I'm planning to do this same thing over the next few weeks! (I'm 8 months pregnant) I was going to do a spaghetti sauce, taco meat, shredded chicken that can go in almost anything, and one of our favorite meals is super easy chicken fajitas (I dump chicken, onions and green peppers, all frozen, into a pan, cover with fajita spices and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes), I already have a ton of bags of onions and green peppers ready to go!

My favorite easy & healthy meals to freeze:

sweet potato burritos
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/addictive-sweet-potato-burritos/Detail.aspx

thai green curry (you can make the sauce with coconut milk or stores like Whole Foods sell Thai simmer sauces that you can add coconut milk to). I use the simmer sauce, add a can of coconut milk and some chicken or tofu and butternut squash. Serve with Jasmine rice.

Congrats!

Just for every day ease, we cook up ground turkey with a chopped onion and herbs and spices (which vary every time, but oregano, thyme, savory, marjoram, some chili powder) and freeze it in ziplock bags. From there it goes in everything from spaghetti sauce, with greens over rice, or on salads. I always found the protein was the longest part of prepping a meal, so this is my favorite short cut for busy nights and I have used it since college.

After that soup - chicken, carrot with white bean, squash, or beef/barley. Growing up my mom used to make frozen dinners out of the Thanksgiving left-overs and stuffing freezes well.

We love doing shredded meat (mostly chicken and pork) and soup (tuscan white bean and vegetable works well). Pesto, unbaked homemade pizza, and quiche freeze well too. If you can find a copy of Simple and Delicious magazine either at your library or at a newsstand, they always mark which of their recipes will freeze well in the index. Good luck with your twins!

Thanks for posting my question!!!
@ GDW - do you find that coconut milk splits because it is frozen? We love curries (esp Thai curries) so I'm interested :)

I am mighty impressed at your forethought! We ended up eating tinned soup and cereal for about six weeks after my daughter was born. I remember her doctor remarking that I must have very nurtitious breastmilk because my 5 lb newborn had shot up to 8 lbs. I didn't want to tell her that my breastmilk was probably 90% Fruity Pebbles and Ritz crackers.

I second the pesto suggestion. You can freeze it (and other liquid-y) things flat in ziploc bags to save room in your freezer. By freezing it flat, you can just break off a chunk to use for pasta or as a spread.

If you're nursing, you might find that pureed soups make for a great, drinkable dinner. I often only had one hand free for a few hours in the evenings, and being able to drink a hearty lentil soup from a big mug was convenient.

I've also frozen cornbread and banana bread. It was great to have a homemade bread along with a meal, especially when we had guests.

I am due in April and making similar plans. With my last baby, a friend made me several meals from Cooks' Illustrated's Best Make Ahead Recipe book. I particularly enjoyed the white chicken chili, the bolognese sauce, and the tamale pie. She froze these in aluminum loaf pan portions, which are great for two people.

It separates a little bit, but I reheat the curry on the stovetop and stir and it all blends nicely. My husband says he actually prefers the reheated curry because the flavor is more pronounced than when you first make it.

It's also a nice option because you can add some fresh veggies--zucchini or bell peppers, for instance.

I just had twins last year. If you have the space, get a big freezer!! We got a huge vertical one with shelves on Craigslist for $200. Try anything with beans or lentils. I also bake chicken and shred it in small portions because it's so easy to throw in anything. Soup freezes well, quiche, breakfast casserole, risotto, enchiladas, taco meat, etc. The Martha Stewart website has lots of suggestions. I think you can search freezer meal or something. We also didn't have family around. If you have friends asking what they can give you, tell them to prepare you a meal that you can freeze. One tip, though, is to freeze things in small portions so that you don't have to thaw a bunch of one thing and eat it until you're sick of it. You can get back to your usual methods of cooking eventually, but the first year or so (I'm not sure how long it lasts as I'm not there, yet) are all about survival!!

I make and freeze big batches of Beef stew and home made burritos (much better than store bought). I also make mini meatballs, freeze them and then throw them in a pot with chicken stock, canned crushed tomatoes, pasta, beans, and spinach for a really delicious soup. With the meatballs pre-made this soup takes no time at all and is a really hearty and healthy meal.

I have 1 year old twins- and that was the most helpful thing I did or had people do for us. I doubled everything I could- soups, sauces, stews- so it could thaw overnight. You will have no time for forethought about any meals- much less the time to cook. So- do this. Also- stock up your freezer with bread, cheese, and other staples. It just made me feel better to know there was stuff there.

