The arrival of a new baby in the family is a huge change to the life of new (and current!) parents. Those first few weeks and months parents are totally consumed in caring for the baby, mom is recovering, and no one is sleeping much. Finding time to prepare and cook food can be a big challenge. Here are some options of how you can help parents prepare for their new arrival by having meals stocked in their fridge or freezer for them.
Cook and freeze meals in advance for new parents
The cheapest option is to prepare meals in advance and freeze them so they can be reheated when the parents need them. This can be done by the parents themselves before the baby’s arrival, by grandparents or other relatives or friends that want to help out! Casseroles are good examples of comfort food that freeze well and can be made in large portions. Here are some recipe ideas:
Organize a meal train for new parents
A meal train is an organized way for people to coordinate and prepare meals for someone who needs them – such as a new parent, someone getting out of the hospital, or someone battling an illness. People are asked to signup to cover a date and they either cook or buy the meals for the person. It helps to give a list of any preferences, or dietary restrictions they might have.
Meal trains are often organized informally by signing up on a shared doc like a Google Doc, or can be done using free sites like mealtrain.com. The doc or page should specify who it’s for, what dates people can sign up for and any dietary preferences or info people need to know to provide the right meals.
Ready-to-eat meal delivery for new parents that ships nationwide
If there isn’t time to make a home-cooked meal or you live too far to drop off food, ordering meal delivery is a great idea. Rather than ordering from restaurants, meal delivery provide a healthier option and are packaged in a way that they store well for days or weeks in the fridge or months in the freezer.
Many meal delivery programs require subscriptions, but here are some that offer a la carte and one-time orders.
- Splendid Spoon is a meal delivery service that offers a variety of pre-made, plant-based meals and smoothies. You can purchase one-time boxes or get a weekly subscription. Meals arrive frozen. They offer grain bowls, noodles, soups, smoothies and juices.
- Pete’s Real Food offers paleo, vegan, Keto, and AIP meals. Meals ship fresh in vacuum sealed packaging. They also offer frozen packs.
- What A Crock. If they are crockpot users, What a Crock offers frozen meals ready to put directly in the crockpot to cook.
- Harry & David and has gourmet comfort meal options that make a nice gift.
Local ready-to-eat meal delivery for new parents
Local options are a great, healthy, fresh way to have meals sent to new parents. You order on their website each week to select the meals you want from their menu which often rotates regularly. They generally cook their meals on specific days of the week in a shared commercial kitchen or in their cafe or restaurant if they have a storefront. Some companies cook one day a week, others cook daily. Once cooked, the meals are then refrigerated or frozen before delivery. The benefit of local companies is they deliver fresh food on local routes rather than national companies where you wait for your food to be shipped in 1-3 days in the mail from an industrial kitchen.
Finding these local companies is not easy! The best way is to search your city on NoStove to see who delivers to you!
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