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Bulk cooking and freezing - or how to cook once every 3 weeks

70 replies

FrannyandZooey · 09/09/2007 17:54

Right this is quite long, but some people expressed an interest in it, and this is easier than emailing it out.

This is just an example of how I do it. You don't have to cook these exact things, just meals or parts of meals that can be frozen.

Week 1:

Sunday: fry huge amounts onions and mushrooms, divide into 3

add tomatoes and kidney beans to 1/3 and cook pizza sauce (4 days' worth)
add brown lentils and tomatoes and stock to1/3 and make shepherds pie filling (4 days)
add carrots and beans and leeks and tomatoes and stock and make stew with 1/3 (4 days)
make pizza bases and roll up and freeze, if you don't want to make them on the day

If you have a decent cooker and enough pans you can get these going at the same time, so you aren't cooking literally all day. It's crucial you don't wander off and go on MN (I speak from bitter experience) and let stuff burn. If you do, it can be very expensive and you have wasted a BIG amount of food.

Then you have your other quick meals which you just prepare on the day, like pasta and pesto, salads, pittas and hummus, omelette, etc. So the week's meals could look like this:

Sunday dinner: pizza
Monday: cook mashed potato and have shepherd's pie (make enough mash for 2 days)
Tuesday: Stew
Wednesday: Leftover shepherds pie
Thursday: one of your quick meals
Friday: pizza again
Saturday: quick meal

You can see at this point you have had 5 different meals and only had to cook properly on 1 day. You have left in your freezer: pizza x 2, shepherd's pie x 2, stew x 3

Week 2:

Sunday: fry huge lots of onions and mushrooms again (these are just examples, we seem to eat a lot of mushroomy meals)

add barley to 1/3 and make barley risotto with stock, peas and corn, and sun dried tomatoes (4 days)
add to 1/3 and fry peppers, bulgar wheat and kidney beans, corn, tomatoes, stock and make a kind of bulgar risotto which you then bake in the oven (4 days)
add red lentils, squash and carrots to 1/3 and make a kind of vegetable dhal sauce (4 days)

Sunday: barley risotto
Monday: bulgar wheat
Tuesday: veg dhal - cook rice or quinoa or naan to go with it
Wednesday: quick meal
Thursday: stew from week 1
Friday: barley again
Saturday: quick meal

This week you have had 6 different meals. You now have in the freezer barley x 2, bulgar x 3, veg dhal x 3, pizza x 2, shepherd's pie x 2, stew x 2.

Week 3:

make butter bean and vegetable soup (x 4)
vegetable crumble (root veg and kidney beans with white sauce and nutty crumble topping) (x 4)
vegetable korma with coconut and chickpeas (x 4)

Sunday: bean soup
Monday: veg crumble
Tuesday: quick meal
Wednesday: veg korma (cook rice or quinoa to go with it)
Thursday: bulgar wheat
Friday: veg dhal
Saturday: quick meal

You have had 7 different meals and you have barley x 2, bulgar x 2, dhal x 2, pizza x 2, shepherd's pie x 2, stew x 2, bean soup x 3, crumble x 3, korma x 3 = 21 meals in the freezer, plus 2 quick meals per week = a month's worth of food all sorted with only minimal amounts of cooking left to come, so you could have 4 weeks off now if you wanted to. If however you bulk cook again on the 3rd week, you can cook about 12 (I try for 15) days food every 3 weeks, and add in a couple of quick meals each week, and just keep a 3 week cycle going.

On the day, you may need to cook quinoa, rice, and sometimes extra veg to go with a meal, but not stand over the cooker stirring stuff. I know it is easier for me as there are only 3 of us, so to make 4 days worth is not so hard. However even for larger families, it still works - you just need to either cook more frequently than every 3 weeks, or make larger quantities each time.

I have got recipes for any of the above if it would help. They all freeze reasonably well. If you cook mostly vegan stuff it helps, as beans / veg / lentils all freeze well. Nut roasts also freeze well (I have 2 recipes), as does virtually any kind of veg soup or stew or curry or sauce. Sorry but I don't know anything about freezing meat or fish.

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 09/09/2007 23:02

oh my word

and sell special Big Ol Pans for doing it with

OP posts:
grannyslippers · 09/09/2007 23:04

I have printed those out. So sick of lasagne-pizza-pasta-lasagne-pizza-pasta that all taste the same (well mine do).
Thanks!

amidaiwish · 10/09/2007 08:43

MrsMarvel is right
you could make your fortune, esp with a title like "How to cook once every 3 weeks and feed your family with healthy, nutritious food"!!!

