Our Favorite Freezer Meals (plus tips!)

How can a family manage to feed themselves quality foods while also resting and bonding with their baby? Freezer meals!

Meal prepping food for the freezer specifically is excellent for filling in the gaps. Maybe you have loved ones who want to feed you through the week but you find yourselves on your own on the weekends. Maybe you have a meal train lined up for two weeks but it tapers off after that.

A day of simple planning and prep can help answer the question, “What’s for dinner?!” quickly and easily.

We have a few tips to successfully fill your freezer and a roundup of some freezer faves!

Freezer Meal Prep Tips

Tip 1: Variety

Repetition can get boring and make ordering in a bit more tempting. To combat this, we recommend having a few different types of meals in the freezer. Having a mix of “dump and go” meals, ready-to-eat sides, and marinated main courses gives a variety of textures and flavors that keeps things interesting and easy.

Tip 2: Types

You won’t just be eating dinner! Having a few easy breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner options ensures that you are well prepared for the weeks ahead.

Tip 3: Batching Freezer Meals

While prepping food for hours may seem daunting, if you set aside a day to get everything done you will find your kitchen overall more clean and your meal planning way simpler. Make a mess once, eat for weeks!

Tip 4: Protein Variation

It might get exhausting to eat Italian marinated chicken four times in a row but marinades can often be added to different proteins to offer variation. Make a big batch of a vinegar-based marinade and add it to three different freezer bags filled with chicken, pork, and tofu for variety without much effort.

Tip 5: Mix n Match Freezer Meals

Grab a fresh salad kit at the grocery store and pair it with one of your favorite slow cooker meals from the freezer for a changeup in texture and flavor and added veggies!

Here are few ideas to get you started planning your freezer meal day:

Freezer Meal Ideas

Breakfasts

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

Vegan Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast Sandwiches

Baked Oatmeal

Breakfast Bowls

Lunches

Frozen Sandwiches

Chicken Fajitas

Ham and Potato Soup

Vegan Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Dinners

How to Freeze Rice

Freezer Shrimp Fried Rice

Freezer Lasagna Roll Ups

Stir Fry Freezer Pack

A Week of Easy Instant Pot Dinners

Vegan Mac n Cheese

Snacks

Green Smoothie Packs

No Bake Tahini Protein Balls

Freeze Cookie Dough

Bonus Tip: Have your Postpartum Doula help you prep things!

If baby has already arrived and your freezers are bare, place a grocery order and have your Postpartum Doula prep a few freezer meals while they’re helping you around the house! This is a great way to ensure you’re cared for even after your doula is done with their shift for the day.

Mother’s Day Gift Guide | What Moms Really Want

Mother’s Day is almost here and every year we get to decide what to get the mothers in our lives. Something that complicates the decision? New moms might not know what they need! Flowers, candy, and cards are all lovely but sometimes you want to be the rockstar gift giver. If you have an expectant mother you love, we’ve compiled a list of perfect gift ideas in this Mother’s Day Gift Guide that they really want.

First Time Moms want:

 

A baby in a Mockingbird Stroller with Bassinet sleeps next to a table holding two drinks and a laptop. Mother's Day Gift Guide

  1. Mockingbird stroller with bassinet – This ingenious combo is a stroller that doubles as a safe sleep surface on the main level. Perfect for smaller living spaces, using this as a bassinet while in your living room allows you to go from working from home to out the door without delay.

A baby lies on a Hatch changing pad and scale while a caregiver smiles down at them. Mother's Day Gift Guide

  1. Hatch Grow Smart changing pad and scale– Another brilliant two-in-one, this changing pad offers a safe, elevated space to change a baby’s diaper and a scale all in one. Offering new moms peace of mind, tracking baby’s weight can ensure that they’re getting enough to eat and growing right on schedule.

Overnight doula care for a newborn baby who smiles on a mat. Mother's Day Gift Guide

  1. Overnight newborn care – the Ideal gift for any new parent, help support them during this season of tired! Giving new moms the gift of sleep is invaluable for more than just making them comfortable. Quality sleep is linked to mental and physical health and the value of it cannot be overstated.

