Do you batch cook?

[mumda]

I don't batch cook. I sometimes cook slightly bigger amounts with the intention of putting portions in the freezer for another day. It doesn't happen often as someone in the house will fancy a light supper and stuff their face with one of the portions and then someone else will eat the other for their lunch. If there's more spare portions then they get put into the freezer.

Do you batch cook? If so what's the purpose? Is it just to have a "home made ready meal" in the freezer? Time saving, money saving, energy saving?

If you batch cook, how many portions do you cook at a time?

I don't batch cook, but batch prep. I can't put together a from scratch, home made meal in 30 mins with everything prepped. Usually on a Sunday evening, for an hour I just batch prep. I meal plan first usually on a Thursday, shop for ingredients on a Friday and Batch prep then on Sunday. So I would cook the pasta and rice, cut up any veg, wash fruits, grate cheese , marinate meats or cut into portions. I usually have something baking while I'm doing this. I find having everything prepped takes the mental load away from cooking.

We batch cook some recipes, usually ones which take a fair bit of time and taste the same (or better) reheated. It's useful for busy days or days when we eat at separate times and just want something easy.

Two things which jump to mind are burnt aubergine chilli www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/burnt-aubergine-veggie-chilli/amp

Which we double up and make enough for about 8 portions and it tastes even better after being frozen!

And lentil ragu www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lentil-ragu/amp

Where we do the normal amount but usually get about 6-8 portions anyway.

We just figure as both take a long time to cook, might as well maximise the benefit of that time!

I don’t really like stews and curries frozen and reheated so the only thing I batch cook is bolognese.. we have loads of that in the freezer!

Yes because evening is too busy to cook (little kids). I cook a lot at once, like 16-20 portions of lasagne. I also do parts of meals, eg lots of portions of plain risotto and add fresh veg when we eat it. When I could spare 20min in the evening I preferred cooking fresh every day.

I try to but then find the things I’ve frozen don’t seem very appetising when I get them out of the freezer. I think some thing freeze well and others not. Chilli, bolognese, some curries, Thai curry - all freeze okay.

I batch cook stews, curries, potato bakes, pies and pasta sauces, because I find preparing multiple portions involves only slightly more effort than preparing two.

We have a food processor and large chest freezer which helps as well.

I usually make 20-30 portions of whatever I am cooking and divide them into two portion containers.

It saves time and money and means we always have a homecooked meal available that can be heated up and served in a few minutes with whatever rice, pasta or potatoes fits.

It works really well for us especially as we entertain a lot and reduces the amount of time I have to spend in the kitchen.

I batch freeze lots. It allows me to buy in bulk and save money. It also means that there are always some 'easy heat' meals in the freezer when we're running late or I'm just tired.

We have a fridge freezer in the kitchen and two chest freezers in an outbuilding. There are only four of us in the house now but it hangs over from when there were 7 and a rotating group of ravenous teen friends.
I used to flatten things in ziplock bags for stacking. Now moving on to reusable tubs but that does mean I have to freeze individual portions more carefully. From a flatten ziploc you can just snap off as much as you want to defrost.
Things I freeze: mashed potato, pureed carrot, fried onions, veg curry, chilli (meat or veg), pasta sauces (freeze in large and individual pots for teen), pies, pasties, sausage rolls, cooked snipped bacon/pancetta, meatballs, fish cakes, actual cakes ( without the filling or icing), pulled pork, daal, barbecue sauce, marinated and steamed ribs (can brush with sauce and oven cook from frozen in 20 minutes). I don't precook chicken or game birds for the freezer as I don't think the texture is the same on reheating, but I do make the sauces and freeze so I can put together a home made chicken casserole (Spanish chicken or curry or whatever) in 20 mins.
And soup, we have lots of soup. DH has soup for lunch most days.

We buy and freeze naan bread as it makes a better pizza base that bought frozen ones. Because I order them when they aren't busy and we collect them in bulk and don't mind that they have gone cold they charge me £10 for 20 big naans.
So for us (albeit with a significant up front cost and room to store everything, batch cooking means that we eat really well for £60-80 per week incl house cleaning and toiletries, with zero food waste, and as much local as we can.

