Best Dairy-Free Freezer Meals for Postpartum

Get your freezer ready with these delicious and dairy-free freezer meals for postpartum life. With options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, desserts and more you are sure to have a great stash of foods to help make life a little easier during the newborn phase.

This is my third child in 4 years and to say I have picked up a few helpful tips for getting meals on the table in a timely manner would be an understatement.

With the third on the way, I have spent the last few months prepping my freezer with meals and snacks that will make future me (the one with a crying newborn and two toddlers begging for food all hours of the day) just a little less overwhelmed.

Some of the lessons I have learned during my postpartum prep include:

• Your freezer stash is for whatever and whenever you need it. For my house that means the days when my husband and I are the only ones home with the kids. If there is any other adult in the house with us we will make something new or order something in. The freezer stash is for when we are out-numbered.
• Make smaller portions. I made big trays of food the first time around and half the batches went bad because I didn’t want to eat it 3 nights in a row. By portioning the food into smaller containers for freezing you can prevent wasting the food you took so long to make.
• If you already have kids be sure to make foods they like to eat too. My first two freezer meal preps I didn’t really have to think about what I was going to feed my oldest. Now that my first two are eating meals with us, I had to take into account their preferences when making my stash so I wasn’t doubling up on my meal prep work later.

How to Make Freezer Meal Prep Easy

The next phase is planning to make these meals without overwhelming your already busy schedule. To make my meal prep part of my daily routine here are a few things I did to get ahead.

1. Start making your food about 1-2 months before baby is due.
2. Use recipes you already like to make.
3. Plan them in advance and make a double batch.
4. Eat half now and freeze half for later.
5. Aim for 1-2 meals a week that you prep.

Kitchen Tools You Might Find Helpful

I am late to the game with some of the kitchen tools that I stocked up on to make meal prep that much easier this third time around. For this round of freezer meal prep for postpartum life I relied heavily on:

Souper Cubes

These enabled me to make batches of food and portion them into smaller servings to prevent food waste later down the line. I used these cubes for soups, chilis, meats, and more. I cannot believe I have lived as long as I have without these fabulous freezer prep cubes.

Freezer Gallon Ziplock Bags

I was able to fit 4 Souper Cubes into each gallon bag meaning I could stack and store 8 cups worth of food into easy to remove zip top bags. These stacked horizontally as well as vertically meaning I really could cram more into my freezer.

1.5 Tablespoon Cookie Scoop

For all of my lactation bites and cookie dough recipes, I relied heavily on this handy cookie scoop. This made scooping and balling all of the lactation bite quick and easy.

Dairy-Free Breakfast Meal Prep for Postpartum

Breakfast Burritos

My most consistent meal prep recipe for the newborn phase is without a doubt breakfast burritos. As a savory breakfast eater all I want when I get up is salty protein which is why I prepped close to 50 breakfast burritos.

I intend to nurse my 3rd the same as my first 2 and all I can say is that my hunger knew no limits. I ate constantly and having a handheld breakfast snack that I could eat while I nursed was absolutely clutch.

This time around instead of sticking to my Freezer Breakfast Burritos- 3 Ways recipe I made a few rogue flavor pairings based on what I had extras of in the fridge.

• Bacon and Egg Burritos
• Sausage and Egg Burritos
• Bean and Egg Burritos (using left-over refried beans)
• Mixed- Bacon, Bean, and Egg or Sausage, Bean, and Egg

Sweet Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas

If you are not into savory breakfast items or are looking for some additional variety, here are a few other recipes I have made and squirreled away for baby #3.

• Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal Squares- This is one my my kids love and having a batch on hand will make school mornings go much smoother.
• Chunky Monkey Banana Muffins– Made in single muffin cups, these are great for pulling out one at a time.
• Healthy Banana Baked Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate Chips– Similar to the peanut butter baked oatmeal squares, these are toddler approved and great for having stashed away for future you.

Lunch Freezer Items for Meal Prep

Ground Turkey Taco Meat

While this recipe can easily be a dinner or lunch recipe, I typically use it to make quick lunches. By stashing away a few servings of this simple taco meat I can easily make a variety of different taco based lunches such as:

• Turkey Taco Lunch Bowls
• Dairy-Free Taco Salads
• Loaded Nachos

Dairy-Free Tomato Soup

This 30 minute tomato soup recipe is a favorite of everyone in our house. Having a few servings prepped and ready in the freezer means my kids will have a lunch they know and like even if I am not the one serving it.

Dinner Meal Prep

One of the biggest lessons I have learned with kids is to never make dinner at dinner time. I will always plan my meals in advance- either the day before or during nap time.

