Postpartum Meal Prep

 

Postpartum Meal Prep

 I only got a few pictures because I'm exhausted now. Here's what I made:

- Instant Pot Pinto Beans by BudgetBytes. I made bean and cheese burritos with them, and a few of them I filled with a microwaveable Spanish rice packet so they are bean/cheese/rice. 5 cups of beef broth for 49 minutes in the Instant Pot.

- Slow Cooker Sesame Honey Chicken by Skinnytaste. I left out the cornstarch because I read it doesn't freeze well. So I'll just throw it in the crockpot or Instant pot and serve over rice. 

- Mandarin Teriyaki Chicken. This was just using up ingredients of what I had. I had a half bottle of Panda Express Mandarin sauce and a half bottle of Lawry's Pineapple Teriyaki Marinade. So I threw that in a bag with sriracha, sesame seeds and some squeeze ginger with jarlic along with some chicken.

- Freezer breakfast sausage burritos. I cooked up a pound of breakfast sausage along with scrambling 18 eggs with heavy cream (only because I had some, if I didn't I would have just used milk), salt and pepper. Then I made burritos with the sausage, eggs, and cheddar cheese wrapped in a tortilla.

- Freezer breakfast sandwiches recipe by Tastes Better from Scratch

- Slow cooker Pesto Ranch Chicken recipe by She's In Her Apron. I did add some garlic and pepper and I'll probably serve it over mashed potatoes with a side of frozen veggies.

- Veggie & Beef Lentil Chili. This was another clean out the pantry meal. 1 lb ground beef, 1 can lentils, 1 can corn, 1 can white beans, 1 can chili beans, 1 can Rotel. I also added bell peppers, zucchini, celery, onions, garlic, 1 can tomato paste, 2 cups beef broth. Spices I used were (about 1 & 1/2 tsp of each): chili powder (2 tbs), garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne, salt/pepper, 1 tsp sugar. I just warmed it up on the stove then transferred it into 2 freezer safe Ziploc bags. I could serve it with frozen Texas Toast, cornbread or even like a small quesadilla. I'll see how I feel when the baby is here lol.

- Mini lasagna's. The pans were a little too small, but I didn't want to make a huge 9x13 pan because that's too much. I just grabbed a generic lasagna recipe, I based it off of this one by About A Mom. I used 1lb ground beef & 1lb Italian sausage. I only had 1 container of ricotta so that was kind of lacking, and only 1 & 1/2 24oz jars of marinara, so I also added a bottle of pizza squeeze lol. I also added a zucchini since we have so much from the garden. 

Here's some of the dinners plated that I made post partum!

Skillet Lasagna with Taylor Farms Jalapeno Popper Salad Kit

 

Skillet Lasagna with Taylor Farms Jalapeno Popper Salad Kit

Walmart was out of full fat ricotta so I got low fat instead. Apparently low fat doesn't brown when broiling! I kinda burnt the mozzarella when I was trying to get some color on the ricotta. So weird. Oh well I know better for next time and it was still good.

I've made skillet lasagna before, but I've usually done like sugar free sauce, drained the fat etc trying to make it healthier. This time I didn't drain the fat and I used the Italian sausage and garlic Prego. Full fat cheeses and all the flavor lol. It was so good! Normally Italian's not my fav, but I really liked this.

There's 4 cups of spinach in it, and my husband doesn't like when I put spinach in recipes. But it's so good for us and the recipe called for it so I did it anyway. He kinda made a face while I was cooking, but he said he didn't even taste it and he loved the dinner.

This salad kit was also super good! I was kinda worried it would be too spicy for my son (he's not a huge lover of spicy) but nope, it's just full of flavor. The dressing tastes like ranch which is always good. 

My teenager also got some bread & butter and watermelon because he's always hungry. Bread and butter always reminds me of being young and my dad, I really don't know why. I mean I remember him once microwaving bread & butter, but I'm not sure why that stuck with me lol.

Click here for the Skillet Lasagna recipe by Olive & Mango

Sweet Corn and Poblano Lasagna

 

Sweet Corn and Poblano Lasagna

I went to the library with my son and I picked up the "Homemade-ish" cookbook by Lauren Duffie. The first recipe I tried was the Sweet Corn and Poblano Lasagna. It's more work then I'd normally pick for a weekday meal, but I actually had the day off so I figured it would be perfect to try. 

I was so bummed it wasn't that great! I mean the flavor was okay, but it was VERY light. I salted it generously so it wasn't really bland, but there just wasn't much flavor. I even roasted 5 poblanos instead of 4 because that's how many came in the bag. I think maybe next time I would add a can of chopped green chilis or even chipotles. Like it wasn't bad but it was a lot of work for not much flavor.

Click here for the Sweet Corn and Poblano Lasagna recipe from MyKitchenLittle

Cajun White Lasagna

 Cajun White Lasagna

  This was just okay, the only thing I did different was that I added a zucchini and some minced garlic when cooking the chicken. It was kinda bland and next time I would mix in the cajun seasoning with the alfredo too, not just in with the chicken. I probably wont make it again though.

Click here for the Cajun White Lasagna recipe by Paula Dean

Cream Cheese Chicken Lasagna with Zucchini 5 Points

 

                       Yes I know my photo does not look as tasty as the one in the recipe.

  Italian is not my favorite food (unless it's pizza), I like it but if it were up to me I'd choose other cuisines first. But my family LOVES Italian, it's their favorite. So I try and make something Italian at least once a week. 

  I followed the recipe exactly, except I cooked the chicken in the Insta Pot instead of the slow cooker since I was to lazy to get it ready in the morning. 

  For the zero point marinara, I used this Pizza and Pasta Magic seasoning. It's really good, we like it better then regular Italian seasoning. It does have some heat from the red pepper flakes, so it might be to much if your kids are little. We buy it at Meijer. 

Click Here for the Cream Cheese Chicken Lasagna Recipe from The Pound Dropper

  For the zucchini side I just diced up half an onion, but I should of done a full one and cooked it in a skillet with a tsp of olive oil and a spray of Pam for like 5 minutes, then added 2 diced zucchini's. I tossed it with Kinders Master Salt and it took oh maybe 12 minutes to cook. I was going to dice up some cherry tomatoes to toss in that I need to use up but I was again...lazy. I was tired ok, I'm still getting used to waking up at 5am to get my son ready for school, even though he's been in school for like 3 months. But anyway, I absolutely love Kinders Master Salt, it makes everything taste amazing.

  So the lasagna is 5 points a serving, and the zucchini was free. Nice low point dinner!

 

In some sad news, the new Animal Crossing New Horizon's update came out today, and my son lost my Switch charger so I can't even play it yet.