Batch cooking for the festive period

[FurForksSake]

I’m thinking about making some meals for the family to eat between Christmas and new year. Turkey will be used for lunchtime sandwiches, a curry and the New Year’s Day pie (we freeze the leftovers).

So probably five meals that I can make ahead and freeze that feel a bit special but are easy to reheat. If I do one a week we’ll end up with five meals that we can enjoy for little effort.

Any suggestions for freezable, festive, delicious family meals? We don’t eat much fish, but other than that no restrictions.

Boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin, a sausage casserole made with venison sausages.

So initial ideas

Beet stew with carrots
Marry me chicken - will it freeze?
Pastitsio
Butternut squash and sage risotto- have to find one that will freeze well
Beef shin ragu
Meatball lasagne
Chicken makhani

can you freeze rice pudding or bread and butter pudding if I make it in a foil container or a glass container?

im also thinking about freezing a log of cookie dough and brownies.

ooh I don’t think I’ve ever made a proper cow au vin

I'm thinking the same @FurForksSake . My DH is on chemo, so I'm trying to have a stress-free Christmas, not running around like I usually do. I'm going for shepherd's pie, pies, lasagne, bolognese, beef stew. etc.

You can make and freeze mash, I do it in portions and get out what I need. This website helps determine the size of a portion.

portion calculator

I also premake stuffing, make individual ones in a muffin tin, then freeze them. I then throw them in the oven from frozen for 30 mins. My family prefer them the second time round as they go nice and crunchy on the outside.

I do a lot of batch preparing too. Eg. Chicken cut up and portioned for fajitas (add a little oil and the seasoning before freezing)

If you are veggie here are some ideas

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegetarian-batch-cooking-recipes

Thanks both; we aren’t veggie but do eat vegetarian meals! The pastitsio I’m going to make will likely by the Diana Henry vegetarian version. I’ll definitely look at that link.

I really like the idea of making some dump bags like the fajitas, great idea. And the mash? Brilliant!

im long term sick at the moment and having surgery mid November and may well still be on crutches by Christmas. So im trying to think ahead.

I think that’s known as beef bourguignon tbf

Do you have a recipe for the turkey pie, please? My mother used to make one at New Year but I can't find the recipe she used.

Other ideas - Chicken cordon bleu, chicken/turkey a la King, leek and potato soup, cottage pie, toad in the hole, chicken breasts in a mushroom, cream and wine sauce.

I’ve just bought a book, The Batch Lady Saves Christmas, so I’m hoping to get cracking soon. The next few days we’ll be trying to eat what’s already in the freezer to make some space.

😆😱😆

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/turkey/turkey-and-sweet-leek-pie/ we’ve made this one for years and years, I don’t bother with the chestnuts. It’s always very, very well received and the leeks are not offensive.

@ThatGlimmeringSea I’ve seen that, is it worth a purchase do you think?

I freeze rolls of shortbread dough for the festive season - dark chocolate and cherry, lemon and poppy seed, mixed spice, cranberry and chocolate, all different flavours. Then pull one out when we're having friends over, slice and bung in the oven. Makes the house smell nice as well as being a lovely treat.

I also make 3 or 4 dozen mince pie shells for the freezer and cook half a dozen at a time because they're so nice when fresh.

@PastaAllaNorma oh wow!! That sounds lovely.

I’ve only just got my hands on it so I’m not sure yet

@ThatGlimmeringSea will you report back when you have a feel for it, pretty please?

You can make a lasagne and freeze it uncooked. Then pull out freezer and cook on day you want it.

A beef stew with swede, carrots, onion, parsnip, stewing steak and potato slices. Cook then freeze. Then on day you want to eat it just make some suet dumplings.

Quiche freezes well cooked. Simply reheat and serve with a green salad and cherry tomatoes, as you might be glad for a lighter meal.

Toad in the hole freezes well. You would just need to reheat and cook some vegetables or if feeling lazy open a tin of baked beans.

I don’t know about rice pudding and bread and butter pudding, but brownies and cookie dough both freeze really well.

The Taming Twins website has a lot of slow cooker recipes which might give you some good ideas for prepping ahead. She definitely has a Marry Me chicken recipe on there and would say if it was freezable (or at which stage it was freezable).

There’s a chicken Alfredo pasta bake recipe on BBC Good Food which is delicious and freezes very well. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-alfredo-pasta-bake

Doing exactly that here.
So far I have butter chicken curry, ox cheek in red wine, meatballs and chocolate chip cookies.
Planning to add katsu curry sauce and pork cutlets, lamb tagine, stuffed aubergines and lentil Bolognaise.
Also some other cookies and macarones

Delicious @Lalanbaba I also might make some katsu sauce!

I am planning to do this. I have two weeks of everyone being here for Xmas . The only way to cope is to fill the freezer. The year before last I made lots of soups and cheese scones, mince pies, gingerbread, sourdough bread and some main dishes. This year Incant motivate myself. I’ve made several apple crumbles and one batch of cheese scones. I need some encouragement and motivation.

When I save Yorkshire puddings to freeze, they collapse somewhat and so are stodgy by the time I reheat. Any ideas?

I make them really crisp to begin with, really dry them out and then pop them onto a wire wrack upside down to cool completely before I freeze them. That seems to work well.

Cookie dough rolled into balls and uncooked sausage rolls. CooK both from frozen

Ohhh cheese scones! Do you freeze them baked or raw?
Such a great idea for soup