Batch cooking whilst on maternity leave

[bigpreggybelly]

Will finally finish work at the end of this week - hooooooray!!! Although I'm on hols until the end of the year and mat leave starts on 4 Jan.

Planning on filling up the freezer with lots of home made stuff as my partner gets a bit stressed if he cooks.

Apart from the obvious spag bol sauce and chilli, what other dishes are people preparing which can be made in fairly large quantities and frozen in portions??

[tinierclanger]

Lasagne
Fish pie
Meatballs
Shepherds pie/cottage pie
Home made pizzas

are some of the things I did, as I recall.
Also, if you go through that cake-baking phase, freeze some cakes as well! I made cakes and we ate them every day for the last two weeks of mat leave, really wished after DS was born I'd frozen some!

[shinybaubles]

Curry, stew, soup and cakes.

[MrsJamin]

casseroles, definitely. I use the waitrose winter veg frozen mix to put in as it's all the veg you'd need for a casserole without any of the chopping - just put in chopped meat, sauce, veg mix and leave it for a few hours, v v easy if you don't want to spend your maternity leave on your feet!

[ElusiveMoose]

I made loads of quiches. They freeze really well. I bought those disposable foil pie dishes so that I could make tons.

[whensmydayoff]

Hyjacking

How long can these things stay in freezer
fish?
chicken?
Pork sausages?
Beef?

Im 36 weeks so should be starting all of this soon I guess.

[MamaLazarou]

At what stage would one freeze a home-made pizza? After the base is baked but before the topping?

I bought lots of disposable foil trays with lids in the £ shop today and plan to start my batch-cooking v soon.

[GuernseyFrench]

In addition to what is said above, I'm aiming to do the following:

• pre-boiled potatoes (so you can just finish cooking/defrosting them for 5 mn and then mash)
• soups

[tinierclanger]

MamaLaz, yes, I usually put the topping on uncooked and then freeze them.

[AngelDog]

I'm a bit of a freezer fiend & will hopefully be stocking up my two freezers once I start maternity leave in a week and a half.

As well as all the above, I like to make things like a big vat of white sauce and then freeze it in 1/4 or 1/2 pint lots. That way I have handy pots of sauce ready to make lasagne/pasta bake/pour over fish etc. Other useful things to freeze are grated / sliced cheese (I use the food processor for this - then you've always got some ready to throw on top of pasta etc). I like freezing fishcakes / burgers / veggie burgers too.

My top tip is to freeze things in ready-to-use portions. I have lots of tupperware / pyrex containers I freeze things in. For the pyrex ones, I line them with foil or pieces of non-stick baking liner before I put the food in. When it's frozen, I run the containers under the hot water tap to release the contents. I then put the food in freezer bags and re-use the containers for the next lot of food.

What works well with cakes is to slice them up and put greaseproof / non-stick liner between the slices before you freeze them - then it's easy to take out a piece or two from the freezer rather than having to eat a whole cake at once .

whensmydayoff this link has some freezing times on it - or there are lots of others if you google it. Also inside the door of your freezer should be some little pictures that tell you how long things keep for.

Happy freezing, everyone!

[sarahsyrup]

Goodness me, you're all insane . I'll know who to befriend in the event of a nuclear holocaust. I've only got an ice box!!!!

[MrsMc82]

at Sarahsyurup - I was just thinking the same!!! Have a full size freeze but it only contains ben and jerry's and vodka from pre pregnancy days!!!
Feel quite ashamed!!!! X

[MamaLazarou]

Thanks tinierclanger - I will try that one.

Another good idea is to cook a huge batch of caramelised onions (get some incense - your house will stink) and freeze it in small portions in freezer bags. I got this idea from the Nigella Express book and it really does save time when you just want to whip up a quick meal without having to peel, chop and brown an onion.

[bounty007]

what ever you do, make sure the freezer door is ALWAYS shut properly....!!!!
I nearly cried this morning when I discovered it has been slightly open since Monday night and all my good work has gone to waste

[MamaLazarou]

you poor thing!

[GoldenSnitch]

My pre-baby cook and freeze is being severely hampered by my freezer being full of Christmas food!

Silly time of year to have a baby - I'm due in 8 days!

[sarahsyrup]

MrsMc82 good on you. I mean, you can always just have a sandwich. That way we can spend our time now more constructively painting our toe nails rather than batch cooking. Incidently, I've got some nailvarnish in my ice-box

[PootleTheFlump]

I pre-cooked loads of stuff on mat leave and while all the chilli, lasagne, & spag bol/pasta sauces were great, the real winner was soup. I froze loads & loads of homemade veg soups in portions and it has meant that at the v least we have had a really easy nutritious lunch everyday, has helped with my bfing fluid intake too. I also bought loads of part-baked granary/seeded rolls and froze those so we have been able to have interesting bread with the soup!

(I bought loads of fresh pasta & jars of pesto )Aldi has all sorts) and froze that too so was v quick to cook and nice and filling)

Another tip, not for freezing but brill first days food is jacket potatoes, you can have easy fillings that make them completely different and they require no washing up whilst being warm and filling.

Good luck!