One-hand meals

When I was pregnant, I filled my freezer with as much food as I could to keep myself nourished when my baby prevented me from cooking. I made ziti, soup and muffins - the foods I know freeze well and are easy to make in large batches. I had no idea how smart I was with the muffins. While in the hospital, they would bring E in at 6:30 am and visitors couldn't come until 8am. I had a hard time getting out of bed to put her in the bassinet, so I would end up holding my baby for an hour and a half while starving. So I learned to eat the things I could with one hand. While opening a banana with my teeth, I realized how unintentionally genius it was to have four batches of muffins in my freezer.

In addition to muffins, I've started scrounging up ideas for other one-hand meals that I can prepare ahead of time and leave in easy-to-reach places (which does not include any shelf in the fridge except the top one, for fear of leaning over too far and dropping E on her head or the freezer, for fear of hard, frozen things falling on us). Baby carrots, cut up fresh fruit and pb&j sandwiches top the list. Extra points for anything that won't stain if I spill it on myself, because it's pretty much a given that I will spill it on myself. These things also end up in zip-top bags thrown into the diaper bag when E and I take our morning walk (at which point they become diaper bag snacks). Keep posted to the blog for new and exciting one-hand meals and diaper bag snacks and share your ideas in the comments section!

Samosa Potato casserole and "round two" breakfast

Note the "New Mommy" mug, compliments of my sister-in-law

One of my favorite cookbooks, Veganomicon, has a recipe for Samosa Baked Potatoes, which is basically twice-baked potatoes with samosa-inspired spices (mustard seeds, coriander, garlic, ginger, cumin and turmeric) and veggies (onion, carrot and peas). I've made it a bunch of times before and always love it, but always seem to forget about it. I recently remembered it and decided to make it, but with a twist - instead of going through the hassle of scooping out and restuffing the potato skins, I decided to just coarsely chop the potatoes and cook it in a casserole dish. And to finish the meal off, I went with the book's suggestion and tried the Spinach and Tomatoes, which is simply diced tomatoes and spinach cooked up in some of the same flavors as the potatoes. Served up side-by-side they made a tasty, light meal.

There were plenty of leftovers, so a day or two later I threw some of the leftovers (potatoes and veggies) in a pan and made Indian hash browns. Served over a toasted English muffin it made for a quick hot breakfast for a mom sick of cereal and out of freezer muffins.