 

Experienced Moms want: 

 

Nanit pro camera multi-pack

  1. Nanit Pro multi pack– Keep eyes on ALL the babies with this beloved monitor in a multi-pack.  Connect it to your phone and watch your new baby and their new sibling as they sleep peacefully. Monitor temperature, humidity, receive cry alerts, and enjoy a bird’s eye view in crisp 1080p. Nanit is a wildly popular monitor for a reason!

Chicco Fit 360 revolving carseat in the back seat of a car, caregiver is helping strap baby in properly

  1. Chicco Fit 360 revolving car seat– Keep your little ones rear facing longer and cut down on the struggle of getting into the car with more than one! The innovative Chicco Fit 360 rotates to allow babies to be buckled into their seat. Simply rotate back and lock into place and you’re all ready to roll.

Happy family with baby smiles

  1. Daytime doula support– Gift an extra set of hands who knows exactly what needs to be done. When parents have daytime support, they can focus on resting, healing, and nourishing themselves while easing into their new normal. 

 

Loving the beautiful moms in our lives doesn’t have to be challenging! Getting gifts for new moms is a beautiful thing. You’re sure to “win” Mother’s Day with any of these ideas.

Doulas of Baltimore 2021 Year in Review

As we approach the end of 2021, we wanted to reflect back. This year was definitely different from 2020, and we feel like we are getting into a new normal.

We are truly grateful for all of you: our clients, Baltimore area care providers, birth worker colleagues and our friends. Although the pandemic continues to place challenges on all of us, we have been able to help 57 families welcome 57 babies, hold 42 classes and welcome 4 new doulas to the Doulas of Baltimore team.

In the spring, we made the transition from 15 months of nearly exclusively virtual support to supporting families masked face to masked face! Since May, we have seen clients in their homes and in hospitals across Baltimore–while still offering virtual support and virtual  Childbirth Education Classes. December marked the return to in-person, group workshops at our beautiful studio in The Cedarcroft Center. And this coming spring (after flu season), we will resume in person classes with Baby 101, Birth Basics, and Comfort Measures for Labor. We imagine that we’ll always offer virtual classes from now on (they’ve been so popular with busy parents-to-be).

While doula support and group classes may have filled for this year, we are honoring 2021 pricing for all  contracts signed by December 31 for doula support or registrations for CBE workshops in 2022! Our 2022 classes are filling up quickly, so reach out now if you are interested in more information.

We wish you a continued happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.

-Debbie & Emily

3 Family-Supporting Nonprofits We Love

 

Welcoming a new baby is a profound change in your life. The first of our mission at Doulas of Baltimore is to make sure that change isn’t stressful, overwhelming or full of uncertainty. The second part is serving our community. This Giving Tuesday, we wanted to highlight three local nonprofits that we love. They are doing this same work–making sure new parents are supported and have the resources they need.

The Family Tree

The Family Tree’s is for all children to be safe and supported, and is the leading authority in Maryland for the prevention of child abuse. In 1997, Parents Anonymous® of Maryland and the Child Abuse Prevention Center merge to form The Family Tree. They have served 300,000 families in Maryland. Their services include counseling and parenting classes, a 24/7 help line, community outreach, and policy and advocacy work. Our last in-person event in February 2020, Mead the Doulas with Charm City Meadworks, was a fundraiser for The Family Tree. 

 

Our Mead the Doulas event to benefit The Family Tree.

Every holiday season, they also offer a free holiday shop to parents. They are currently accepting donations until December 3rd of new, unwrapped toys and presents for children ages 0-18. You can learn more here. They also accept monetary donations any time of year, and have volunteer opportunities. 

ShareBaby

We all know how important diapers and essentials are when baby arrives. We also know that you go through a lot of diapers, and it can be a big expense. ShareBaby is a Baltimore nonprofit that provides diapers and essential items to new parents. They write that this helps “reduce stress, depression, and barriers to work for families,” and provides peace of mind for the families in need. In the past, we’ve done diaper drives for ShareBaby and plan to do more in the future. Together with their partners, they deliver 200,000 diapers a month to more than 15,000 children across Baltimore. 

