Little Pea turns 4 this May and still those 6 weeks’ worth of ladies stepping forward to show their love through casseroles and a friendly visit remains one of the most generous things I’ve ever experienced in my life.
I was more than pleased to participate in our group meal train and provide dinners for new moms home with their sweet babies but being on the receiving end of the dinner deliveries was humbling and heartwarming in a way I’m unable to adequately describe.
While every single crumb of food was appreciated beyond words, I also learned a thing or two on how to make sure the meals I delivered to others were the best they could be. Today I’m sharing those lessons in this “The Ultimate Meal Train Ideas List” in hopes that it makes that task easier for you and tastier for the recipient.
Does your playgroup or church have a mommy meals or meal train program? What do you call it? Seems everyone has their own special name!
Do you have a favorite meal you like to bring to new moms? Leave a note in the comments and add to the resource!
P.S. This post is dedicated to each of my dear friends in playgroup. You know who you all are. And to the ladies of my Book Club who extended those 6 weeks with another week and half with the meals you brought.And lastly to my friend Kristina, who knows way more about mommy meals than I ever wish she did. Thanks so much for your advice and help on this post.
The Ultimate List of Meal Train Ideas
How To Organized A Meal Train
1. Which meal train web site to use:
Step 1 in setting up a meal train schedule for your playgroup or ladies club is to figure out how to organize the deliveries. We used Care Calendar but there are lots of free meal train web site options out there:
2. Decide the frequency of your meal train deliveries:
We used a Monday, Wednesday, Friday delivery system because most meals are plentiful enough to allow for a night of leftovers. This helped reduce waste and extended the duration of help. We also assumed that weekends would be spent with visiting family or just giving the family some space and privacy.
3. Ask about meal train food preferences and aversions:
Before you and your friends cook the first meal, have the meal train organizer interview the family about dietary restrictions and food preferences once and then label the meal calendar clearly so that everyone knows how to respect their wishes.
Requests like, “Not too spicy, no seafood, please avoid ranch flavoring” were common among the new moms receiving our meal train dinners. Be sure the recipient is honest and open about what doesn’t go over well with her family. This saves everyone from guessing what to make for their contributions and ensures that every meal gets used!
4. Set the standard for what makes a meal for your meal train:
Our playgroup established right off the bat that our Mommy Meals required 3 main parts. This allowed for the recipient to be completely covered and always knowing what to expect from her meal delivery.
The 3 elements of a meal train dinner:
- main dish
- side dish: salad, veggie, or fruit
- dessert
5. Announce the meal you’ll contribute to the meal train:
Be sure everyone that signs up on the meal train website labels their day with the name of the meal they will be bringing. This helps to avoid repeition of the dinner deliveries. You wouldn’t want 2 lasagnas arriving in a row. It also allows you to be a little more creative if you see they’ve had too much of a certain meat or cuisine.
Be considerate of the big picture when selecting your meal train contribution. Notice they’ve had a lot of Mexican food? Maybe fajitas aren’t your best bet. Notice a week worth of pasta before your date? Maybe try a rice-based dish.
The Meal Train Menu: Think outside the casserole pan!
This is the area I had the most to learn about the whole concept of mommy meals. I used to be more concerned about food that would travel well and that would be easy on the recipient to get to the table. To me, the thing that fit that criteria best was ALWAYS a casserole.
Then my friends arrived bearing truly creative meal train ideas. I realized how wonderful a wide variety of dinners can be after a few too many nights of pasta-themed dishes. The list below does feature some pasta and some casseroles, because that’s just tasty stuff! But look closely at the list of meal train dinner ideas and you’ll find some great unique recipes for mixing in if you find your recipient’s calendar has too many noodles.
Nothing on this meal train list requires more than a simple reheating, popping in the oven to bake, or a simple boiling of water for noodles. Just be sure to wash and prep/chop everything you possibly can. You want to deliver a meal that mostly just needs final assembly on a plate.
