Meal Idea for New Parents (or anyone else you want to take food to)
On April 29, my brother and his wife welcomed their first son, B. He’s the first grandchild in our family and my first nephew!! Hubby and I were able to go to the hospital and meet baby B when he was about 12 hours old. He’s such a cutie and we instantly fell in love with him.
Last weekend was their first weekend home with the baby, so I went over there to help out. I watched baby B (who was napping) while C and J took a nap. I also cooked them dinner while I was there. I wanted to bring a meal that I could leave with them as well. Most people bring over casseroles or other freezer meals that new parents can heat up very easily. I wanted to do something a bit different. I decided to bring my crockpot French dip sandwiches.
I packaged it all up so they could prepare this any day they wanted to. I seasoned the meat with salt and pepper and wrapped it twice with saran wrap then once with foil. I then mixed all the liquid ingredients in a large jar. I cut a little circle out of decorative paper to put on the top and hand-wrote the instructions for them. I also brought a bag of rolls and some provolone cheese (forgot to include it in the pic).
The nice thing about this option is that they can freeze the meat if they want and have this after the rush of people bringing food passes. I also gave them a bag of frozen chocolate chip cookies. I just mixed up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough and portioned them out using my cookie scoop and froze them on a cookie sheet. Once they were frozen, I threw them in to a ziplock bag and wrote baking instructions on the bag (I did this before with some M&M cookies too. That way they could pop a couple in the oven to have freshly baked cookies any time they want them!
One Year Ago: Samoas Bars
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
this sounds really good-will be trying this!
This looks so tasty and easy to make! I need to get a crockpot.
I made that recipe last week – and everyone loved it! I only wish I’d gotten pictures…..
This looks wonderful. Bookmarking right now! Thanks!
Oh, boy this looks wonderful! I love slow cooker recipes like this. What side did you serve with it? Just veggies?
~ingrid
Both your cranberry recipes look great. I am hoping Santa brings me a new crockpot for Christmas as my previous one was nuclear. This recipe looks so easy. I am not a pie fan so am thinking the cranberry apple dessert would be nice for hubby and I for Thanksgiving. Thank you for sharing!
Yep just some steamed veggies.
I made this over the weekend and it was delicious! Thanks for the posting!
I finally made this recipe after having it bookmarked forever. Thanks to Kelsey for reminding me about it – it was soooo good and it definitely hit the spot!!! Thanks Jen!
I make this every year for Christmas dinner 😀 We always go out for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner, and then we have a huge fancy Christmas Breakfast… by the time Christmas dinner comes around we are wiped out and not really in the mood to cook. This recipe is perfect because I can throw it all in the crock pot on Christmas Eve morning and pop in in the fridge. Then on Christmas day I put it on low and put wild rice in the rice cooker. My family always looks forward to it and we just love how delicious it is. I really wanted to let you know that this has been a tradition for us for about 3-4 years!! Thanks so much and Merry Christmas!!
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:06 am
I love hearing stories like this! Family traditions are so heart warming during the holidays 🙂
Nice recipe – Thank you. I love slow cooker recipes. Have a Happy Weekend!