to think batch cooking is a bit soulless?

[iCod]

I get the logistics practicality, time saving etc ...
but apart from that (!) when you see the sad plastic boxes it seems to reduce food to fuel rather than joy

I prob am unreasonable, obseity prob etc but YANNOW

I often batch cook things like side dishes so that dinner can be more of an assembly job and quick to pull together. Looking at jars of pickled veggies, homemade stocks and sauces etc in the fridge sparks joy for me! If your batch cooked meals taste soggy and sad, that sounds like a skill issue tbh.

I love a day in the kitchen with some music

went shopping early this morning and did some prep for the week so I don’t need to cook now
the freezer has a meatball pasta bake, lasagne, beef stew and cottage pie. Plus oat biscuits, banana cake and chocolate chip cake
the fridge has leftover sausages so I can have a sausage barm before work plus some chopped salad, tuna mayo and cheese savoury ready for sandwiches

Every time I’ve batch cooked and frozen a dish I end up throwing it away. Just doesn’t look appetising to me when it’s frozen.& gets left in the freezer for months and gets freezer burn. Just like it fresh I guess.

The only exception is when I have cooked extra for a friend/relative who was unwell. I also batch cooked some chilli for my DS when he was at uni.

I understand having stuff "just in case" as well as due to time constraints. Personally, I enjoy cooking. Don't get me wrong, I know that not everyone enjoys it. Even I find it a pain in the arse at times, but I feel the "creation" process keeps it alive and dynamic. It feels like freezing the end result is kind of a waste.

personally I really like cooking so i don't batch cook as such (because, yes i feel it is a bit souless) but I always make more than I strictly need and freeze the remainder-so usually just one or two extra portions.

Can every batch cook meal be heated from frozen in a microwave?

Lots of supermarket ready meals says do not reheat from frozen allow to defrost.

I think it's grim. Who wants to keep up to the eating the same heated up leftovers.

And for the love of god, don't bring it to work. I'm sick of its stinking out the kitchen and the microwave with your heated up batch cooked crap.

No I love it when I’ve just made a huge pot of something. I just chuck the whole thing in the fridge and grab portions from there through the week.

Yes the same as this.

Easy and quick to cook a bit extra for the next day and rather eat food.that hasn’t had to go through freeze-thaw process.

As well having quick but healthy choices that don’t take much preparation.

Batch cooking too time consuming and unappetising for me. The foods often lose taste and texture and not worth the hassle or storage space.

Thank you. What beans do hi put in the chilli out of interest?

So everything stinks? What about ready meals?
they’re not leftovers, I’ve planned to make more

Black beans

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables/sweet-potato-chilli/

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/black-bean-chilli

Where from?

Aren’t ready meals just batch cooked frozen plastic encased examples though?

You don't eat it out of the box!!! Food pre-cooked and frozen or chilled is then reheated and served on a plate as normal, and if prepared well, shouldn't be distinguishable from freshly cooked. If you have the time and inclination to cook from scratch every day, good for you. I usually cook from scratch once a week, and cook enough for the week's meals, sometimes with some spare for the freezer. One morning prepping and cooking, an hour or so portioning and cleaning up, then easy home-cooked meals all week, just fresh greens to do on the day, so I have time to do stuff I enjoy more than food prep.

I like and understand rhe concept, however it's something that just doesn't not work for me.

1. I dont have the freezer space so couldn't do it even if I wanted.

2. Id rather spend twenty mins or so on the evening cooking something simple while the kids are having some chill time after school than spend hours on our day off when we could be doing something fun together.

We only eat relatively simple meals though on a weekday - baked potatoes, pasta & sauce, cottage pie made with frozen mash, fish pie made with frozen mash, the odd stew or casserole which is done in the slow cooker, nuggets and chips one night and so on.

It's the opposite for me. There's something so lovely about sitting down to a homemade, healthy meal that takes absolutely zero effort cos I already put the effort in days ago! I love it.

I think the simplest way to batch cook is to just make too much when you're cooking anyway. So it doesn't take hours. It takes pretty much the same length of time to make one serving of homemade pasta sauce as it does to make ten servings. I wouldn't want to spend hours on any day cooking.

I love batch cooking! It’s like a gift to my future self. A couple of hours spent in the kitchen listening to music means that a few weeks later, when I’m crazy busy, I can come home to a delicious home cooked meal. It’s also really good way of incorporating a wider range of vegetables into our diets. Also of getting maximum out of our food - chicken carcass etc.

I feel so much happier if I know I have several different home made meals in the freezer.

All hot food does yes. Especially in a small work kitchen. Ever heard of making a sandwich.

You are right @iCod. It's never the same reheated.

i don’t want a sandwich at 6pm or 11pm

Why would you do this? I just make extra if I'm already planning a freezable meal, we're having chilli tonight so I'll make more than we need and freeze the additional portions, I made pulled pork over the weekend enough for 9 because I used a pork shoulder, there are 3 of us. We ate dinner and I froze two other family sized portions. I'm not going to spend a day in the kitchen filling the freezer with 5 different batches meals as a specific task, that's not time saving!

I also challenge anyone to make a casserole, Bolognese, curry etc and only make exactly the amount you need for dinner that night unless you have a very large family.

I think some people misunderstand the point.

This!! Surely that's the point, you're already cooking for dinner so just make more than you need, not spending a whole Sunday batch cooking or making a big pot and then eating the same thing all week.

Make buttered onion soup rice ( I think it has a more appetising name, but that name is what it is), put it in the little plastic pots in the freezer and see how long they last.. ditto lasagne, or lime chicken curry or meatballs

Or stuff that only one of us likes, like kedgeree (no, I didn't think it would freeze well, but it was fine!) so I'd have to eat 3 days in a row if I didn't freeze the rest for treats later.

To be fair, I have a 15 year old boy in the house as well.

If it's good, tasty food then the little plastic pots in the freezer fill me with joy, because there it is, just for want of a quick zap in the microwave. Rather than having to set to and make it all before we can eat it.