30 Days of Meal Train Recipes:
These are some of our all time favorite meal train recipes, you’ll spot a few casseroles but lots of creative dishes to bring to new moms.
- Taco Bar: prepared meat filling, tortillas, homemade salsa, corn, and chopped/prepared veggie toppings
- Pulled pork, buns, crash hot potatoes (bake them yourself, let the recipient reheat in the oven to keep crisp) with baked potato dip, broccoli slaw
- Bolognese sauce with gnocchi
- Taco chili, Cornbread
- Baked enchiladas
- Chicken fried rice, egg rolls
- Sloppy joes, buns, baked potato wedges
- Lasagna roll ups, salad greens
- Old fashioned beef stew, french bread
- Crock pot chicken soup with fresh bread
- Mustard glazed salmon with arugula and oranges
- Tuscan chicken soup, fresh bread
- Gnocchi, lemon & dill soup, homemade scones
- Simple quiche with fresh fruit & salad greens
- Alfredo chicken and rice casserole
- Chicken gyros kit: include fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, pitas, homemade tzatziki sauce
- Asian chicken pasta salad
- Roasted sausages, apples, potatoes
- Sweet and sticky chicken with peanut noodles
- Shrimp with lemony orzo & roasted tomatoes
- Chicken tettrazini
- Lightened chicken pot pie
- Baked chicken spaghetti
- Teriyaki chicken, Roasted peppers & pineapple, jasmine rice
- Chinese pork noodles
- Spicy lemon and garlic shrimp, crusty bread
- Italian beef sandwiches, bbq chips, hot peppers, cottage cheese
- Stuffed peppers with turkey sausage & couscous
- Slow cooker jambalaya & rice, fruit
- Meatball sliders with hawaiian rolls, mozzarella cheese, salad greens
- Baked potato bar: includes cheese, crisped bacon, green onions, pulled pork or chicken topping, chopped veggies, etc.
Meal Train Side dishes: Alternatives to a bag of salad mix
Side dishes are a perfect opportunity to make your meal train delivery shine. With just a tiny bit of extra effort, this dish gives you the chance to show you really cared enough about the details of the meal to make it tasty.
- Veggie tray with simple sour cream dip mixed with seasoning: this is great because it can be used for snacks the nextday as well
- Fruit platter with strawberry cheesecake dip: perfect for pickier eaters to eat as a side or a dessert and gives mom a break from the nightly veggie fight
- Strawberry mango salsa with cinnamon pita chips: great as a dessert or side dish if your main meal has tons of veggies in it
- frozen steamer bags of veggies: this lets the family store it for later if they already have too much salad they are trying to eat up
- any fresh fruit: already washed and prepped for eating (I remember nearly crying with joy over a bag of clean, cut strawberries)
- homemade salsa with chips: great for snacks the next day, too
- If you do make a salad, try to do a creative one with homemade dressing. Storing the prepped ingredients separately allows the picky eaters to toss and build their own unique mix.
Meal Train Desserts: beyond chocolate chip cookies & brownies
Unless you are famous for your cookies or brownies, I really recommend surprising the family with something more unique for your meal train dessert. Bonus points for a dessert that can be frozen and enjoyed in the future if they have too much on hand now.
- root beer floats
- simple berry and cream cheese tart
- lemon bars: oh goodness gracious try this one, it rocks
- ice cream sandwiches, popsicles, or fudgesicles
- fruit crisps: apple crisp or cherry crisp
- poundcake sundaes: like this peach one or try a pineapple upside down sundae
Awesome Meal Train Extras:
The single most memorable thing one of my friends brought on top of her meal was homemade strawberry scones, raw and ready to be baked or stuck in the freezer for the future. Having something fresh and homemade out of my oven for breakfast with none of the kitchen mess was such a blessing. She also brought a jar of homemade strawberry freezer jam which was the trigger for my passion for making it myself every year since.