With another newborn in the house I tend to opt for making the meal the day in advance. In the case of my freezer stash that means taking out the planed meal the night before to thaw.

Some of the recipes I have made for this round of postpartum include:

• Baked Penne with Meatballs (made and frozen in its own tray)
• Chili (from the Frito Pie Recipe)
• Crockpot Taco Pasta adapted from Lauren Fit Foodie
• Turmeric and Ginger White Bean Soup from Justine Snacks

Homemade Dairy-Free Snacks for the Freezer

If all goes according to plan, I will be nursing my third just like my first two. With my first, I didn’t realize just how hungry nursing made me and when I was getting ready for our second I remembered just how many snacks I needed on hand and stocked the freezer accordingly.

As we get ready for number 3, I made an entire section in my freezer for the postpartum dairy-free lactation boosting snacks to help keep up with my insatiable hunger.

Before prepping these recipes I first need to stock up on my lactation boosting ingredients:

• Brewer’s Yeast –  Packed with iron, protein, and vitamin B this superfood is a galactagogue – Greek for a substance that promotes lactation.
• Old-Fashioned Oats – Iron rich oatmeal helps promote the production of breast milk.
• Ground Flax Seed– Made from ground flaxseeds, this contains phytoestrogens (AKA dietary estrogens) which are structurally similar to estrogen produced by the body and have the potential to have effects similar to estrogen.

Lactation Cookies

Did I make something like 100 cookie dough balls this time around? Yes. Is it going to be too many? Probably not since my husband will also put down as many of these cookies as I do.

For this time around I made a double batch of the dough, scooped and froze the balls before transferring them to a freezer safe bag.

Lactation Energy Bites

My lactation energy bites recipes are great for nursing moms as well as for their hungry toddlers. They are an easy hand-held snack packed with nutrients and lactation boosting ingredients.

Making these easy, no-bake energy bites and squirreling them away in the freezer gave me a quick and easy snack to pull out that also made me feel like I had an extra boost for my milk-making ability.

Some of the flavors I have made and put in my freezer stash include:

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lactation Bites
• Healthy Almond Joy Lactation Bites Recipe
• Chocolate Almond Lactation Bites
• Cake Batter Lactation Bites

Store Bought Freezer Foods

While I know it is noble to have all of these meals and snacks made from scratch and ready in the freezer I also know there are a number of freezer foods that we like and enjoy often so I made sure to keep at least 1-2 of each of these on hand for the next month of life.

• Chicken Nuggets- We like the Applegate Brand
• Frozen Meatballs- Grass Fed Kroger Brand are also dairy-free
• Hot Dogs- Also Applegate
• Frozen Hashbrowns- Kroger brand all the way

Additional Meats for the Freezer

In addition to the pre-made foods I also stocked up on a few meats and put them in the freezer so I can pull them out without having to make a whole thing out of going to the store with three kids. I stuck to the meats that I use weekly such as:

• Boneless skinless chicken thighs
• Ground turkey
• Ground beef
• Sausage
• Bacon

Other Items We Stocked Up On for Postpartum Life

Between the books and the blogs and the constant pouring of information out there, I read somewhere that you should try to have 6 weeks’ worth of your essentials.

While there are some things worth stocking up on, I also remember the sage advice of my older sister who told me “You are always 2 days away from anything you need on Amazon.” Not to mention the vast amount of places that will deliver same-day just about anything you need.

So for the most part when you see you’re running low you can easily add what you need to your cart and have it in no time but for a few items, you might want to make sure you have a small back stock just in case. Here are some of the things I made sure we had 6 weeks’ worth of because I didn’t want to run out.

• Coffee– Ahhh the life blood. I have missed my 3 cups of highly caffeinated coffee and I am happy to have it back in my life.
• Toilet Paper– Aint nobody got time to run out of this right now.
• Pet Food– While the pets have been with us the longest, they might see a shift in the power dynamics… yet again… so we figured it would be best not to run out of their food.
• Pet Meds– Just went ahead and made sure we had 6 months worth, will we ever leave the house again?
• Ibproufin– SO glad to have you back old friend!
• Baby Wipes– They don’t outgrow them and I don’t want to be caught without them.

Good Luck!

I am sending you all of my love and wishing each of you all the best as you embark upon this next chapter in your life.

Take everything one day at a time and be sure to extend yourself and your baby as much grace and courtesy as you can. It will get better, just give it time.

I hope this guide helped provide you with some ideas and recipes for stocking your freezer with dairy-free meals for postpartum life.

Let me know in the comments below what recipes you plan to stock up on or if there are any off the list you added to your freezer stash.

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