Vulgar · 10/09/2007 10:46

Definately, you should write a book.

and a TV mini series.

and a set of fancy kitchen utensils a la Nigella

ruddynorah · 10/09/2007 11:33

yes, you'd sell the opposite of AK. so instead of mini ramekins and mini blenders and mini farkin ice cube trays you'd sell enormous pans, huge casserole dishes etc. phil and fern would have you on i'm sure!

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 11:38

LOL

OP posts:
chopster · 10/09/2007 11:39

Wembley is great for getting enormous pans to cook with if you are near London. Bloody good going, f&Z. I cook and freeze a lot too, but I couldn't do three weeks worth in one go!

mummydoc · 10/09/2007 11:49

I do simialr thing but mainly meat based things m do you find that sometimes forzen sweet ptoato and simialr goes a soft when defrosted ( haven't been very succesful with sweet potato and chick pea curry !) , I chop all the onions/garlic etc for the " big cook off" in my food processor - saves even more time and my eyes ! anyone interested - meat and fish things freeze well, but mince based dishes best otherwise it gets a bit faffy with different stocks for different meats. eg, if i start with basic onions/garlic mushroom base and want to add beef , i then add a rich stock made with beef oxo, marmite, red wine etc, but htis would n't work woth a chicken casserole IYSWIM.

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 13:01

aaargh at food processor

never thought of that

OP posts:
MrsMarvel · 10/09/2007 13:35

write the book! write the book!

Anything that will knock Annabel Karmel off her pernickerty (sp?) pedestal.

MrsMarvel · 10/09/2007 13:37

I just went to Lidl and got huge quantities of incredibly reduced veg (huge swede for 34p, courgettes for 40p/kilo) and intend to get myself started.

ELR · 10/09/2007 15:57

the veg crumble sounds nice think i will cook that tomorrow cheers!!

ELR · 10/09/2007 16:00

mrs marvel i went to lidle today and the veg had 70% off i got ,7 banans a bag of pears, a huge aubergene,a bag of rocket, 2 punnets tomatoes on the vine, a bulb of fennel, 4 vine tomatoes, chesnut mushrooms and some cheese slices for £5.60 sorry to bore you all but i was amazed!!!

SleeplessInTheStaceym11House · 10/09/2007 16:19

oo oo oo, what a good idea, all i need now is a big pot!

hanaflower · 10/09/2007 16:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

chopster · 10/09/2007 18:08

tesco do lots of cheap basics tubs, some of which are really huge.

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 18:24

I use mostly plastic ice cream tubs, and the largest size yogurt pots.

If you don't have hundreds of them, you can decant the contents into freezer bags once they are solid, and reuse for your next batch.

So pleased people feel enhtusiastic about this!

OP posts:
Dabbles · 10/09/2007 18:48

how do you de-frost and reheat??

microwave? does the food end up tasting microwaved??

pinkspottywellies · 10/09/2007 20:17

at smooshy lentils. I have a random butternut squash to use up so I might make that!

Dabbles · 10/09/2007 20:29

how do you de-frost and reheat??

microwave? does the food end up tasting microwaved??

OP sounds very organised

tcmummy · 10/09/2007 20:53

I love bulk cooking. And tend to bulk cook one recipe at a time but might give your mega-cook method a try .

Tip-We have loads of pyrex glass oven dishes with plastic lids for things like lasagnes and shepherds pies. Having a plastic lid means you can just cool them and then stack them in the freezer easily. You can get them really cheap in wilcos and woolworths (about £5 for one that would serve a family of 4).

Thanks for the new recipes!

Oh, and my other tip is if you're making huge quantities of mash, sticking it in a food mixer saves a lot of arm ache

Dabbles · 10/09/2007 20:54

please can someone answer my question!!!

how do you de-frost and reheat??

microwave? does the food end up tasting microwaved??

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 21:20

Dabbles calm yourself! I went out for a couple of hours and didn't take my bat phone with me

I don't microwave anything, we don't have one (think they are yuk). I take the food out either first thing in the morning, or the night before. Leave until defrosted (or almost defrosted). Then reheat either in oven or in pan, as appropriate, until absolutely piping hot.

OP posts:
Dabbles · 10/09/2007 21:30

HOW LONG DOES THE REHEATING TAKE THAT WAY?

oops

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 21:47

Depends on what it is

veg sauce or something, in a pan, about 5 mins or so

something in the oven, 30 - 45 mins?

OP posts: