How Do You Feed Yourself When Life Is A Lot?
Let's help a Burnt Toast mom get ready for baby number 2! Plus more thoughts on Valentine's Day, patriarchy, and going outside.
Friday Thread: What’s Your Favorite Make Ahead Meal?
As I’ve discussed before, I am a reluctant meal planner, but definitely not a meal prepper as a general rule because I would much rather spend my Sunday afternoons reading a novel. But there are definitely seasons of life when I’ve been grateful to have a stocked freezer and meal components ready to go: New babies, medical catastrophes, book deadlines. Sometimes you just need to make feeding yourself a whole lot easier. And advance prep is one way to get there.
So today’s thread prompt comes from reader Lucy, who is entering one of those seasons:
I’m pregnant with my second child, so I will have a three-year-old running around when this baby comes. With our first, we were severely underprepared in the food department, and I got myself into really sticky places of not eating for long stretches because we had not prepped enough grab and go snack or freezer meals. (Of course all the doctors praised how quickly I lost the baby weight, including the obvious PPD that was happening.)
This time, I want to be more prepared with a stocked freezer and snack pantry. But all my searches for postpartum meal prep is FULL of diet culture recipes for things that would help me “drop the baby weight,” or bullshit about helping me breastfeed. I just need some solid, easy frozen pasta recipes. Help!
Go, team: What should Lucy put in her freezer and pantry?
Tell us your best make-ahead meals and/or the snacks and quick prep meal components you stock up on during intense times.
I’m also curious what if anyone else has ever overzealously frozen meals they have no desire to eat later? Like, I will always work through some frozen pasta sauce, but I’ve let various soups go to the bad freezer burn place. (Is it possible that I just don’t like soup as much as I think I’m supposed to like soup? It never feels like enough of a meal?)