Batch cooking - where to start?

[VictorBaucherOrSomething]

Hi all I'm looking for advice and tips on batch cooking. I was brought up by a single parent who worked long hours and I was very much left to fend for myself when it came to food, usually a ready meal or similar. I've never been one for cooking from scratch - in fact, i have no clue where to start. Soup is from tins and chicken etc is frozen Birds eye etc but I really want to alter my eating habits. If anyone has any good recipes (especially ones which don't have two dozen expensive ingredients or take ages to prep) then that would be fab, thanks.

How many are you cooking for?

What foods do you like?
any allergies?

I'd start with a lasagne. Massive amounts of lasagne with veggies and lentils in.

I batch cook curries, chilli, bolognese, soups, pesto etc. I freeze it in plastic lidded takeaway containers that I can then microwave to reheat. If I use foil, I have to empty it into a microwaveable container.

I follow The Batch Lady on Instagram and find her tips very good and some recipes too.
The first thing I started doing was cooking two or three meals on a day when I'd be cooking anyway. So making a chicken curry for dinner also meant I'd make enough for curry that night and say one to freeze. At the same time I'd thrown on a bolognese for another day. I'd keep one portion in the fridge for us for one night and another would go to a cottage pie in the freezer.

I also batch cook pizza sauce, but y pizza sauce for tomato purée also works well and is less bother!

Following as I really want to do more batch cooking when we move house in a few months time and we will have more kitchen space for cooking and freezer space.

I have a massive pot and about once a month make a big batch of bolognaise, I fill it out with lots of carrots and peppers. The kids love it and it's so handy just to heat it up and cook some pasta. Need some more ideas of kid friendly recipes!

You need to half this recipe for a standard size slow cooker.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-spaghetti-bolognese/amp

A good processor is great for reducing the work of chopping.

Start with bolognaise https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easyspaghettiibolognese93639/amp make lots, freeze single portions. Eat with pasta or jacket potatoes.

Jamie olivers 7 veg pasta sauce,

I do 2kg of Chicken Thighs that get added to various meals during the week.

As an example:
Day 1: shawarma Wraps with Hummus, salad, halloumi
Day 2: veggie pasta, add in some chicken for extra protein
Day 3: Mexican style rice with peppers and Sweetcorn with chicken
Day 4: Chicken with mash, broccoli, carrots and Potato Wedges (can add gravy)
Day 5: veggie noodles with chicken
Day 6: stir fry onions and peppers add chicken and turn into fajitas
Day 7: soup with chicken croutons

Each day I just do the veggie stuff and chop and add the chicken as needed.

I've recently started batch cooking after, rather bizarrely, a conversation with my hairdresser!
I am completely evangelical about it now.
This month I have done:
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Macaroni Cheese
Sausage Casserole
Lamb Tagine
Chilli Con Carne

I spend two or three nights at the start of each month cooking up a storm and filling the freezer. Having those nights to focus on the cooking has really reignited my love for food and cooking as I'm not rushing to get anything on the table and then the rest of the month I can get dinner most nights done in less than 15 minutes. And we are eating so much better, much less processed and convenience food.

If anything is going to put anyone off cooking for life it’s making lasagne from
scratch!! Too many pans and processes!

Batch cooking makes it sounds more than it is imo. Just cook something you like and double it, freeze or fridge half of it for later.

What do you enjoy?

I’d do things which could then form the bases of other things.

• A good tomato sauce which could then be used for pizzas, pasta sauce, bolognaise, chilli, curry etc.
• A bolognaise sauce that could be used with pasta, jacket potato, lasagne, chilli, on nachos etc.

The issue with batch cooking is getting bored of the same, so either mix it up like above, or use the meals on your busiest days.

Thanks for all the replies. I have a DH and two kids, I'll eat pretty much anything but everyone else is a bit fussy, especially my DS who has mild additional needs. DH won't eat things like lasagne, mac cheese, lamb. He did surprise me by eating spag bol the other day, so I may cook that.

I've only got a small freezer (three drawers) and no space for an extra one so can't cook loads and loads unfortunately.

Batch cooking is when you make huge quantities of something and freeze portions so they can be reheated quickly in the future.

My advice is to practise cooking smaller portions first because if it doesn’t work out, you won’t have wasted too much food. When you’re confident with a recipe, that’s the time to batch cook.