This GivingTuesday, they are also collecting coats for babies and children, which can be purchased online and shipped to the warehouse or dropped off directly. You can find out more here. 

Rainbow Families

Rainbow Families is a DC-and Baltimore-area nonprofit that educates, connects, and supports LGBTQ+ families and parents-to-be. They offer virtual support programs for new parents, as well as families going through the processes of adoption or assisted conception. Their “Maybe Baby” course offers a chance for people to explore questions of parenthood and building a family. They also provide opportunities for parents to connect in the Washington, DC and Baltimore regions through events, a camp weekend, and get-togethers. We provide ongoing support to Rainbow Families and are part of their directory of service providers. 

We hope you consider supporting these nonprofits this Giving Tuesday. 

4 Lessons from Childbirth Education that Helped Us Get Through COVID

, ,

At the very beginning of our Complete Childbirth Education classes in Baltimore, we ask you to fill in sentences about how you feel about birth. While “I am nervous about…” is definitely not the same for everyone, over the last year, COVID-19 has made expecting parents nervous. And it brings up lots of questions for new moms: What does coronavirus mean for a hospital stay? Could baby meet grandma and grandpa? Who will be able to help me after delivery? 

Although 2020 was totally unexpected, at Doulas of Baltimore, we’ve tried to keep the safe, nurturing, and smart perspective we’ve had serving you for the last 7 years. As things are slowly getting back to normal, we wanted to share how 4 lessons from our CBE classes helped us get through this past year. 

Need to Make a Decision? Use Your B.R.A.I.N.!

Use your B.R.A.I.N is a philosophy we use in class. When making a decision, think about benefits, risks, alternatives, intuition, and what would happen if you did nothing. At the very beginning of the pandemic, we used this philosophy to think about what services we could safely offer to you all. While we’ve always known the benefits of comprehensive support, there were many risks involved in continuing in-person classes and doula support. Our intuition (and clients and friends who work in medicine) helped us make the call to move all of our support to an alternative – virtual classes and support – until it was safe to be in person again. 

Confidence and Support Help Get Us Through

Doulas are experts who provide steadfast and nonjudgemental support to you and your family during pregnancy, labor, and after baby arrives. While our classes continued with all of the regular topics, we also dealt with the most pressing issue: navigating the obstacles of COVID. What is the absolute need-to-know information? How can we help make this a less stressful situation in a very stressful climate? Like in all of our classes, we focused on evidence-based information and provided straight talk about birth and postpartum care in the pandemic. We also used that same evidence-based information to make decisions about how to run our business and what we could safely offer to clients. 

Take a Deep Breath 

Was that a contraction? A real contraction? Or just pre-labor? In our classes, we always go over the stages of labor  and how to tell the difference. Over this past year, each time a wave of infections started coming down and businesses started opening up, it was almost like Braxton Hicks contractions. They are stressful, because you are trying to figure out if they are real or not, but ultimately, they are not the real thing. 

When we went virtual, we wanted to wait until it was safe and realistic to provide in person support again, and we wanted to know the difference between pre-labor and real labor. The last thing we wanted to do was tell a client, “Yes, we can be with you in the hospital,” and then back out. Now, as vaccinations are available for everyone, case numbers remain low, and hospitals have permanently re-opened for professional doula support, we can offer in-person support again. 

Adapting is Key

If you’ve been in one of our classes or been pregnant, you know: labor takes many paths. And what you want to do is know the unexpected situations and what to do about them. No one knew what 2020 would bring us or when, and adapting to the ever-changing scenarios has become key to keeping our support going. We were able to bring classes to a virtual space, and some aspects of online meeting and learning are great (including no commutes on weeknights!). This is one reason we plan to continue to offer some classes online in the future. However, some things such as comfort measures, are hard to teach over Zoom. And, a big part of what we do is supporting you during and after birth, in person. So, we are adapting again. This fall, we will be offering a few classes in person in addition to our online Complete Childbirth Education class, and we have begun working one-on-one with families in person again for both birth doula support and in-home postpartum and newborn care

You can find out more about our classes here and contact us to find out more about in person doula support this summer and fall.