Best Meal to Bring New Mom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would have hated anything carb heavy like bagels and peanut butter that we could easily buy ourselves.

What I really appreciated was healthy food like cut up fruit and homemade soups or stews. That’s easy to reheat and can be supplemented with rice if need be.

Every grocery store has cut up fruit and you can order it and have it delivered to you. Your DH can do pick it up. Bagels and peanut butter are healthy.

[Anonymous]

My childhood best friend lives an hour away and made me the most amazing huge batch of beef barley soup and a couple baguettes. It was amazing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently did butternut squash soup, a big green salad with homemade dressing on the side, a baguette, and chocolate chip cookies. Easy to reheat and have as leftovers the next day.

Another hit was emailing or texting to ask for their Panera order. Did that with a close friend.

I don't go to that much trouble at home and I sure as shooting am not gonna do it for someone else! OP, bring what you can and make it easy on yourself.

None of this is hard to do, lol.

[Anonymous]

We got meat and vegetable pies that could be frozen as well as salads (prepped without dressing). Someone also brought us savory scones and quiches from the 350 Bakery, those were awesome.

[Anonymous]

Any food we didn’t have to cook ourselves was appreciated but I agree with the PPs who have said snacks and things that can be eaten with one hand. My MIL brought us a huge bowl of cut up fruit and that was such a great thing to have - no way we would have been spending the time to do that ourselves, fresh and healthy, and easy to eat with one hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See what others are bringing, so you can add some variety.

My go-to is quiche, baguette, fruit salad, and homemade cookies or brownies. I usually do two full-sized quiches, so there will be leftovers.

I never felt like I needed only things that could be eaten with one hand, but fajitas probably would have required too much assembly, much as I love fajitas. If you wanted to do Mexican, there are some great enchilada-style casseroles that I would have happily gobbled up as a new mom!

Then you’re doing it wrong. A spoonful of meat, a spoonful of veggies, a sprinkle of lettuce, a dollop of guac or salsa. Then eat. Or take the handheld option away and eat it as a salad with a fork. You all are insane. I would love to have someone bring me cooked components for tacos or fajitas because there’s a million ways people can customize it to what they like. Much easier to do than with a casserole or quiche or whatever. One meal that everyone can eat in the way they like to eat it. And I don’t understand the people who can only eat things one handed when they have a baby. Put the baby down for 5 minutes and eat. It really will be ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And yes - I really needed meals. Not snacks. My husband and my older kid needed to eat too.

Your husband is so helpless that he can't cook a meal for you and other children,?! Absolutely ludicrous.

My husband is not helpless, but right now my baby is cluster feeding for hours every evening so I'm basically useless for house and kid stuff after he gets home from work, and it's nice for him to be able to do laundry and dishes and hang out with our older kid before bedtime instead of cooking every night. I was not expecting how hard it would be to find time to cook in the early weeks, but with multiple kids time and parental attention are limited and full meals are incredibly helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And yes - I really needed meals. Not snacks. My husband and my older kid needed to eat too.

Your husband is so helpless that he can't cook a meal for you and other children,?! Absolutely ludicrous.

My husband is not helpless, but right now my baby is cluster feeding for hours every evening so I'm basically useless for house and kid stuff after he gets home from work, and it's nice for him to be able to do laundry and dishes and hang out with our older kid before bedtime instead of cooking every night. I was not expecting how hard it would be to find time to cook in the early weeks, but with multiple kids time and parental attention are limited and full meals are incredibly helpful.

PS last night husband's best friend drove all the way from Frederick with a big pot of spaghetti sauce and meatballs, a quiche, a bottle of wine, and some cookies. They are total MVPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See what others are bringing, so you can add some variety.

My go-to is quiche, baguette, fruit salad, and homemade cookies or brownies. I usually do two full-sized quiches, so there will be leftovers.

I never felt like I needed only things that could be eaten with one hand, but fajitas probably would have required too much assembly, much as I love fajitas. If you wanted to do Mexican, there are some great enchilada-style casseroles that I would have happily gobbled up as a new mom!

Then you’re doing it wrong. A spoonful of meat, a spoonful of veggies, a sprinkle of lettuce, a dollop of guac or salsa. Then eat. Or take the handheld option away and eat it as a salad with a fork. You all are insane. I would love to have someone bring me cooked components for tacos or fajitas because there’s a million ways people can customize it to what they like. Much easier to do than with a casserole or quiche or whatever. One meal that everyone can eat in the way they like to eat it. And I don’t understand the people who can only eat things one handed when they have a baby. Put the baby down for 5 minutes and eat. It really will be ok.

