To think batch cooking and freezing is bleegghh

[Notgotajarofglue]

FT working busy mum trying to follow all the tips and hints on getting through these hectic years.
One thing always comes up:batch cook, freeze and reheat.
AIBU thinking that everything comes out Not envy
Watery sauces, soggy veg and dry over cooked meat in all the favourites recommended for this. Husband said it was like prison food. I don't know what I'm doing wrong as I'm a fab cook and it seems from mn that everybody loves batch cooking.
Can't just be me, they've got to be settling for eating horrid food just to save time right?

I don't understand why you wouldn't batch cook.

Pasta sauces (red wine and lentil, bolognese both meat and Quorn etc), meat or veg burgers, curries, dhal, chilli, black beans, crumbles, pies... all work beautifully

www.thebatchlady.com/ Check out some of the YouTube videos for this woman. To me there's quite a lot of 'batch prep' as well as batch cooking. They are an interesting watch if nothing else!

I agree, I dislike frozen and reheated food as well as slow cooker food. Mainly because slow cooked food is often limited to stews/soups etc and i prefer my food to have a bit of crunchiness whereas slow cooker makes everything very soft. Which absolutely has it's place and I can see whh many people swear by it, but it's not to my taste.
Frozen and reheated food is often watery, or dry. Again, we're not really fans of much of the food being iffered as great examples for batch cooking, hence why I think it isn't for us. I'd love it if it did work for us, but it just doesn't

See I live alone so if I didn't batch cook I would never eat cottage pie, lasagne, stews, pasta bakes, soup...
And I don't want to fridge it and eat it for a week so I portion and freeze it

I don't batch cook. I have never admitted this on mn before
I honestly can't be arsed with it and I don't have a large freezer. I sometimes freeze leftovers but thats when there happen to be some, not on purpose.

To be fair, it has been proven that freezing food (both veg and meat) does break it down slightly

Frozen and reheated food is often watery, or dry

Only if you can’t cook.

I batch cook most of the time... i dont get back from work until8pm and leave home at 7am. I take out what i am having in the evening before i leave for work. Always reheat in a saucepan and add some chopped herbs for freshness. Chicken does not freeze well and dumplings potatoes etc always freeze seperate to the sauce/meat. Pasta mince/sauces are great and doesnt take long to boil fresh pasta 😊

I batch cook as I’m a lazy cow!! Favourite things to make two of three of are

Lasagna
Cottage pie
Shepard’s pie
Chilli
Soup
Stag bog sauce
Steak pie
Base sauce for curry

I live off my freezer. Always tastes good. Either take it out night before and reheat in oven or do a bit of a slow microwave with lid slightly off. It’s all home cooked food that I recycle.

Microwaves make you cross?

Date what you cook and get all the air out when you freeze. Don't keep it too long and avoid veggies in the food.

Darn better get a book on it! Nobody wants to eat my batch frozen meals. Obviously getting it wrong what with soggy veg and potatoes so we just eat instead of freezing now.

Generally, any ‘dry’ meals like cooked chicken breast or steak will not freeze at all week

‘Wet’ dishes which contain sauce or gravy such as lasagne, cottage pie or curry will freeze nicely and can even taste better second time around.

Vegetables, I think, are best bought frozen though I do freeze cut and peeled apples from my tree when I have a glut to make pies, cakes and apple sauce throughout the year. I likewise freeze Seville oranges whole in January so I can make marmalade at any time.

Sorry, at all, not at all week. Don’t know what happened there!

I don't think it's horrible to batch cook, but I literally only hear about it on Mumsnet.

I don't find it particularly convenient, as for one thing we don't have a lot of freezer space, and another thing is I don't actually want to spend hours at the weekend cooking, when I could be out or relaxing. I'd rather make quick and easy suppers. I don't find it a big deal to spend half an hour preparing food on a weekday evening, and I plan meals before shopping, so I don't have to stare into the fridge and think what to cook.

avoid veggies in the food

Most of my diet is vegetables, so that would be odd, and difficult!

I always have a meal or two in the freezer. You have to know the right type of meal, which may take a little bit of experimentation. You can also use your freezer to help speed up meals. For example freeze pasta sauce.

I've just taken a bag of chilli sauce out the freezer for tonight's dinner. When dh cooks he makes a huge portion and then it can be split into 3 or 4 portions for use at a later date.

I don't actually want to spend hours at the weekend cooking, when I could be out or relaxing.

For me, an hour and a half spent cooking on a sunday morning before the rest of the house is even really up and about, pays dividends throughout the week. I do the sunday roast prep, and a couple of portions of whatever meal I'm batch cooking. One in the fridge for Tuesday, others in the freezer.

Monday''s meals will use the meat leftovers from sunday (usually in a stir fry), Tuesday is whatever was prepped on Sunday, Wednesday is usually a veggie puff pastry tart using up anything in the fridge or ready from the garden, Thursday will be one of the freezer batch cooked meals from a different week and Friday and Saturday will depend on what is going on. None of it is 'bleugh' and it means we are getting decent home cooked food most if not every night with minimal time spent cooking.

Each to their own though.

I would love to know whether all the anti “batch cooking” posters cook from scratch every single night. Because I would always rather eat something I had cooked myself, knowing all the ingredients and the salt and sugar and fat and palm oil and so on content of, even if it was out of the freezer than anything processed or commercially produced. I hate giving more money to big business than I can help- and a couple of meals in the freezer means I don’t.

I've been watching Gordon Ramsey visit restaurants and every time they give him something that's been frozen he fucking hates it. Granted, it's s restaurant so you would expect more than someone's frozen batch-cook, but it's not the same as freshly cooked food.

Tbh, I would probably batch cook some things if I could, but we only have two mini fridges with one shelf of freezer space each. No, I don't cook from scratch because I cannot be bothered.

I've been watching Gordon Ramsey visit restaurants and every time they give him something that's been frozen he fucking hates it. Granted, it's s restaurant so you would expect more than someone's frozen batch-cook, but it's not the same as freshly cooked food.

If you genuinely believe that the programme isn't carefully stage managed to ensure maximum entertainment value then.. well..

Definitely don’t find that here!
Check out The Batch Lady on social media. She does amazing video tutorials and everything comes out of the freezer as delicious as it went in...!