herbs
- Two teaspoons of a low spice chilli sauce
Pork wontons
For low motivation days I found a pack of wonton wrappers and some pork mince.
- Add salt and white pepper to mince.
- Slug of soy sauce, sesame oil, white rice vinegar, oyster sauce and a spoon of sugar.
- Add cornflower and mix well.
- Then fold into wrappers.
- Freeze
These will be perfect to drop into chicken broth or steam up with some cabbage.
There’s time to do more and I know it will be depleted as my husband enjoys a hot lunch but it puts us ahead.
The other ones I’ve done is I have used 1lb of sausage, two onions and a bag of potatoes with some mushrooms and butter. I turned this into banger and mash pie, two of them.
I doubt we will starve but I still plan on making a lasagne and some beef stew with dumplings so there is a bit more choice.
You can find more delicious recipes on our blog: https://theiristribune.co.uk/blog/