You realize that just because you think fajitas are easy not all of us do right? They take steps and have multiple, multiple things to clean when I'm already drowning in things to clean. Great that you don't think it's too much work but a lot of the rest of us do and are giving OP feedback like she requested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See what others are bringing, so you can add some variety.

My go-to is quiche, baguette, fruit salad, and homemade cookies or brownies. I usually do two full-sized quiches, so there will be leftovers.

I never felt like I needed only things that could be eaten with one hand, but fajitas probably would have required too much assembly, much as I love fajitas. If you wanted to do Mexican, there are some great enchilada-style casseroles that I would have happily gobbled up as a new mom!

Then you’re doing it wrong. A spoonful of meat, a spoonful of veggies, a sprinkle of lettuce, a dollop of guac or salsa. Then eat. Or take the handheld option away and eat it as a salad with a fork. You all are insane. I would love to have someone bring me cooked components for tacos or fajitas because there’s a million ways people can customize it to what they like. Much easier to do than with a casserole or quiche or whatever. One meal that everyone can eat in the way they like to eat it. And I don’t understand the people who can only eat things one handed when they have a baby. Put the baby down for 5 minutes and eat. It really will be ok.

No, I’m not doing it wrong. I’m just different than you. Are you aware that people are different than each other, and there are myriad ways to be a functioning adult? Lose the judgment. I didn’t want to have six different bowls of stuff that I needed to assemble dinner when I had a newborn. Oh well. Somehow, I manage to have that preference and still not judge others who differ from me.

[Anonymous]

Everyone seems to forget about breakfast!

My sister brought me bananas, oranges and apples, a bottle of orange juice, sparkling water, homemade muffins, homemade granola bars and small napkins and paper plates. And a jar of my favorite jam.

Now I do same for new moms.

I have it down; start with large aluminum roasting pan. Arrange bread, muffins, fruit, jam, juice, waters. Tuck in paper napkins, maybe a spreader and paper plates. Sometimes I tie a bow (ok, I always do this) around the pan.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of an aluminum pan, I would have loved peeled and prepped root vegetables and onions and some chicken thighs to just add to the pan, sprinkle with olive oil and roast all together. It would have to be coordinated though, in terms of delivery timing.

[Anonymous]

Somebody once made me individual chicken pot pies. She was pretty intense with the home making stuff, but I always loved her for that. Or meatballs— they go over well with the kids, and you can freeze extra.

[Anonymous]

My go to is Chicken Marbella, rice, green salad, homemade apple pie, vanilla ice cream.

Or

Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, apple crumble, vanilla ice cream.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See what others are bringing, so you can add some variety.

My go-to is quiche, baguette, fruit salad, and homemade cookies or brownies. I usually do two full-sized quiches, so there will be leftovers.

I never felt like I needed only things that could be eaten with one hand, but fajitas probably would have required too much assembly, much as I love fajitas. If you wanted to do Mexican, there are some great enchilada-style casseroles that I would have happily gobbled up as a new mom!

Then you’re doing it wrong. A spoonful of meat, a spoonful of veggies, a sprinkle of lettuce, a dollop of guac or salsa. Then eat. Or take the handheld option away and eat it as a salad with a fork. You all are insane. I would love to have someone bring me cooked components for tacos or fajitas because there’s a million ways people can customize it to what they like. Much easier to do than with a casserole or quiche or whatever. One meal that everyone can eat in the way they like to eat it. And I don’t understand the people who can only eat things one handed when they have a baby. Put the baby down for 5 minutes and eat. It really will be ok.

You realize that just because you think fajitas are easy not all of us do right? They take steps and have multiple, multiple things to clean when I'm already drowning in things to clean. Great that you don't think it's too much work but a lot of the rest of us do and are giving OP feedback like she requested.

I can't imagine being this impaired. Ok, no fajitas. If your thumb works, go for the UberEats/PostMates/Caviar and call it a day. I barely understand the mealtrain thing at all in a city for a normal birth and I extra don't get people with these hyper specific requirements. I still fail to see how a bag of tortillas and a glass dish of chicken and veg fajitas is some onerous amount of work. Someone might even clean it for you? I am an enthusiastic mealtrain participant, but I'd tell you to pound sand and get out that delivery finger.