A produce basket would be awesome, too. It's hard to get out to the market when you have a newborn, and while they hopefully have friends and neighbors delivering hot meals, fresh fruit and veg would be nice. I just devoured fruit during my pregnancy & while breastfeeding! Granola bars and any other "one-handed" nutritious snacks are also a great idea.

I'd agree about snacks. You could make a few treats like some cookies and then a few healthier options like granola, homemade fruit leather, or maybe some spiced nuts. A custom made fruit/nut mix might be nice too. If you're on a budget a few homemade snacks would make a really lovely gift. If you want to spend a little extra, though, you could also send one of those fruit arrangements to arrive the same time as your homemade goodies. They're a little kitschy but when I had my son I would have LOVED to get one. It's hard to find the time to go shopping and then cut up healthy stuff like fruit, so it would have been a dream to get a big basket of pre-cut, properly ripened fruit.

When we had our first baby we got a large basket with Italian food: Salami, cheese, pasta, sauces, antipasti. That was a wonderful gift, it kept us afloat for at least two weeks.

Someone sent us a Honeybaked Ham meal when our daughter was born-- amazing! Also check out Zingermans and Edible Arrangements - both do healthy/yummy gift options. If you want to make something I think trail mix, granola bars, cookies (oatmeal cookies are awesome for breastfeeding moms), and anything that can be eaten one-handed would be appreciated. One last ideas: gift certificates for nearby takeout restaurants.

Is there a restaurant or health food market local to where they are? You could call the establishment and pay to have your friend's favorite baby food delivered, along with a bunch of flowers or something else for mom.

You could get them a gift card to Seamless, website and app service for takeout in all 5 boroughs. My family has sent us a few in preparation for our new arrival in a few weeks.

I'd go or granola, fruit/nut bars, cookies, etc. I also live the idea so sending homemade pasta sauce or pesto...the fact that it's homemade makes is so much more thoughtful! If you're looking for recipes I have a great granola recipe as well as pesto and pasta sauce recipes on my blog bitesforbabies.com

If the new mom is planning on nursing, the Making Milk Cookies (lots of different recipes out there, this one is my favorite: http://www.drmomma.org/2010/08/major-milk-makin-lactation-cookies.html) would be super helpful. They're very dense, not too sweet, and great for supply.

As a new mom, the things I loved that I received and would have loved to have more of: snacks (granola bars, muffins, work sent me a gift basket with antipasta and that was AWESOME), one-handed meals (if you're far, maybe you could find a few healthy delivery options nearby and get them a gift certificate?), and fruits and vegetables from our organic delivery service.

I was in a similar situation recently, and I made my favorite granola:
http://www.food52.com/blog/2874_nekisia_davis_olive_oil_and_maple_granola

I also made soup mixes; there are all kinds of recipes online for mixing dried pastas and seasonings in a jar to be mixed with water, but I winged it and made lentil soup mix (lentils, bouillon, dried onions, rice, bay leaf) and potato soup (mashed potato flakes, bouillon, dried chives). All seemed to go over well with the new parents.

I just sent some friends with a new baby a batch of Biscotti.
You can add nuts, dried fruit and chocolate for energy and it keeps for up to 3 weeks if stored in air-tight containers.