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'm on my own now but I still batch cook things like bolognese, chilli etc and I also make batches of soup, it's such a faff to make things for one, I can make a dozen portions of these as quickly as one and they're there for visitors eg grandchildren.
Things like curry are often better later,

I batch cook something like chilli so we have easy meals to have on busy days otherwise on those days we end up eating freezer food that isn’t so healthy.
I also batch cook the kids food because it’s cheaper to make a big portion than always be making smaller ones

Yep, I live alone and am not cooking cottage pie/beef stew/pasta bake for one!

No I'm terrible at it!
When we were really skint I couldn't afford it unless we ate the same thing every day and now I can afford it I find it never works out as well as when I make a single portion.

We reuse leftovers for lunches and that's about as far as it goes.

I occasionally make vegetarian lasagne and make up single portions for weekday lunches, single portions as that one is just for me. The only other thing I regularly do is get a large sack of potatoes and parboil half and cut up ready for roasting and fully boil the rest and make up portions of mash. I have just used up the last so I will be doing that in the next day or two.

Primary reason is ease and it being cheaper. It's cheaper for me to fry a lot of mince with onions, peppers, courgettes, mushrooms etc and divide into portions and freeze than to have the veg and meat for smaller prep. Ditto for soup, biryani, daal and curry etc.

It also means that on clubs nights when it's manic that we can still eat decently and my longer work days are easier if I know we have something to go with.

I find it much easier to make a big pot of soup / stew / bolognaise / chilli / curry etc. Its so easy to be able to take a portion out of the freezer and have a home made meal without any clearing up.

I batch cook because I live alone and its cost effective. Cooking something like a spag bol or chilli for one is expensive so I cook big portions and freeze.

Same here, I also have a huge freezer and it's really no more bother to cook four portions than one.

For (slightly) more complex meals, I'll make enough for 4, and we'll have it two days in a row - only two of us eat meals that can be batch cooked.

I'm intrigued as to how much freezer space some of you must have - we have a standalone under the counter freezer which is permanently full of uncooked food (mince, burgers, chips, frozen veg etc.); we'd need at least that again to batch cook properly - do you all have chest freezers (or a second freezer etc.)?

@ISpyCobraKai 5 portions for me, always (see hidden talent thread!)
I cannot cook 4 or 6, it is always 5
Still it's 1 to eat and 4 to freeze

yes! Mainly for my little boy who is almost 3. I’ve just made a whole lasagne which I will cut into portions, put in small Tupperware tubs and take out as needed for him for his dinners in the evening after nursery.

also chilli. Getting many more ideas from this thread too.

i also batch cook and freeze lots of béchamel Sauce!

when we had a nanny, she was the queen of this and got me into it. We miss her so much.

@furballfun when we moved house last year, our sellers had a huge American double fridge freezer with the doors…but they were taking it with them.

I looked online on eBay and so on for a cheaper equivalent sized fridge freezer that would fit the gap… but the hassle factor of arranging for it to be collected was too much and I got up sold to the most expensive Bosch on the AO site. I’d sooner see my husband go than it, TBH.

I used to before wfh, it was the o ku way to get through the week but I begrudged having to spend half of Sunday doing it.

I batch cook mainly to save time, we both work and kids are in after school club til 5.30 so week nights are manic

Yesterday I had some free time, i made a slow cooked chilli for nachos and a curry base that I just need to add some yoghurt and prawns to for a 10 minute dinner.

Just buys me back some time in the week

Yes, loads of things - if I make Bolognese or chilli or rendang, curry, pork casserole, pizza dough, lasagne etc I'll do 4 portions for 2 people. There's only the two of us so it's really handy to have meals in the freezer if we've worked late or been out for the day. Or it just means I don't have to think about what to have for supper, just pull something out of the freezer.

We always have a fridge full of veg and salad stuff and garlic bread, tortillas etc in freezer so it's easy to have dinner on the table without much effort.

Tbf, it could be three, or five here, depending what extras I throw in, what I serve with it, or how hungry I am at the time.

We have an American style side by side fridge freezer and a separate freezer that's about 160cm tall.

I sort of batch cook as I go. So on my day off for example I'll make a lasagne with garlic bread. I'll make 4 family sized ones and I'll use part baked baguettes for garlic bread and freeze 6 baguettes and 3 lasagnes.
I do this every week during term time, so by the time the holidays come round I hardly cook.
If I make curry, I make an instant pot full and freeze portions for lunches.

I batch cook a lot. We have a huge American double fridge freezer so have lots of room to accommodate everything.

I use my slow cooker a lot and batch cook chilli, spag bol, sheps pie mix, beef stew and lasagne. Everything is portioned up into little plastic takeaway boxes and stacked in the freezer.

Chilli is so versatile. Can be used for tacos / burritos etc. or just on JP. I just pull out whatever anyone wants in the morning (if we need a quick meal that evening) and we are sorted!

I do.

My ds is a swimmer and trains every evening.

We aren't home until 73.0/8.30pm every evening and often up and out at 4.45am.

I make meat, mash and veg in gravy and freeze.
I have the fridge with ready made fresh pasta dishes that just need heating up for ds.
I have a soup maker and make 2 weeks worth for my lunch each day every other week.

It never occurred to me about the nerdy saving but yes - it must save me energy because the oven isn't on for 30 minutes every day.

I microwave the soup for 5 mins and out in a thermos and microwave both our dinners for 5 minutes each.

Not intentionally, but adu D.C. have left home now and DH works away so I still cook for4 then freeze the rest which does for easy lunches that DH takes away with him and puts in his office freezer.

I buy cheaper beef in 5kg packs from the butchers and will make a huge beef stew and freeze to use for stew, steak pie etc. Everything else is made fresh as dont take as long , but I do make slightly large portions and leftovers are put in fridge for lunch/quick meal another day.

I'm having chilli this evening.
Chilli with rice, tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream, grated cheese, jalapeños and salad.
I bought it all except for the chilli which is homemade from my freezer.
It's a fun Eurovision meal.

I often don't finish work until 6.30pm, which means most nights OH has been cooking. To make it a bit fairer, last month I started to batch cook a couple of meals a week and we freeze the extras. By doing this, also means when all the kids here, or dd doesn't eat something me & oh like, we can just whip something out the freezer for them rather than cook something separate (tbh not many meals all the kids will eat, so this is much easier).
I currently have in the freezer 4 portions of sausage casserole, bolognaise, sweet n sour, 2 creamy chicken, 1 cottage pie, 2 balti, 1 korma, 1 Spanish Chicken, We only have a smallish freezer, so that's probably about as much as will fit in there!