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. 






some of our faves are asparagus and brussels sprouts too 🙂
This is the only way we eat our asparagus as well. Do people still boil asparagus? Seriously, it’s kind of a waste that way…
Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best to share. 🙂
One of my all time faves. Roasted anything, actually, but asparagus gets so crispy and flavorful!
We love to grill asparagus that has been rubbed with olive oil and sea salt–so good! 🙂
Hi there, I’ve been reading your blog for so long now and just wanted to say thanks for all your wonderful recipes. I’ve used so many that have been awesome and really tasty thank you so much! Keep up the good work!
p.s asparagus season is one of the highlights of our year to hehe. So many fantastic things you can do with it! Have you tried roasting it in orange juice and silvered almonds? Devine.
Sezasaurus – Orange and almond does sound tasty! Thanks for the idea.
I can’t remember if I’ve ever had roasted asparagus – roasted broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts definitely but roasted asparagus could be a new one. Sounds awesome! 🙂
We made this last night with grilled pork chops and homemade mac and cheese. I tossed in the olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper and then probably ate 1/4 of them cold while I was waiting for the oven to heat up. Hubby and I each took a serving for our plates after they cooked and then stood in the kitchen eating the rest off the baking sheet before we had dinner! So good and so easy for our favorite veggie!