By the time our girls were 6 months- I had the time in the afternoon to cook again.

Oh! The other really great thing I did was made huge batches of muffins and froze them to be re-heated in the toaster for snacks. I nursed my girls and was hungry all the time- so having a quick muffin for a 3am snack was helpful.

I had twins in March 2009 and I froze tons of food in advance. We also don't have family nearby so I totally understand your situation. It will be a huge challenge (as another poster noted the first year and then some IS all about survival) so you are wise to plan ahead!

I froze a lot of soups and sauces. I made pizza dough, macaroni and cheese, lasagna, and assorted other casserole type meals. All of those went into the freezer too. I also rely VERY HEAVILY on my crock pots. You can assemble most of the meals in advance, freeze them, and then throw them into the crock pot when you are ready to eat.

We don't eat processed food as a rule but there are times when we rely on the $10 family entrees from Whole Foods. They are pretty decent and are easily doctored.

Best of luck!

Spaghetti sauces, stir fry ingredients prepped, taco meat, lasagna, pizza dough.
My favorite is soup frozen in individual and meal size servings.
We also ate a fair bit of Trader Joe's frozen stuff in the first few weeks.

If you do have friends in the area that you feel you can ask, you might see if someone will organize a "meal tree" for you, where friends bring a dish for you on a given night.

I agree with all the suggestions, so I will just add some ideas of things that do -not- freeze well. Cooked pasta will tend to absorb a lot of water and get mushy (raw assembled lasagna is good though), as will potatoes, so if you really want to freeze them I suggest undercooking them a bit and finishing them after you thaw, and expect to add a bit more liquid. I have never been able to get mashed potatoes to reconstitute properly.

Don't forget that whatever you freeze will have to be brought up to temperature and simmered or baked or whatever, so if you freeze it cooked, don't cook it all the way or you will end up with it overcooked.

Most of the dinners I use from the freezer also use something made fresh -- rice, pasta, quinoa, and a salad or simple veggie.

I like to cool things like pasta sauce and shepherds' pie innards (everything but the potato topping) and freeze them flat in ziplock bags. That way they stack nicely in the freezer and thaw quickly.

Wow so many suggestions - thanks so much and keep them coming!!!!
@ to the moms of twins who posted - talk about scare the heck out of me!! I won't have any time at all to cook a meal or go to the shop???? Hopefully hubby will every now and then (he's a great cook!!) - did anybody hire help?

Quick question (as I am also pregnant and planning to do something similar): are you supposed to thaw things out before putting them in the oven? For example, frozen lasagne. Thaw first before baking?

You might guess from the number of responses to your question that it's not actually that common these days that "most" new parents get "all that great help."

There have been no new parents in my own social circle with family locally. Like ninaax suggested, we've tried to help each other out. You might be surprised at how willing your friends are to contribute!

And, YAY for freezer meals!! Some great suggestions here!

We are huge cooks, too, but you don’t have to think about frozen meals as a sacrifice. Rather, it allows you to have the great food you cook at another time. Instead of focusing on one-dish meals, we freeze parts that can easily be complimented by something simple like rice/pasta/polenta, a store-bought rotisserie chicken, edemame, or - dare I say it - frozen peas or canned green beans.

A lot of the things you cook probably would work. We’ve found the best candidates are foods that are (a) cooked, (b) relatively free of non-cheese dairy - although we’re okay with slightly odd creamed soups and freeze them anyway, and (c) relatively free of lemon/lime juice or avocados.

Examples of things we freeze: Indian curries, jambalaya, dirty rice, Mexican rice, refried beans, sweet and sour soup, chicken soup, beef stews, chili, tamales, pasties/empanadas/potstickers, spaghetti sauce, meatballs, sloppy joe filling.

As for freezing, here are a few tips:
-- Let the item completely cool in the fridge before freezing, which will reduce ice damage and give you a better rethawed result.
-- Package tightly! You want as little air contact with the food as possible, especially if you don’t have a deep freeze.
-- Freeze items like meatballs and pot stickers on a cookie sheet and transfer to a bag after completely frozen - otherwise, you’ll have a big, frozen lump.
-- If you will be breastfeeding, I suggest that you leave out the cheese as much as possible and add when you reheat. It will give you greater flexibility if you find that your little ones can’t handle dairy.