These extras are totally optional but for a friend who needs just a little extra special something, consider adding:
- hard boiled eggs: great go-to snacks for the whole family the next day
- Sweet Chex mix or maybe even this totally addictive Honey Sriracha Chex Mix
- birthday cake popcorn
- homemade blueberry scones: assembled and frozen
- fresh cherry and almond streusel coffee cake
Meal Train Transportation: Getting the food to the table
Knowing I’d be making a steady stream of these Mommy Meals for my playgroup meal train, I got into the habit of keeping these disposable kitchen supplies on hand at all times:
- Aluminum casserole pans, bought in bulk at Costco: I use them for baking the casseroles and as a delivery system for meals with lots of pieces
- Disposable storage containers in various sizes
- Zip-top baggies
- A roll of masking tape: for marking food with baking instructions, storage tips, and the date so the recipient can figure out the expiration date
- Sharpie
The most important tip is to deliver your meal train dinner in 100% disposable containers. The last thing you want to do is burden your recipient with worrying about returning a special dish to the proper giver.
Extra thoughtful touch: If you know the family is going through an especially trying time, you might even consider delivering a pretty package of disposable plates and utensils to give them a night off from dishes.
If you’re looking for even more ideas and recipes, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter! I share weekly inspiration for celebrating the seasons and family-friendly meal ideas you’ll love.
Have a great suggestion for me to add to the list of meal ideas? Leave me a note in the comments and add to this resource!
Party games for all ages
Alexandrea
This is such a great idea! I’m so jealous you received six weeks of meals. And to think, we lived off of Lean Pockets the first couple of weeks. Lol. I will definitely be coming back to this next time a friend of mine has a baby. 🙂
Stephanie
These are excellent tips! I was blessed with the birth of both of my kids to have a church group bring us dinner meals for two weeks. It was wonderful! We call our group Loves and Fishes. I do have to say that while leftovers were wonderful for lunch or dinner the next day, one friend who had signed up for the middle of the week brought us ready made plates of food. Absolutely no assembly or serving required and the disposable dishes and forks went right into the trash after dinner. It was actually a blessing to not have leftovers for one of our meals… just an idea if you know the recipent has a lot of leftovers already. I felt bad having anything go to waist since our friends had lovingly made it all.
Lisa
http://www.foodtidings.com is an AMAZING and free meal scheduling website… It’s our go to anytime a friend has a baby, a loved one gets sick, or just needs extra meals just because!! Food Tidings rocks!!
Cleshawn
This is lovely! I only wish I had the support of lovely ladies like these during that time in my life… I will definitely be doing this for others! Oh and I’ll be trying some of those recipes for myself!
xx | http://www.hometohem.com
Beth
Found your post via Pinterest. Love it! I agree about being in tears when a group brought meals for the first weeks after my first was born. My favorite to take to others is Chicken and Wild Rice – http://goodcheapeats.com/2010/02/chicken-and-wild-rice-bake/ It’s cheap, good, and is mostly made ahead, which is more important to me now that I have two little ones hanging on my legs at dinner time. It makes the thought of taking someone else a dinner at a hectic time of day much more doable.
Diane
These are fabulous ideas! LOVE them! I’m a preschool teacher with LOTS of babies being born in these sweet families. I always give another suggestion to the moms taking meals…breakfast foods! We have little ones and dads who need to be cared for all day long, not just dinner time. If you take some muffins, a box of cereal, gallon of milk, juice,loaf of bread, snacks, some basics….you’ll be helping with the other little ones who have to get off to school and need something to eat. It really helped me when a friend brought those things to me and I’ve shared that idea ever since! Just a suggestion.
Jennie Condra
My go to meal for a family in need is breakfast burritos. I feel like that is a meal that is often forgotten in meal giving, and they freeze wonderfully to boot! I have also done little quiches in muffin tins.
I also got tired of caserolly things last time I had a baby, and cut up fresh fruit and veggies was a welcome change!
Beverly Eaton
I enjoyed seeing the many different meals.My church does meals for shutins after a baby,surgery or bad health problems.
