Stocking our fridge and freezer before baby gets here.

I am into the final count down before I start maternity leave, 2 more days of work! There are still several things I want to do, and hope to get to do before baby girl gets here. One of the biggest things I want to get done is stocking my fridge and freezer. This was a huge regret for me the first time round, it was not something I did well before our first daughter was born. Thinking back on it, I believe it truly would have made a huge difference in many ways. I felt so stressed out trying to figure out meals for my family, and getting them prepared, cooked, and served. It was too much, and added to my stress after just having had a baby. So this time I have come up with a game plan, but I am hoping to be able to spread this out a bit before baby girl arrives since I am almost 38 weeks, and moving slowly. 

1. Clean the fridge and freezer. Nesting has totally set in, and all I want to do is thoroughly clean our and gut our fridge and freezer. I want it cleaned out top to bottom, and sparkling. If you have any tips on making stainless steel look great let me know. Besides doing this to make sure there is lots of room in our fridge and freezer, is I want a section of the freezer ready to go for storing frozen milk. I pumped last time round, and if I need to this time I want to be ready to store milk in the freezer right away. 
2. Inventory and check list. I want to put together a running inventory of what we have, and expiry dates. This will help me to be able to make a shopping list so that I can buy what we need but not waste our money on multiples… I’ve got the two week waiting period for my mat leave pay starting soon, I want to be smart about how our grocery money is spent. 
3. Meal plan. I am hoping to figure out how many meals. Am I going to be preparing for two weeks, or a month? How many meals exactly do I wish to have ready to go? Am I going to attempt to have lunches and dinners made? Right now I am leaning towards a month, including some snack items that can be reheated, such as muffins, but I’ll be honest I would be thrilled to have lunch and dinner in the freezer for two weeks. That would be amazing. 
4. What am I making? I really need to get my game plan together for this, which is not a strong point for me. I’ve failed a few times at meal planning. By doing this, I hope to have great meals for the whole family that can simply be heated up. If there are leftovers from dinner the night before, they can be had for lunch the next day. Pinterest is helping me out a lot with this part. You can see what all I have pinned so far over here on my Freezer Meal Board. Thankfully it is fall, and I am loving the idea of having lots of freezer bagged crock pot stews, and soups ready to go. 
5. Go shopping. I am hoping to do one big shopping day and get any items that are needed that are not currently in our fridge or freezer. Depending on how I’m feeling, I may be sending my husband out to do this grocery shopping trip. When baby comes there will be small grocery trips that happen for basics like milk, eggs, and yogurt, but that is okay.
6. Get my meal prep done. I want to spend a few days preparing meals, it may be that I do a marathon prep and cooking session in our kitchen. I will probably also double a few actual lunch and dinners, and simply pack away the left overs in portioned containers. Keep things simple right? I do not want to overdo things and exhaust myself. 

This is my plan for stocking my fridge and freezer before baby gets here. Now hopefully I will be able to execute it. I know my daughter will be a huge help in a lot of the meal preparations; I am so thankful for her helper heart and desire to learn.

Did you prepare meals before you baby’s arrival? What are your favourite freezer meal recipes?