We are having twins February 1st and have been prepping A LOT! Doubling what you make now is a good way to go because it feels like less work. I second the second full freezer option if you have the space!

Lots of good ideas. I asked for a freezer for Christmas because I go through phases of wanting to cook. So, I make a bunch of meals when I'm in the mood and then we still eat good when I'm not! A suggestion I loved: make casseroles in a dish lined with foil and then wax paper. Freeze it in the dish and then pull out the casserole and wrap completely. When you want to cook it it will fit in your baking dish perfectly. No need to buy tin baking dishes! Does that make sense?

peachypear thanks for your great post and reassuring to hear from somebody who loves cooking and has maintained that still - I'm getting some great ideas! I think you make a great point that it doesn't have to be the whole meal that you freeze but just part - also we are not huge meat eaters so I don't think I could eat stew after stew after stew anyway (also due to dietary/health reasons)...but the idea of adding something fresh to something pre-prepared/frozen is great ie I can get hubby to bring home fresh greens/ BBQ chicken etc on way home from work since he walks right past Wholefoods/Trader Joes/Shaws and then add to what I have frozen...
The other suggestion I have had is to write down all the meals with recipes/ingredients that I currently cook so I don't have to think too much if we did want to prepare something half fresh and that way hubby could make or know what to get if he's doing a run to the market - it was actually his idea since he forgets all the different dishes that I cook... reading all these great posts/ideas definitely has me feeling much more confident :)
PS We don't have room for another freezer unfortunately so I think I probably only have around 3 weeks worth of frozen food room

My twins are six months old, and their brother is 28 months: dinner is the weak spot of every day here. I'm experimenting with frozen foods, a pressure cooker, and a slow cooker. Anything to cut down time required for making a healthy and nutritious meal. In addition to all of these suggestions, I would just say to plan out your meals the night before, so you don't hit the evening meal time and have to wait an hour for that frozen meal to cook. Thaw things in the fridge, get the slow cooker going, etc., as the last thing you do every night. Oh, and freeze meals similar to what you already eat. That lasagna sat and sat in my freezer--because we don't like lasagna that much.

I have a 2-month old at home and similar situation in that we don't have any family nearby. There are a ton of great suggestions about what to freeze already so I'll just add one other thing. If you intend to breastfeed, then I would consider focusing on freezing just protein and starches ahead of time.

We made a ton of ragu and turns out that it's just sitting there because my baby can't handle it when I eat tomatoes or bell pepper. Other mothers I've spoken with have had to cut out soy or dairy, and typically certain veggies are what causes issues. Each situation is different, but this way hopefully your hard work and forethought won't be wasted!

We had twins last November so I did the exact same thing. I did google searches for make ahead recipes and freezer cooking and ended up making 25 complete meals for the deep freeze. Lasted us through the winter. I made a couple lasagnas, baked ziti with veggies, homemade mac and cheese casserole, sloppy joes, enchiladas, etc. but I think the things that were handiest were these crockpot packets I made by simply chopping up all the ingredients for a crockpot meal and freezing them in heavy duty ziplocs flat. They stacked well in the freezer. All I had to do was put the frozen block into the crockpot and later that same day, dinner! The casseroles I had made took two days to defrost so the crockpot packets were much more useful. I made chili, veggie beef soup, sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, and beef stew. I basically made two of each. Just diced the veggies and cubed the meats, etc. and dumped in any sauces. With the chili I put in all the meat, beans, veggies except the tomatoes, since I typically use canned tomatoes. You can leave out the beans if you used canned. I just dumped the packet and two cans of tomatoes which I stockpiled.
It was SO NICE to not have to cook. We don't have family nearby and while we did have each grandma here for a week, we pretty much did it ourselves. I always read "bring a new mom a meal" and we did not have a SINGLE visitor who did that. Not one. SO GLAD we prepped ahead.
Twins are awesome, enjoy!

There are some great suggestions on here. We have a set of four-year-old twins and are expecting another (just one!) in February.

This isn't a freezer meal, but you could also try the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Book. It really is pretty quick to get fresh bread on the table and super easy to do during nap times.

Also, a tip for your freezer food: keep a master list of everything that you are freezing as well as labeling everything really well, with the cook/freeze date. Then as you use things cross them off your list. That way you won't think you have something (in a sleepless induced stupor) or forget about something that you could have eaten (again, in a sleepless induced stupor).