Sara w
This is great! I coordinate our mom’s groups hospitality committee so deliver a LOT of meals. Risotto is another great one because you can vary it based on wheat you have on hand. Soups with a loaf of home made bread are awesome, especially in winter, you can portion out some of it into a quart freezer bag for her to freeze and use for lunch later when the chaos (and help) are fizzling out. I also sometimes include stuff for breakfast the next morning, or you can do a breakfast for dinner by making mini pancake muffins (pioneer woman), fruit, and all the fixins especially if they have little ones.
Raeyle
Love these ideas and am using as an example of things to take at any transition period in a family-e.g adoption, death, during terminal or chronic illnesses, new house etc. THANK YOU
Bet
Love these ideas! We recently received 2 weeks of meals while my dad was in hospice care, and after 4 nights in a row of pasta and salad, we almost kissed the person who brought meatloaf and baked regular and sweet potatoes and green beans! 🙂 (Someone was very kindly coordinating meals for us but not using one of those sites where you can see what others have brought! 🙂 ) Another great meal was honey baked ham and rolls and sides. So many people brought extras like you mentioned – cut up fruit, a box of clementines, banana bread, etc. It really is so amazing to be on the receiving end. Thanks for your post, I love these ideas and pinned it for future reference!
Melissa
I use a chicken recipe. 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 can of cream of chicken, one can cream of celery, uncooked chicken tenders (not breaded just raw or frozen). Mix the soups together, put in a crockpot or baking dish. Add the uncooked chicken. Cook in crockpot all day or in the oven at 400 for an hour.
Make boil in the bag rice as a side.
Good, quick, and easy!
Sandy
My favorite that I received following surgery was a bag of sandwich making ingredients: cold meats, cheese slices, sandwich spread, mustard, home made breads, lettuce. It was great for lunches or snacks or a light dinner. Especially good for my teenage kids that were home! And a nice change from yet another pan of lasagna.
Joy
This is by far the BEST post I’ve read on meals for families. I can’t tell you how often it was that I couldn’t remember whose dish I had. Love disposables and masking tape. One extra note: Loved when someone would write who prepared the meal on the tape. Made it easy for me to make thank you cards!
Amy
Same idea~ but different occasion~
When my father died after a difficult accident a family brought us a great breakfast the morning of the funeral. It was a huge blessing!
Now I take a breakfadt (breakfast burritos, fruit, and muffins)in the morning so people can get some thing to eat on a hard day.
Maureen
I just found this through Pintrest. I have to tell you, I have a friend who would bring meals over at the drop of a hat. I never appreciated it. It seemed that she was doing it to be recognized for doing it – the occasions that she brought the meals were not dire enough to warrant the mel delivery… kind of made me wonder “how sick IS my mom really?” Plus, she always brought stuff in her dishes so I had to worry about washing/returning. Then, I got sick. My kids are teenagers and pretty self-sufficient. Another friend delivered dinner the moment she heard I was in the hospital. If was an absolute God-send. It was the act of taking care of my family when I absolutely couldn’t. They had been subsisting on chicken nuggets and cereal for the whole weekend while I wasn’t feeling well and the idea that they were actually getting a healthy, warm meal brought tears to my eyes… it still does. So, keep up the food trains, people! Your thoughtfulness means the world to people who are having a hard time.
Carol
I think this blog is excellent. I wrote about your blog on my blog…here’s the short link: http://wp.me/2TdTz
Leah
I’m hoping to start a group to do this for moms in my church group. When I was in bed after having my last it was really a blessing to get two meals sent in especially as we had just received an eviction notice and I was under a lot of stress trying to recover and worrying at the same time. My mother in law came and stayed with us for about a week or so but after that we were on our own with 4 children. I was so tired and fatigued most days we ate fast food. It was not pretty. I hope I can help others who may be in this situation and don’t really want to bother others to ask for the help they need.
Aimee
Great post! I just had my second baby, and a friend of mine made freezer meals for me: 2 soups, meatballs, a casserole, and frozen cookie dough. What a great gift! That way we could use them on the nights we really needed them!
