Ooh how exciting!
Things like curry or stews I used to make them (salt free, no stock cube or just a tiny bit of one) and then when I served up for DS I took a minute to separate the various veggies into easily recognisable piles, this did a few things, it drained some of the gravy/sauce so the lumps/wedges were easier to pick up with fingers or fork, it helped him feel he recognised the food so didn't feel 'scared' or 'over faced' with lots of stuff mixed up, and it helped him to learn what each item was very quickly. Stews of various sorts was one of DS's favs, I purposely cut up larger chunks/wedges than I would have if it had just been us which made it easier to pick out the big bits once cooked and easier for him to pick up.
In the very very early days (I do only mean days though not weeks) DS kind of screamed at me to feed him. TBH I think the expectation came from me being the provider of food, ie giving him the bottle, so it took a bit of explaining that he could/would/should have a go himself. he loved solids so much, if he couldn't get the food to his mouth fast enough there could be some upset so in those cases I held a piece in front of him and he pulled my hand to his mouth to eat it, he still had control so this is "baby-led" in my book. anyway he very quickly realised self feeding was great and got stuck in. I introduced a plastic fork at about 7 months which was very handy, we didn't use a spoon until much later. I used those quick sharp small forks like you would get in an shop bought salad or fruit salad bowl (yk the lunch type stuff) rather than those chunky baby forks which didn't see to actually stab anything so seemed pointless.
The stuff I froze were loads of different types of pancake (banana, sultana or other dried or fresh fruit such as grated apple) veggie pancakes (same thing but grated carrot or any left over veg from another meal to use it up), bean or lentil burgers/patties (again added veg that needed using up), mini muffins (banana, carrot, sweet potato and sultana), and oaty chews.
There's a recipe for oaty chews (and muffins) on the recipe thread if you whizz the oats and dried fruit they turn out pretty much the same as the shop bought baby oat bars, although probably less fruit sugar tbh. We used lots of those for out and about snacks.
chick pea cupcakes is one I made when DS was much older, very tasty, mainly chickpeas and lots of eggs...hmmm, the recipe might have honey in it so you wouldn’t want to add that, perhaps switch for banana to sweeten and add some wetness.
If there is a baby first aid course you can go to before you start you may feel more confident, or perhaps you've already done one. I only managed to attend half of mine as DS didn’t settle in the creche but in that short time I learned how to handle a choke which made me feel more confident.
Oh, also in terms of 'how do they eat things like...' with mashed potato you can roll it into balls or lumps to pick up. I did this with baby muesli so he could have cereal but self feed, very easy to pick up.
I probably wouldn't freeze or prep too much in advance as you'll find LO is eating your family meals very quickly, if not right away. Things you might need separately will be out and about foods and snacks. For a good while I took additional pieces of food if we went to a restaurant so that DS's veg was steamed salt free but we'd give him a bit of our meal too.
