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 tried batch cooking once. I took time at the weekend to make a nice meal to take to work, but I simply am not a fan of "next day" food. Except maybe for lasagne, I should have made that, but I don't think of it as healthy.

More so in winter than summer, curries, chilli, paprika chicken, casserole, coq au vin, Bolognese. I cook everything from scratch but to get really good flavour these dishes take hours. We both work full time so it's nice sometimes in the week to have a home cooked meal in the time it takes to boil some pasta or cook some rice and make a salad. I will quite often make 6-10 portions and we are two adults. I also freeze smaller portions for DS, this is particularly helpful for grandparents when they are looking after him.
I also make what DS calls wonky veg sauce, every now and then have a sort through the fridge and anything going a bit bendy gets roasted with garlic, olive oil, herbs etc, passata added 15 mins before the end, then blitzed and frozen in silicone ice cube trays. Really quick meal for a child or adult with pasta and stops food waste, we also use it for sauce for homemade pizza/tarts etc, you can always jazz it up with left over chicken, some extra veg etc.

Even things like mashed potatoes or root veg freeze well, home made cheese sauce too. I made a lasagne last week in about five minutes using defrosted cheese sauce (first half had gone on a cauliflower cheese), defrosted Bolognese mince and some fresh pasta sheets. In the oven for 30-40 minutes with salad, I could get on with other things rather than being stuck in the kitchen.

We have a large upright freezer

I freeze slow cooker tomato sauce in old creme fraiche pots. Defrost, add ham / veg from fridge, and eat with pasta

Various curries / dahl etc

Lots of soup

Stuffed chicken breast

I rarely do stand alone batch cooking but often cook double or triple portions and freeze to give myself an easy meal in the future. I hate eating the same thing two days in a row for dinner so wouldn’t eat it immediately. Favourites are
ragu (beef and sometimes a pork and fennel seed version)
chilli
tomato sauce for pasta
5 veg sauce for pasta
roast lamb in various marinades (I get a whole leg of lamb and then freeze the excess)
asian flavoured chicken (often I cook 15-20 boneless chicken thighs in the instant pot and then freeze in portions)
soups in winter
aubwrgine parmigiana (a great microwave lunch with some salad)
gratins and things like cauliflower cheese

i also prep meat and freeze it in marinades so that as it defrosts it get infused with the flavour - miso and lime chicken is a favourite; also Harris’s chicke or pesto chicken (which saves the half jar of pesto going mouldy in the fridge!)

We have small feezer space and I'm not good at these routines but when I have done it,it's absolutely fabulous!
It's wonderful to have a home cooked proper meal to hand when you don't want to cook it really is! Ans yes I imagine it saves so much Money.
Id definitely do it more of I can get myself organises and has a larger freezer

Yes. Saves a fortune in time and money.

@furballfun we don't really have burgers, chips , frozen veg (other than peas) etc in the freezer so not taking up space. We do eat burgers occasionally but will buy or make fresh ones and eat them rather than freeze. We have a tall fridge freezer but 2/3 fridge, just 3 freezer drawers, 2 of them are fairly deep. If I have a pack of mince or chicken thighs in the freezer they come out get defrosted and cooked and the left overs go into the freezer space they left.

What's not healthy about lasagne?

Oh, sorry, name changed, I was ISpyCobraKai but fancied something new for the summer.

@FreeButtonBee I’m going to try your marinade idea!

we bought a large separate freezer and it’s been a game changer. I batch cook in the slow cooker and then freeze in individual portions. Saved so much money as I would often get takeaway when I was too tired to cook. I love curries and stews so it suits what I like eating.

I usually make a large portion of stuff and have a couple of portions for freezer or next night. Every couple of months I will cook up loads of pinion / mushrooms / peppers and make a few casserole type meals that use them. Also make mini over omelette things that freeze for a hot breakfast.

No. I just CBA, frankly.

Nope, our freezer is too small and full, and no space for another.

i occasionally make extra and keep it in the fridge for the next day, but half the time the leftovers don’t get eaten as we’ll have something else that needs eating up the next day.

Also placemarking :)

I will freeze Bolognese/mince but that's about it. Doesn't batch cooking lots of portions take time particularly if you want different food each night. As a pp said our weekends are busy.

I do buy a lot of frozen stuff/ready prepared food to make it quicker eg chopped sofrito mix. I don't find my evening meals take that long to cook.

I do have 2 big freezers but just full of shop bought stuff.

I always make a full recipe for things like Bolognese, curry, casserole, soups, most are for 4 adults so there’s leftovers as 2 adults and toddler here.
soups in particular as I will usually make a fresh ones at the weekend for lunch, and then we freeze leftovers for weekday lunches

No I’m just rubbish at it. Every time I’ve intentionally made an extra portion I then forget about it and end up chucking it out months later!

Always, thinking about it there are very few meals that I don't at least double.

pesto
roasted garlic
shredded chicken
chicken curry
spiced lamb
beef in beer/other beef stews
bolognese

lasagne
macaroni cheese - to double it the only extra work is grating more cheese!
flatbreads
pulled lamb
meatballs
lots of soup
etc etc
also often some biscuit dough ready to cut & some banana based muffins for emergency travelling breakfasts

i used to have a system of making a 6x batch of something most Sundays so there was always at least 4 evening meals/week in the freezer

The non meat meals are the ones that I don't freeze - usually egg or pasta based

Pizza is doubled up but never makes the freezer as the kids prefer it cold for lunches.

Nope.

I'd love a chest freezer.
I have one drawer dedicated to batch cooking, though sometimes spills over into another, then one with frozen veg, one with meat and fish products and final with bread/dessert products.
When I upgraded my fridge freezer I purposely bought one with 4 drawers. I couldn't manage going back to a 3 drawer freezer again.

No. I don’t have the space in the freezer

My freezer isn't big enough to batch cook
I do make soup in 4-6 portions - I eat it most days, and keeps well in the fridge - simply can't be bothered to faff about making a single portion. I don't weigh stuff - number of portions just depends on the size of the vegetables.
I also weigh out my porridge ingredients at the start of the week - mostly oats, but five different types of grains in total. Having it there ready to chuck in water before I go to bed means I won'd skip doing it and buy croissant on the way to work instead.

I did in my first two pregnancies so we didn't have to worry about food. I tend to cook and freeze the leftovers if we don't have them the next day. I do freeze stock, so chicken stock, veg stock is in ice cube trays in the freezer so I can add to risottos for example. If I worked full time I definitely would but as I'm part time, cooking isn't that much of an inconvenience and I have the time to do it.

I batch cook things like chilli, bolognaise, veggie pasta sauce and the meat sauce for lasagna. Sometimes I spend a few hours on a weekend doing lots at once or I will cook that meal for dinner and freeze the rest in portions.
It's handy for the 3 days I work. I don't get in until 6 and it means DH (who wfh) can give the DC (2 & 6) dinner a bit earlier or have it ready for when I get in.