Christy
Love these ideas. When my daughter was 8 and just home from a hospital stay, all the neighbors took turns bringing meals. There was lots of yummy homemade dishes and sides. But her favorite dinner was from a friend who didn’t cook and brought chicken tenders, potato wedges, salad, rolls and chocolate pie from a local deli/grocery store that she loved!!! So even if you don’t cook or don’t have time… think of something the Kids would love.
Regina Gutierrez
I wanted to see how to get involved to help somehow. I don’t have a care group I join but I work full time and would love to see how to send meals to someone who may need a meal
Emily
So many wonderful ideas! Thank you for sharing!
Amy
Some great ideas but a lot of them not great for nursing mothers.
Gaye Lee
You nailed it! Even gave me a few more good ideas to add tho my list! Have a great day!
Betsy
Many good tips here! Some of these I learned the hard way, and my perspective on taking meals to new moms naturally changed quite a bit after I had my daughter. I didn’t make any dietary changes while nursing, but many women do. Keeping that in mind, I try to avoid cheesy or cream-based dishes, and I like to take a pint of sorbet for dessert. I also try to take foods that can be frozen so the family can use them when it’s convenient. When in a time of need, any meal that you don’t have to plan/prepare yourself is appreciated!
Ellie
I love these suggestions! And to the people who said that some are not appropriate for nursing mothers, well, anyone might have a food allergy / food they need to avoid, and I think she covered that in the post (families need to be honest about what they do or don’t eat). I usually just send a quick text or call before I finalize dinner plans (hey, what time do you guys usually eat, and do you have any food restrictions?), and then don’t need to worry 🙂
Aimee
This very well might be the most thorough, insightful and CREATIVE article I’ve read on bringing meals. Your perspective is so well-thought out, and helpful! THANK YOU for sharing!
Kathy
our dear friends daughter was in a horrific accident that left her bed ridden unable to walk with more broken bones than whole. I took it upon myself to bring them a meal a week. I made an actual “menu” of meals that i felt i could do well and would transport/reheat easily (always in disposible pans). The menu included main dishes, a veggie and a dessert. If the meal was prepared in a crock pot i would get their crock pot and i always used a crock pot liner. Each week i would bring the meal at the same time and i would never stay. They had enough on their plates that they did not feel that they needed to make “small talk”. After a couple of months my friend said i could stop. I told her that when their daughter could walk again i would stop. It was another 6 weeks from then and for our last meal our family and their family ate our “last supper” together (the only time). It was the most amazing thing i have ever done and to this day they still thank me.
Christie
These meals look amazing!!! Maybe I missed it but what are the directions for freezing/reheating the meals? That’s the part that always stresses me out. I don’t know how the meal will last in the freezer or how long they need to thaw it out and reheat it. Thank you!!
Tami Tinajero
I’m with you Christie! Is there a chart on some website or a link with different meals and how long to freeze?
Lora
I love this list! Perfect for many different occasions (funerals, ‘just-because’, mom’s who need more variety…) I must add though that many nursing mothers don’t do we’ll with spicy foods, onions, etc… It makes the baby pretty gassy and more prone to spit up. Just thought I would throw that out there. 🙂
Stephanie Marziale
A couple of my favorites to bring are french dips, bag a chips, watermelon wedges. Also BBQ chicken and tinfoil potatoes and carrots with a Ceasar salad kit. They always call and ask for the recipe.
Janis
One of my favorite meals to take is a rotisserie chicken, a loaf of french bread and a green salad. Especially if things are crazy in my own home. There are so many easy things they can make with the left over chicken the next day that doesn’t feel like you’re having the same meal again … sandwiches, tacos etc. Plus, during the hot summer months I don’t have to be in the kitchen. (:
Diane
I loved this – when I was pregnant and when I’ve been able to help out friends in need. One thing we do is to ask the family what local takeout places they prefer. Not everyone has the time or inclination to make dinner (or to be honest, life could get in the way.) But, everyone wants to help.