To ask whether you fill the freezer with batch cooking and then don't eat it?

[SpudsandGravy]

Just that. It's embarrassing, and obvs a waste of money and effort :-(

From time to time I'll make stews or risottos or things like that and freeze them in tubs. When it comes to the crunch, though, I look forward to dinner so much during the day that I tend to make a daily plan (which might well be sandwiches, which I love with fresh crunchy bread) and never get round to eating what I've frozen.

Not only is this a waste of money and effort, the freezer then fills up with all this stuff and there's no room for other interesting items like ice cream (though maybe that's a blessing, right?)...

I gave up batch cooking because none of my family are particularly fond of red or brown saucey food. They'll eat it under sufferance now and again but only because of like it or lump it.

I think that batch cooking is like a present to your future self. I love pulling out a frozen lasagne or fish pie in the morning knowing that's supper sorted with no effort.

It's important to only cook extra and freeze things you'll use though and not just use the freezer as a dumping ground. I either use those plastic tubs where I can and freeze in portions for one or two rather than a huge bag of sauce. Or freeze a lasagne in something that can go straight in the freezer.

Random leftovers get eaten for lunch rather than frozen.

I spend Sundays making things from all the leftover veg, only some of which gets eaten... I need to just buy less veg and use it when it's fresh!
I think you are freezing the wrong things - what about a whole Lasagne, cauliflower cheese or cottage pie, great for a night off cooking.

I tend to batch cook things that you can vary...just as a for instance

massive amount of bolognaise,

with spaghetti
make a lasagne
small amount for calzones
keep the last very gravyish bit for beefaroni

so it's all "fresh cooked" iyswim but the hard part is already to lift out the freezer.

I do similar with casseroles, have that one meal and then keep the rest for a pie another day, or even make the pie and freeze that un cooked to do another day

I can't lay my clothes out the night before for fear of feeling wrong all day, so I know how you feel about traditional batch cooking. Even menu planning freaks me out with its orderliness. I do it, but then swap things about or change my mind completely!

It gets eaten eventually but there are times when I have a house full of food but we fancy something else so we'll go and have that instead. That being said, nothing much goes to waste in this house. It'll get frozen so it can be eventually eaten.

I only really batch cook chilli and bolognese which we do use up. I will only use it if I remember to take it out the freezer to defrost in plenty time and will never defrost in the microwave DH isn't as fussy.

I waste so much meat though as I never remember to take it out and defrost it.

I do this. Because, as a PP said, it's just not as nice. I don't like reheated pre-cooked food. I've made a conscious effort to only freeze uncooked chicken, beef etc. Starting to see the benefits.

@LetMeOut2021

Somethings I eat, but others I don’t really enjoy so I don’t get them back out. I try and encourage DH to take the stuff I wasn’t keen on to work for his lunch, I’m really bad at eating for the sake of it - I have to fancy whatever it is.

Not so much now but used to eat up odd leftovers when DH was working. I know what you mean OP

I do this. I just always look at it frozen and don’t fancy it 🤣

I know what you mean and pretty much never batch cook (apart from spag bol sauce for the DC). My freezer is mainly used for my yellow sticker bargains (esp fish which it turns out you can freeze even if previously frozen!)

I eat it, but I plan very carefully and only make stuff that we like to have reheated. I also re-season, add fresh veg in, always add fresh herbs, as I find freezing dulls flavours.

But you're just as likely to find left over cooked chicken, or ready-chopped soffrito or a pint of milk other 'raw' ingredients in my freezer, I use it as a cupboard really.

But you do you. If you're cooking double to bin it, then stop batch cooking - it's not a law that you have to!

Like a PP, I only really freeze raw foods as a previously cooked and frozen meal would then be unappetising.

My experiences of house sharing is that what OP describes is very common -- PYO fruit or bargains at supermarket also go to waste/get freezer burn. I would forget & waste too, if I cooked in large quantities, froze & expected to 'remember' to extract later.

No, we use all of ours.

I do only ever cook double, though, so not technically batch cooking I guess, and then freeze the half of it that we don’t eat that day, so I just use it the next time we fancy that particular dish.

Some things aren't good arch cooked and reheated tbh, other things work better, especially if they're just parts of other meals.

I'll make and freeze a ragu because then I can use it for lasagne, over spaghetti or as a chilli base etc.

I make and freeze pizza dough so I can just defrost, shape, top and bake. (Great for the pizza oven)
When it comes to bbq weather I like it have homemade veggie burgers and me and DH used to make our own sausages so they were a,ways in the freezer but we've gone vegan now so we need to rethink. Otherwise we'll stuffed it decide to bbq and go and spend £££ on food at the supermarket.
Other than that we keep frozen veg, ice cream and ice in ours.

Always used up here.

Such a relief when it's a spag bol night and you only have to microwave and boil some pasta.

I don't batch cook any morefor this reason. I really don't enjoy eating it. So it would just sit there, glaring nastily at me when I opened the freezer.
I spent too long doing it because I needed to.

Yeah we eat it here

But what I do which is SO annoying is that if meat has a day left to expire I often just put it in the freezer then never can be bothered to defrost and cook with it so I have loads of meat and fish that needs to be eaten. I annoy myself having done that.

Batch cooking doesn’t work for me for that reason so I stopped doing it.
I’ll make extra food to take for lunch the next day or have it for dinner again. I don’t mind having the same for dinner twice in a row. Sometimes I modify it a little bit, for example leftover vegetarian chilli gets incorporated into a soup, quesadillas or something like that but I stopped freezing it.

I only really batch cook things like soups, pasta sauces, bolognaise.

We prefer eating freshly cooked. So I spend time on prepping and freezing. I cut and portion chicken, meat, sausages etc. So much easier on the day to cook. I do the same with veggies. Weekday suppers usually take 30- 40 min which is doable for us.

I wouldn't eat a frozen curry. It just doesn't taste nice to me.

I'm the opposite, I've really embraced batch cooking since my boys became older teenagers and it suits the chaotic, I-may-or-may-not-be-here-for-dinner way they live, as well as their ridiculously different tastes in food.

I buy those little foil trays in bulk and fill the top of the freezer with individual meals I know they will eat. So for DS2 there is currently mac and cheese, lasagne and shepherd's pie, and for DS1 there is spinach and ricotta cannelloni, olive and anchovy bake and chicken and butternut lasagne. I also do low-calorie things like katsu chicken curry with cauliflower rice for myself that can be bunged in the microwave. Also freeze spare portions of things like pasta sauce, cheese sauce, stocks etc and they do get used.

We do have family meals where we're all eating the same thing - tonight it was a big fish pie - but I feel better about them eating "ready meals" when I've made them. It has been suggested to me that it's a bit trashy to be feeding my family "crap in take-away trays" so often, but I know it's decent food with good ingredients and it works for us.

Always cook extra and freeze! Really helps for lunches when working and busier nights. I enjoy cooking more right now though, not much else to do

Gets eaten in this house but I always give a portion to my Mum she is very lazy at cooking

We eat ours too - but this used to happen to me - now I'm labelling and super organised and everything gets eaten. Apart from a couple of random things I didn't like when I ate it the first time that keep getting pulled out and put back