Having twins is amazing by the way! Hard, but totally worth it. Good luck and congratulations!

jlwood I love your suggestions re freezing 'fresh' ingredients ready for a crockpot - I think it would be great on some upcoming cold days to have that wonderful smell throughout the house and the feeling that you are eating a meal from 'scratch'! I'm definitely going to use this idea... and to go with it why not some freshly baked bread via kashby's suggestion of cooking artisan bread in 5 minuntes... in fact I just ordered the book so I can get in some practice!
Thanks again for all the contributions - I really have some great ideas now :)

Congratulations! We had our twins in June and we did this exact thing. In fact we were up until 3AM bagging the last batch of cooked red beans the night before the girls were born.

Here's what we made:

Southern Red Beans and Sausage
Cream of Chicken and Rice Soup
Beef and Vegetable Stew
Precooked Taco Meat w/ Black Beans
Lasagna (undercooked)
Waffles (pop 'em in the toaster)
Chicken curry
Shredded Pork

Good luck with your incoming little ones. The last 6 months have been some of the hardest of our lives but, as so many other parents of twins have told me over the last year, it does get better.

I made chili (ground turkey, pork, beef, and kidney bean), Mac and cheese, bolognese, a ground lamb and eggplant pasta topping I love, chicken mole, cochinita pibil, beef stroganoff (without noodles), and maybe something else I forgot? Things that could be thrown on pasta were good since boiling noodles is pretty easy. I also made like six or seven kinds of muffins and froze them in big bags - 20 seconds in the microwave and we had fresh breakfast. Nom!

I had a singleton last month and did a fair bit of cooking ahead. Two things I learned:
- I dont know if you are breastfeeding, but I have found that I cannot consume dairy, as my baby is very sensitive to a protein in milk. So, everything I made with cream-based sauces or cheese toppings (or even the 6 quiches!) will just serve to provide lunches for my DH. So, if I do it again, I'll stay away from at least the most common allergens.
- Snacks that can be eaten with one hand are invaluable. I made and have already eaten 6 dozen muffins. I got recipes from Enlightened Cooking blog.
Oh, and congratulations!!!!

Freezing some things ahead of time will make your first couple of weeks as parents much easier. Here is a link to a post I wrote about doing such: http://thesweetest3.com/?p=645

buy the book: The best make ahead recipes by the people who make cooks magazine

Congratulations on your twins!

As for recipes, I would have to second the book recommendation for The Best Make Ahead Recipes by Cook's Illustrated.

Have to say, the only thing I have every really made ahead is Bolognese sauce (mine is pretty good); muffins; chicken soup (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/susans-chicken-soup) to which I add Matzo balls (the instant mix works great; I don't like soggy noodles, but I *do* like tender dumplings); pizza dough (easy to add great toppings); and Czech Spanish birds, which is a type of rouladen, brightened with the unexpected taste of pickle. Cheap make ahead steak, if you will.

Here is an English recipe for them, except that it has a few mistakes: should have a good quality (i.e., German or Czech deli, not regular hot dog) frankfurter, needs egg -- either wedges of hard boiled egg, or softly scrambled -- and the ends should be wrapped so the filling does not fall out.

http://ourlifeinmeals.com/2010/10/26/back-to-basics-czech-ptacky/

Here is what it should look like though:

http://www.mimibazar.cz/recept.php?id=1269&user=13130

Basically though, I hate chilli, stews are too heavy most of the time, and despise casseroles. So, although I didn't have twins to contend with, I did have 2 children -- and moved across the world when the 2nd was born, to a place with no take-out! I relied on simple recipes using fresh food and pantry staples -- Donna Hays' "Off the Shelf", "New Fast Food", and "The Instant Cook", Jill Dupleix's "Totally Simple Food" and "Very Simple Food" and Martha Stewart's Everyday Food".

Plus, you might want to splurge on a home chef (they come and cook a week's worth of meals, leaving both fresh and frozen already prepped -- what is awesome is that they do all the shopping too!!) for the very beginning and/or a post partum doula. (I'd go with the chef myself).

Enjoy those sweet early days with your babies; they are magical, and pass oh so quickly.

I don't have much experience with this, but make sure you seal everything really well, maybe using double bags?

I had some luck with freezer meals after my third was born, but some of it tasted awful, like freezer burn, and had to be thrown out! Very inconvenient when you're hungry and just waited an hour for the lasagna to cook (not to mention a huge waste of heirloom squash!).