How to Feed Your New Mom Friends

The secret ingredient is love <3

If you’ve read any number of my articles, you might have noticed that feeding people is my love language.

I come by it naturally. I grew up in a small town where my mom and I lived about a quarter mile from my grandparents and just a couple miles from my aunt. It was very normal for just one of the three homes to make dinner on any given night and drop food off to the other two.

Because that was my normal growing up, I never really realized how unique it was until my husband pointed it out one of the first times he visited my family with me.

I do think that experience, along with growing up in the kitchen of my grandparents’ restaurant, instilled in me a deep love for feeding people.

Kiddo Kearstin serving up a cold one (Pepsi) at my grandparents’ restaurant (probably for myself). It was either start feeding people or mixing drinks and I don’t think that Pepsi pour would’ve gotten me too far.

In more recent years, I’ve learned how to feed my own little family, cracked the code on party food, and most recently, I’ve been learning how to help stock the freezers of friends expecting babies.

Becoming a mom myself has given me a little more insight into how to really show up for friends in those early postpartum days (thanks to the many amazing friends who showed up for me).

I could probably write a whole article on how to love on new moms (would you read it??), but today we’re focusing on what I think is one of the most essential ways to do that: keeping moms (and dads) fed in the newborn days by filling their freezer.

If you were an expecting mom friend, here’s exactly what I’d meal prep for you (if you had the freezer space).

Breakfast

I’ve written about this previously, but one of my strongest opinions about postpartum meal prep is that breakfast should be priority numero uno.

I found that for me, having something quick to grab and warm up in the morning was essential (honestly…many months later, it still is). If we needed to make arrangements for or cook dinner in the early postpartum days, there was time in the day to plan for that. However, time was much more limited between waking up and needing to eat.

Especially when your world shifts and you’re more worried about making sure your tiny human’s needs are met first (while potentially battling intense breastfeeding hunger of your own).

If I was meal prepping for you and had to choose only a couple of things to stock your freezer with, it would be breakfast. Specifically these breakfast recipes:

High Protein Cheesy Breakfast Biscuits

ORDER UP! One batch of breakfast biscuits (extra crispy) ready at the counter.

These became my hyper-fixation breakfast for an embarrassing amount of time. I prepped some before my daughter was born and then just kept doubling and freezing the recipe every time we ran out… for months.

I personally get a bit of an egg ick when I try to freeze breakfast sandwiches or burritos, but these are the perfect alternative. They freeze beautifully and are so easy to pop in the microwave straight from frozen. I usually do about a minute per biscuit. If you have an air fryer, they are also amazinggggg reheated that way.

There are also so many breakfast biscuit varieties on Jenn’s website so you can mix it up or find the one that speaks to your heart.

Rice Pudding

This postpartum rice pudding from Restorative Roots is so nourishing, comforting, and gentle on the early postpartum stomach.

When I had my daughter, I brought a couple servings of this to the hospital with me to ease back into digestion after the marathon that is birth. I did, however, abandon it as my first postpartum meal in favor of a Jersey Mike’s Bacon Ranch Chicken Cheese Steak, but that’s a story for another time. (I earned it, okay?!)

Helpful tools to make it a bit easier: Labels, GOOD Freezer Bags, Sharpies for labeling, Deli Cups, and Freezer Bag Holders.

Dinner

When it comes to dinners in the early postpartum days, slow-cooked meats and easy-to-digest vegetables are the secret sauce. Traditional Chinese medicine also emphasizes warm, cooked foods for postpartum recovery, and honestly, it just makes sense when your body is healing.

When meal prepping for myself, and for friends, I try to lean into those principles while also making things as easy as possible (act surprised when you notice these are all slow cooker recipes).

Here are a few tried-and-true options:

Chicken Soup with Ginger and Turmeric

Unfortunately, this one is a little tricky to eat one-handed and will probably end up on the baby at some point. BUT I think the incredible healing properties of the slow cooked meat and veggies, ginger, and turmeric make it worth the extra hassle.

You can find instructions on how to make this recipe freezer friendly here. (A lot of my favorite freezer meals come from this list if you need some extra inspiration.) This is also a great recipe to fully cook and store in those deli cups to easily reheat individual portions.

Pro tip: When dropping off food for a friend, make sure to include anything they’ll need to finish the meal or to serve with it.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

I love prepping this recipe in a freezer bag for friends to be made later, or for fully making and dropping off as a full meal for meal trains.

If you’re dropping it off as a freezer meal, I highly recommend including a bag of frozen sweet potato fries to serve it over. It’s my personal favorite way to eat pulled pork. If your recipient is a BBQ person, a small bottle of barbecue sauce is also a great add (maybe some shredded cheese too?).

Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken

Another handy-dandy slow cooker recipe! This one works really well as a freezer meal that can be thawed and dumped into the crockpot later. Make sure to include rice for serving (I like the microwave-ready bags to keep things extra simple).

If you know they’ll use it fairly soon, you can also include chopped peppers and onions. If not, it’s still great without them!

A recent haul for a pal :)

Snacks

When it comes to snacks, keep it yummy, keep it calorie dense, and keep it easy to eat with one hand.

