The New Baby Meal List

When I was pregnant with Eland I cooked up a storm. We had lived in Albuquerque for less than a year when Eland was due, so I knew I couldn't count on many meals from friends since we didn't have a whole lot of them yet. Here's the list of what I made, so that whenever the next time comes around, I'll remember.

None of these meals had garlic, onion, or dairy. I replaced onion with leeks whenever I felt it was appropriate. I've heard that avoiding garlic, onion, and possibly dairy makes for a less gassy baby. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but neither of my boys were colicky, so I'm sticking with it.

• Plum chicken - 4 gladware tubs
• Taco meat - 2 gladware tubs
• Cubed cooked chicken (for chicken salad or salads in general) - 1 gallon bag
• Cincinnati-style chili - 3 gladware tubs
• Italian beef - 2 gladware tubs
• BBQ meatloaf - 4 gladware tubs
• Chimichangas - 18
• Chicken basil sausages - 6 uncooked links
• 1 package of hotdog buns
• Stuffed green peppers - 3 gladware tubs with 2 peppers each
• Nectarine-blueberry crisp - 3 gladware tubs
• Chicken pot pie - 2 pie-sized baking dishes, 2 individual bakers
• Chicken noodle soup - 8 gladware tubs
• Gnocchi (uncooked) - 1 gallon bag
• Beef in red wine sauce - 2 gladware tubs
• Brownies - 2 gallon bags containing 1/2 pan each
• Zucchini bread - 1 loaf cut in half with halves frozen separately
• Date bread - 1 loaf

Yes, this is a lot of food, and ambitious, but it helped so much to have these meals along with a bunch of others from friends to last us until I had the energy to cook again. (Dan did cook a few meals a week, too.) Also, this doesn't include little-prep meals like pasta with sauce from a jar and that sort of thing.

Now I can go throw out the written list that's still on my refrigerator...