Yes, I do. Mostly for time reasons. I don’t get in until 6pm most days, and need ds to be going to bed from 7.30 as we get up early, and so need to get a meal on the table quickly. Having stuff ready to heat up helps with this. Dd1 also takes a full meal for packed lunch sometimes, so make sure I freeze some single portions for her too.

Its easy enough to do, I just cook at least double of whatever I am making, and then have extra to freeze for another time.

Dh makes up batches of curry sauce, chilli, tagine, lasagne, bolognese sauce, etc

Chilli can then be used for enchiladas or served with tortilla chips or wedges. Bolognese can be a pasta bake or lasagne or just spaghetti bolognese.

Yeah in a sense, because there are only 2 of us and things like a 500g pack of mince will feed 4 people, so I always end up freezing half.

I'm a single working parent, so it's easier to batch cook at the weekend and then I can make quick and easy healthy meals on the weekdays. Sometimes my teens are hungry, so they can just heat something up for themselves if they don't want to wait until I get home.

I also cheat by buying things like frozen pre-chopped onions and frozen greens, like broccoli and spinach.

I think people can be snobby about frozen food, but I find it really helpful.

No. I can see why it's a good idea in theory, but our weekends are busy as we're always out and about.
I don't want to sacrifice that to spend ages in the kitchen making chili or curry. Perhaps more to the point, I also only have a small freezer and no space for another one, so it's not really an option.

I don’t batch cook but prep the food the night before. And wake up early and cook the food. We eat nutritious well rounded home made meals every night.

I don’t have a big freezer, so only batch-cook a semi- veggie mince type thing, which can adapt - with various additions - to e.g. shepherd’s pie, spag Bol, or chilli.

Only me and dh now. 500g mince with red lentils and a lot of finely chopped veg added, makes plenty for at least 3 substantial main meals for the two of us.

Placemarking

I sometimes batch 'meals' eg pasta and sauce so it cooks like a ready meal in the microwave. I more often batch 'elements' eg spicy rice which I can have with whatever I fancy and some salad.

This group is very good for tips - www.facebook.com/groups/thefullfreezer/?ref=share

Not a lot but I will do again when I get a new freezer for the garage. I tend to freeze chilli to use in Jacket potatoes at a later date and also soups.

Oh and pulled pork if I've slow cooked way too much I will freeze for an easy Jacket potato dinner.

I do make a large pot of vegetable soup. Nowhere to store it, but gets boiled every day and portions refreshed in separate pan with herbs/parsley whatever. Lasts 4 days. Never batch cook otherways since nowhere to put it.

We don't routinely batch cook. We occasionally make a big load of chilli or ragu bolognese and freeze portions of it, or make too much of something and freeze a portion, but not that often. There are plenty of nice, quickish meals which take little more tine than heating up a frozen dinner, so we don't tend to bother.

I made ten lasagnes the other day. Took an hour. Now I can delegate tea completely for ten nights because who can't heat up lasagne and make a salad?

No, never. We're greedy, and I'm a day-to-day kinda person.

I don't batch cook, but that's simply because my freezer is tiny. In a few years we'll hopefully have a bigger freezer and I'll batch cook then. It will be nice to get in from work and not have to worry about dinner.

Only occasionally eg I'll double the quantity when making Bolognese sauce. But there are only three of us and most recipes are for 4 so I keep the extra portion for another day. I stick cling film on it and write the date on with marker pen. I do put the meals on the calendar, though and there are days clearly marked for using up the spare meals so that stops people eating them for lunch.

I do meals that take more than 15 mins prep at the weekend, and then freeze the other half of it. That gives me two weekday meals that just need defrosting and re-heating. Like curry, bolognese, chilli, soup.

For the other three weekdays, it’s baked potatoes, slow cooker, something with eggs and supermarket pizza or something else pre-prepared.

My freezer isn’t big enough to store more than that.