Dark Chocolate Chunk Nut Butter Balls

I made a triple batch of these for the freezer before our daughter was born. They. are. incredible. If I could only make one snack for the postpartum period, it would be these every single time.

They’re nutrient dense, include hormone supporting ingredients, are easy to eat one handed, and frankly mama needs (deserves) a chocolate fix. They call for hazelnut butter, but I used peanut butter because that’s what we had and they were still amazing.

These freeze and thaw super well. I would pull a few out from the freezer at a time to thaw in the fridge and just grab them from there to eat. If you’re making them for a friend, I recommend putting a few in a few smaller freezer bags or containers so they can easily do the same.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins with Chocolate Chips

Okay, SUE ME, I think another little treat is in order. If you’re keeping a tiny human alive, the limit for sweet treats does not exist. I don’t make the rules.

Personally, I find nothing more comforting than baked goods, so these are a must. They’re heavy on oats, which are great for milk supply support. They freeze and thaw well, and are perfect for a morning cup of coffee or middle of the night pit stop in the kitchen.

I would recommend storage similar to the Dark Chocolate Nut Butter Balls—put a few in smaller freezer bags so they can be easily popped into the fridge to thaw.

All from Target so you can place your curbside pickup order and grab it on the way to their house! Smart Sweets Sourmelon Bites, Solely Fruit Jerky, Barebells Protein Bars, Chomplings Beef Sticks, Coconut Water, Cheddar Snack Bars, Hu Dark Chocolate, Olipop (or their favorite drink!)

Other Things Worth Making

• High-Protein Banana Pancakes

• Sourdough Waffles or Pancakes (These are so yummy! Send syrup along with them.)

• Crockpot Curried Sweet Potato Soup (Great for early postpartum as it’s easy on digestion. I’d recommend making this one fully and storing it in individual serving deli cups for the recipient.)

• Crockpot Barbeque Chicken (Include buns to serve later.)

• Smoothie Packs (These were the only thing my husband had for breakfast for weeks when he went back to work post-paternity leave.)

• Slow Cooker Butter Chicken

• 10 Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

A batch of the banana oat pancakes for an expecting friend :)

Tips and Tricks

• Before you start cooking, talk with the recipient. Something simple like:
  “Hey! I’d love to stock your freezer a bit before the baby arrives. I was thinking X, Y, and Z. Does that sound good? Any preferences or allergies I should know about?” Keep it easy. Don’t ask open-ended questions like “What do you want?”—that just adds mental load.

• The golden rule of meal prepping for an expecting friend is this: make it as easy for them as possible.

• I usually break up cooking over a week or two before dropping everything off. I usually deliver meals 2–4 weeks before the baby’s due date, depending on the person and what they prefer. If that timing doesn’t work well for you, consider waiting until one or both parents has to return to work. Having some meals ready to go in those transitions is so helpful.

• Don’t take anything in a container you want returned. Whenever I prepare meals for a friend or contribute to a meal train, I use foil pans or something disposable so they can be used and tossed without a second thought.

• Always include instructions for everything you make. Thawing, reheating, serving: spell it out clearly. I like taping instructions directly onto containers or including a fridge sheet that covers everything in one place. (Don’t forget to include the date it was frozen!)

For this friend drop off, I typed out all of the instructions on one sheet that they could keep on the fridge. Highly recommend!

• USE GOOD FREEZER BAGS. I tried being frugal once and regretted it immediately.

• If you’re freezing baked goods that you don’t want to stick together, use parchment paper to keep them separated.

• Freeze everything flat whenever possible so it stacks easily.

• If it’s in your budget, start putting together a small care package a few weeks before drop-off. Think protein bars, coconut water (nature’s Gatorade), a face mask, their favorite snack, a drink they love, or a handwritten note reminding them they’re doing an amazing job. Whatever you think will make them feel loved.

• When freezing large amounts of food, I like to keep a simple list of what’s been used so nothing gets lost in the freezer abyss. If you' have it in you, make one for a friend you’re dropping off food for! Alternatively, you could also make a list in the Notes app of your phone and share it with them for their use.

Freezer meal tracker: two ways!

When I think about those nights growing up of food being passed between houses and dinner showing up at the door without much thought, I realize now how special that was.

And in a lot of ways stocking an expecting friend’s freezer feels like a continuation of that. Just showing up for people. Feeding them. Making sure they’re taken care of.

It’s simple, but it matters.

At the end of the day, feeding someone in this season isn’t really about the food. It’s about showing up in a tangible way when everything feels new and overwhelming and a little bit upside down.

It’s one less decision. One less thing to think about. One small way of saying, “I’ve got you.”

And if you ask me, there’s not much that’s more meaningful than that.

---

Thank you so very much for reading Among Friends! I’m so grateful you’re here. Feel free to drop a comment below—I love to chat! Tell me what you’d prep for an expecting friend (or yourself)! Also, if you made it this far and like what you read, would you consider subscribing and heart-ing this post? It helps Substack know that people like my writing, which means the world to me! See you next time!

Previously on Among Friends…