Batch cooking

[MrTrebus]

What actually is this

All I think to do is chilli stew curry etc

I really want to save money on the food shop and have time and more money to ourselves but the thought of eating this sort of thing all the time is boring

Help please!

I do a veg sauce in huge quantities, that then becomes pasta sauce / soup / tray bake sauce etc, fish pies / cottage pies etc

Just easy stuff to freeze... like if you are making cottage pie, i always make 2 and pop one in the freezer. Chilli portion it up into freezer bags. I like it as if we can't agree on what to have for tea there is always a back up. Also at end of month when money is tight there is a selection to pick from...

What's a veg sauce though. Clueless right here! Like a tomatoey pasta sauce type thing?

I don't get it either. Everything seems to be mince based! What do people batch cook that isn't mince?!

Bolognese, cottage pie, lasagna, vegetable and lentil stew (different at least from your standard beef and chicken stews), burritos or enchiladas.

I have some friends who do it, mainly rice based dishes or curries/chilli/stew etc - will cook a big batch on Sunday and eat throughout the week. Mainly for work lunches but sometimes evening meals too if they have young DC. It saves a lot of money and time, but one of them said recently they do get a bit bored on day 4 or so.

There’s some good informative videos on YouTube about meal planning/batch cooking/prepping etc. You might need to wade through a load of shit ones but there’s some gems.

I make up vast quantities of chicken soup, big vats of curry and bags after bags of ratatouille, which is then my standard “vegetables part of the dinner” for anything from salmon fillets to steak to sausages, or just mixed in with Cooked pasta

Chicken, Lamb, Beef, Pork...all of those aren't mince and can easily be made into stews, casseroles, curries etc.

I also freeze portions of tuna or bacon pasta bake, lasagnes and macaroni cheese.

I don't get it either. Everything seems to be mince based! What do people batch cook that isn't mince?! basically anything you might see in the supermarket freezer ready meals can be batch cooked. At the simplest it can be cooking a huge amount today and eating it for the next 3 days, but less boring if you can freeze 2/3rds and have one portion in a couple of weeks time and another in 4 weeks time.

@ShadyLady53

With the pasta based meals you make...When you come to eat the stuff you've made, do you need to defrost first or do you cook from frozen?

I do bolognese, and chilli. But I also do two chicken casserole type dishes which can be portioned up and frozen. One is tomato based, with other veg - really whatever I have in the fridge just gets put in and I sometimes add cannellini beans which bulk it up, the other is white wine based, with onion, bacon, sometimes mushroom. I also use a slow cooker to do a diced beef stew in a white wine sauce, this doesn’t freeze as well but does a couple of evenings.

I don’t tend to cook something and then use it for several days in a row throughout the week as I get a bit bored of the same meal, but I often freeze some of what I cook, in single portion sizes, to defrost as and when over the next couple of weeks.

Just made Massaman chicken curry, we also have chilli, and chicken and chorizo tomato pasta sauce (add Parmesan once heated and stir into pasta) in the freezer at the moment. Don’t get bored of it because I only really use it when I cba/don’t have time to cook.

Things I make that are not mince based:

Tomato pasta sauce
Cheese sauce
Fish pie
Mash (to be used alongside fresh cooked meat)
BBQ chicken and veg (to use in wraps)
Sausages, cooked slightly under so I can microwave them once thawed
Marinated chicken thighs, again cooked slightly under
Lamb stew
Bean burgers
Ratatouille (again, not cooked too much or it will go soggy when reheated)

I tend not to cook whole meals; I cook components I can use quickly with some elements I cook at the time.

So I can: throw a cheese sauce over some pasta with ham and frozen veg; add some chicken to a wrap with some crudites on the side; reheat some chicken with instant noodles and veg; microwave sausages and mash and put some peas on the side; put ratatouille over an instant rice pouch; grill burgers and serve with salad.

Buy a slow cooker and put in large pieces of meat.
Last week I slow cooked a brisket. This week a large gammon. Slice them up and freeze them in portions.

You can make nice gravy sauces from the juice which is left and put that in the portion bag/boxes with the slices.

Go to Iceland and buy all the different packets of pre- chopped frozen veg.

You then have lots of very easy meals you can microwave. Get handfuls of veg and a portion of meat. Microwave until done. Easy life!

Slow cooking a whole chicken is good too and cheap to buy. You can just pull all the bones out when it’s done and have lots of juicy meat.

You can batch make a massive amount of mashed potatoes and freeze that in portions. Also roast loads of potates in one go. Freeze those, and they actually cook really quickly from frozen in the oven.

Another is to batch cook a simple white sauce from butter/flour/milk. You can then add herbs or cheese or whatever when you want a portion.

I batch cook all sorts of things. We always have Cornish pasties in the freezer for example. And cake 😋
What sort of thing do you usually cook?

One thing I like to do is, if I make stir fry I make loads of extra veg - chopped chilli, onion, pepper, celery, carrot, etc. Then freeze small bags of it mixed. Then you can just fry it with rice or noodle or an egg for a really quick stir fry.

As well as mince based things, i freeze curry; sweet and sour chicken, diet coke chicken; sausage casserole etc. I tend to freeze individual portions as i tend to get home later than husband and ds and I am on a diet and they normally eaten early so great to have portions for jacket pot; rice, pasta .Also freeze left overs if you can. Just made a curry and will freeze some with left over rice which is great for me or hubby to have in week.

I feel quite limited because my two autistic children are fairly picky (they are decent with eating veg etc it’s just mains/sauces type things they are picky with).

In my freezer I currently have:
Bolognese sauce
Bechamel sauce
Sausage tomato stew

• for all of us

Lentil stew
Mediterranean veg mix to go with couscous

• for me.

Don’t have room for much more as we use a lot of frozen veg as well.

I don't batch cook as such because I like fresh meat and fish but I do put extras in freezer as I go along.

I freeze diced mix veg that I use as a base for many meals : onion, celery, carrot and maybe fennel.

Also I'll cook double quantities of really thick veg or lentil and veg soup and freeze that in small packs that then will be thinned with water when used.

5 cans of baked beans, a dozen eggs, 2 loaves of bread.

There's my weeks batch cooking for lunch AND dinner.

I also find I like frozen rattaouille so I usually have some of that stashed away. Nice with pasta as another easy meal.

Thisneverendingsumner:

Yes, we always have eggs and beans in!

Omelette is a quick meal , I like it with salad those (heathens) I live with prefer beans.

I do some stuff cooked but batch prepping meat in marinade is also a good timesaver. So chicken breast/thighs in garlic, lemon and thyme and oil. Or lime and miso. Or Indian spices. Or I do a massive batch of Mexican spiced black beans which then can be added to plain chicken wraps with guacamole and sour cream.

I do enormous vats of 7 veg roasted pasta sauce which can also be used for moussaka or ultra quick Spag Bol or meatballs.

I agree it’s much better to prep components than dull meals. Although I do make 12 -15 portions of lasagne at a time in tin foil trays. Amazing treat

@formerbabe

You can take it out of the freezer before work and leave it to defrost before sticking in the oven for about 30 mins or you can heat up from frozen for 55mins.