Freezer Food: Baby Prep

Whiffletree Farm is simply bursting with new life this spring!  There are the usual baby chicks and young piglets, plus the exciting (and adorable) addition of Bethany’s lambs.  If you have not seen them all, please stop by the Farm Store and get directions for a walk to find them!

While these animal babies are all important and a lot of fun to have around, I must admit that the baby I am most excited about is the little Straight expected at the end of May.  As we prepare our hearts and home for the arrival, the kids and I have been cooking up a storm.  I’ll share here a list of what we have put in the freezer to lighten the load of making meals for our family of farmers this summer.

First of all, here are my criteria for choosing what to prepare:

1.  Hearty, satisfying recipes that everyone loves.  Bias toward dishes into which I can sneak some kind of “super food” like organ meat, broth, or eggs.
2. Versatile dishes that we can enjoy any time, day or night.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack for the nursing mom!
3. Recipes that include jobs for kids.  Shredding cheese, browning ground meat, beating eggs, pulling meat off of bones, and simple chopping are all great kid tasks.  Then I get to come in at the end and put it all together.

Spring 2026 Freezer Foods:

1.  Chili is always a crowd-pleaser for us.  We go heavy on the meat, light on the beans, and use homemade broth as a base.  This can be heated up in large or small batches for a meal or snack.  See my chili recipe, from beloved former Whiffletree employee Louisiana native Ben Dillon, below.  I mixed in a little chicken liver pate.
2. Quiche is another perennial favorite.  It takes a little more effort than our everyday egg casserole but freezes better and will be a special treat.  Plus it tastes great warm or cold at any time of day.  My daughter made the crust, younger ones shredded the cheese and beat the egg mixture, I fried the bacon and assembled everything.  See Jesse’s mom Terry’s quiche recipe below.
3. Meatloaf gets the job done!  A team of kids could actually make this whole recipe.  One person chopping, another pulsing some beef heart in the food processor, another mixing up all the ingredients.  Getting fancy with the organ meat takes a little more time than I like to spend on a week night, but the nutritional boos makes it worthwhile for a big batch to freeze.  We like hot meatloaf for dinner and cold meatloaf sliced thin for sandwiches or alongside of eggs.
4. Pulled Pork is very simple and versatile.  Put a pork shoulder in the crock pot in the morning, cook on low for at least 8 hours, shred, and pack into freezer containers.  The boys mixed up a batch of BBQ sauce to freeze separately.  This way we can use it for pork carnitas tacos, pork BBQ, or plain as a sandwich ingredient.
5. Chicken enchiladas are a great make-ahead option to sub in for Taco night.  Cook a whole chicken in the crock pot for 6 hours on low, remove bones and skin, and shred to use in any enchilada recipe.  Kids can shred cheese, get the meat ready, and mix up the sauce.  Or grab a jarred sauce with simple, all natural ingredients.  I love that this meal requires no chopping!
6. Cookies!  There are a few recipes we like that use sprouted flour and natural sweeteners.  These will make a great snack to keep everyone happy while our big kids are running the household for a while after the baby arrives.
7. Salmon cakes.  This is a bit of a wild card!  But it seemed like a great thing for me to pull out and warm up for an easy meal or snack for myself.  Fried in coconut oil and packed into a freezer container separated by layers of parchment paper for individual servings.  Packed with Vitamin D, healthy fat, and more.

I hope these ideas and the recipes below can help you in your next freezer stocking frenzy, whether for an expected baby or any other season of life!

BEN’S CHILI

• 3 pounds ground beef and/or pork
• 2 cups chopped bell pepper, onion, and celery combined
• 1 chopped jalapeno pepper
• 1 T chopped garlic
• 1T salt 
• 1T paprika or smoked paprika
• 1 T cumin
• ¼ cup chili powder
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 cups beef or chicken broth
• 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 16 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 lb fried bacon (optional)
• 4 cups cooked pinto, kidney, and/or black beans (optional)

Sauté the ground meat. When almost cooked through, add both peppers, celery, onion, and garlic. Add spices and thoroughly blend. Add broth, tomatoes, optional bacon, and optional beans. Simmer for one hour.

MOM TERRY’S QUICHE

• 1 uncooked pie crust placed in a pie pan
• 1 lb cooked/chopped bacon or cooked/crumbled sausage
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 1 ½ cups shredded cheese of your choice (I like cheddar!)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup cream or whole milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place meat and onion on top of pie crust. Sprinkle shredded cheese over meat and onion. Mix eggs and cream until smooth and then pour into pie crust over meat, onion, and cheese.  Bake for 15 min at 400. Then reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for 35 minutes or until the top of the quiche is golden brown and slightly puffed. Remove from oven and cool 5-10 minutes before serving.