A good starter recipe is a meat sauce which can be used as a base for spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, chilli amongst others.

Fry mince in a frying pan on a medium heat in a little bit of any oil. Stir and break up the lumps while it’s cooking.

When it’s no longer pink, add a chopped onion and keep frying and stirring for another 10 minutes.

Add tomato purée and a little bit of water, or chopped tomatoes (tinned or fresh), and a little salt and pepper, turn down to low, and let it simmer for another 20 mins, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.

That’s your basic meat sauce. Add herbs for spag bol & lasagne, chilli powder & kidney beans for chilli con carne. Experiment with flavours e.g Worcester sauce, chutney, Tabasco, wine, paprika or other spices can all add something.

^ This.

I don’t batch cook specifically. Instead when I cook meals like bolognese, casserole, Dahl, soups & stew I double or triple the portions and freeze what isn’t eaten that night in plastic microwaveable containers. Dh makes lovely mash, cheese and bechamel sauce and he freezes portions which are handy. I then use those for the nights we are time poor and busy. When I make crumble I triple the topping portion and freeze in zip lock bags, can grab when needed in a hurry or for convenience. I freeze fruit, especially apples for pudding and porridge topping. I double portions if baking muffins, handy for lunchboxes.

Lasagne is a lot less time consuming/daunting if you already have the ragu in the freezer.

You can also do a base sauce for a curry that then just needs simmering with meat/veg. I saw the recipe linked below recommended on here a few days ago, I haven't tried it yet, but it looks good.

spicediary.com/2020/04/punjabi-murgh-masala-spiceclubstaples/

You can also batch cook without freezing and use up what you've cooked over 2/3 days, eg roast on Sunday, then leftover meat into a curry, pasta bake, meat and chips, meat in wraps with salad etc on the second day, followed by a soup on the third day if there's some left.

If you make chilli on day 1, you can do leftovers as enchiladas a day or two later, so it's a bit different but much quicker/easier second time round.

A midweek staple for us are the stir fry kits you get in the supermarket, I like the M&S one best but other supermarkets do them, you get a protein, noodles, stir fry veg and a sauce for about £6/7 and are good for 2 adults, you could probably stretch to a small child as well, not sure about 2, maybe you'd have to add an extra chicken breast. I don't actually like the sauce sachets included so generally use my own garlic and ginger (frozen in cubes from the Asian section in the supermarket freezer), soy, chilli etc. You could buy the things separately, but I find that once you've paid for the meat and veg, the noodles and sauce are more or less free, so it would probably cost more if not using the offer.

Obviously you are duty bound to feed your DC, but for fussy DHs, I'd take a 'like it or lump it' approach tbh. If he doesn't want what you have the time and energy to cook, he knows where the kitchen is.

You could also try Gousto (google for offer codes). It's not cheap at full price, but it might help build your confidence and then you might find it's worth buying a few storecupboard ingredients.

Or even Mob Kitchen. It's aimed at students, but the premise will suit most novice cooks. Each recipe is supposed to be easily accessible in terms of you could probably get all the ingredients in the Co-op, and doesn't take too long to cook.

www.mob.co.uk/recipes

@HeddaGarbled has pretty much written everything I was going to! Sound advice to not go too big with the batches too soon, otherwise you might end up with 16 portions of something that actually doesn't taste that great.

Chilli is always a good one as you can have it so many different ways - with rice, jacket spuds, or as nachos/burritos etc

What are you cooking tomorrow? Double up.

I make a meal plan and cook 2x batches of about 2 meals a week giving me two meals for the next week.

This week it’s chicken curry

glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2018/10/13/gluten-free-spiced-coconut-chicken-curry-recipe-low-fodmap-dairy-free/

and chilli

last week was potato topped chicken and leek pie and spag Bol.

Have a look at the Feed Your Family for about £20 a week Facebook page or website.

They have some really good basic recipes that you can build from. They are also great for batch cooking ideas.

They focus on the money saving side of it but I use their recipes and use nicer cuts of meat or more nice veg etc. They are a really, really good base.

Also their pasta sauce with hidden veg gets round even my fussiest eaters.

@VictorBaucherOrSomething put meals like bolognese in a freezer bag, freeze flat. You can fit a good 8 meals for 4 in one freezer drawer that way