How do I organise myself/life /food

[Shithole101]

Ok so my house is now managerble reasonably tidy , on top of washing. All is good house wise

Now for my next step which is food/cooking eating better.

I have made a start on things with some batch cooking . So far I have made , chilli , keema mince beef, beef goulash, which I have frozen I think there's around 20 meals and I have a bbq chicken pasta meal cooking now that serves 6 ish . So 26 meals in all.

Question 1 can I freeze pasta meals once cooked ?

Question 2 how do I organise myself. I have read that I can freeze most things for 3 months. I'm thinking should I batch cooking roughly every 6 weeks to correspond with the kids being on school holidays. Or should I do it once a month when my 2 youngest are at their dad's.

Also any suggestions of what I can do with chicken? That can be batch cooked. I will do chicken curry . No one is to keen on stew so that's a no . I feel like there must be other stuff I can do ?

I have a multi cooker/pressure cooker. And an air fryer. They are the things I like to use . I do have cooker if its a must but I like to avoid it.

Last thing what can i do so it does not become boring , how can I encourage myself to stick to it .

I'm also hoping it will help me loose some weight. I don't want to call it a diet . But I thought if I eat differently stop with all the prossed crap. Be careful with portion size is may loose some weight?

I usually make a couple of big meals on a Sunday. Say a stew, chill, bolognaise, curry and a soup for lunches.

Whenever, I cook I make at least double quantities if I am dieting I also bulk out the portions with more veg. I also have some easy meals in so I take some things out of the freezer the night before or have an easy option.

Also label as you go.

A sharpie/permanent marker on the bag works- I usually do it before I fill the bag. Don’t forget to add the date you froze it.

Definitely I live on batch cooked pasta meals

I tend to just make extra of whatever I'm cooking normally and freeze as I'm a Dr and have a 3h a say commute and up to 69h weeks

Don't sate my food not yet died, I eat 1-2 takeaway tubs of food most days so it doesn't stay in the freezer too long

Pasta /stir fry/ curry all freeze fine. I just chuvk the left over chicken from Sunday roast into one of the above and then freeze it

Thank you that's a great idea i will do that.

Not to bothered about perfect pasta . Considering I been eating crap.

If i cook chicken and freeze it can I just defrost and eat cold. Or do I need to heat it through?

You can defrost cooked chicken and eat it cold, but defrost it overnight in the fridge so it never gets too warm while defrosting (which it might do if defrosting on the side)

Thank you 😊

I don’t think what you’ve listed is particularly healthy

Unhelpful, the OP is known to some of us and has done a amazing job in turning her life around , any baby steps are.good.

I think it is helpful. One of her goals is to eat healthy.
That was my goal, I had a similar diet to the OP and it took years to find out that what I was eating wasn’t as healthy as I thought.
I cook 2-3 times a week for a few days at a time. It would exhaust me to do it all at once for weeks at a time, I can’t imagine doing that.

I think from the point of view of both freezer space and food quality, ideally I would just freeze the pasta sauce and then cook pasta on the night (sometimes I keep fresh in as then it's cooked in 3 minutes) but both are okay.

Soups freeze well and you can combine with those "part baked"/"bake at home" baguettes to make a really tasty meal.

I generally freeze things in bags (IKEA ziplock being the best ones if you are ever in there) and then Sharpie on the bags. Anything that needs baking I buy the foil takeaway tins and freeze them in there so there's no messing about.

Lunches wise, I roast a chicken once every 5 ish days and use that to top me up protein wise with whatever else I'm having.

I'm pretty comfortable keeping things (carefully cooked, cooled down covered over and then immediately refrigerated) at least 5 days. I have IBS abs sickness can knock me out for months, so I am fairly paranoid but I haven't ever had food poisoning from my cooking or storage. I had it from a Chinese takeaway at university but otherwise have been food poisoning free.

You are totally smashing this OP- I've read your early threads and you really seem to have got your life together these days so massive well done. You've had loads of advice on batch cooking which is excellent. Always cook once and make to lots so one for the freezer. Look up up some quick meals as well-Jamie Oliver 30 mins meals are quite good (but take a tad over 30 mins when you don't have someone doing a lot of prep! Keep going you're going great.

I make pasta bakes and freeze them, they're fine

It is compared to the Iceland shit i have been eating 🤣

That's ok if doing it all at once does not work for you . A few people have said they do some extra whilst cooking their meal and freeze some. So obviously it works. But I had some time which I would not normally get and I was feeling quite happy and content making the meals .

Thank you so much . I definitely think I have come a long way . I do wobble a bit sometimes. Like if the house gets a bit to messy I panic and start over thinking and then think fml I can't go back there. Then I panic post . And then urs not as bad as it felt. I'm starting to realise that now.

Now that I'm reasonably content with the house it's time to sort out the food side of things.

Thank you for the lovely post 💐

That's great I froze about 6 portions tonight/last night. The kids verdicts were .
Ds 17 he would eat it again but not keen .
Dd 14 it's nice would have it again
Ds 8 " i like it. But i don't like the pasta"
Ds 9 " it smells like sick. Im not eating that . Why did you eat cook that .
Looks like it's gonna be in the freezer for a while 🤣

Oh dear! Kids are harsh critics.

I only freeze the sauce/ bolognese then I can make it into spag bol or lasagne and it still feels fresh.

Don't tell them. I eat frozen pasta bakes 4 days a week at work normally. The taste is no diff just softer. If you listen to Michael mosleys "just one thing" podcasts. Reheated pasta is actually far healthier for you as it changes the starch composition