Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Food/recipes

For related content, visit our food content hub.

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:
winemakesmummyclever · 10/09/2007 22:08

Ooh, FAZ you are an inspiration. Your family are very lucky to have you . Have just had 3 hr kitchen session (bliss to have such a long time to myself) to sort out ds's meals for the next week or so. Am away for a few days, but will definitely give some of your recipes a try. Cheers.

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 22:10

"you are an inspiration. Your family are very lucky to have you"

I wish you could see the look on dp's face when I read this out to him

a kind of mixture of disbelief and hysteria

OP posts:
Doodledootoo · 10/09/2007 22:14

Message withdrawn

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 22:20

I just freeze in old ice cream tubs, defrost thoroughly then put in an oven dish to cook

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 22:21

could you not reuse those foil dish things? I reckon they could be washed and used indefinitely.

OP posts:
tcmummy · 10/09/2007 22:26

doodle - I have masses of the pyrex ones. Have collected them a few at a time when they're on offer etc. dh thinks I'm bonkers They don't look very pretty compared to the few denby ones I have, but they are cheap and do the job well. And occasionally I have forgotten to take it out to defrost they have been fine cooking from frozen, but that's something I try to avoid. I hate those foil ones! Apart from the environmental aspect, when you dish the food out the metal spoon scraping on the foil is like nails on a blackboard!

For casseroles I have lots of plastic tubs, mainly flora ones and a few tupperware.

It is a bit of a pain storing them all when they're not in the freezer. But I think it's worth the time you save cooking. And it's BLISS when you've had a busy day to chuck something homemade in the oven that you've just grabbed out the freezer.

Doodledootoo · 10/09/2007 22:29

Message withdrawn

Doodledootoo · 10/09/2007 22:33

Message withdrawn

FrannyandZooey · 10/09/2007 22:34

I don't freeze the mash part of the cottage pie, I think it goes peculiar

I just freeze the filling in any old container and then decant it to an oven dish when it's defrosted. Then add the mash

OP posts:
mimsum · 10/09/2007 22:37

Thanks for this - although I can only dream of achieving a similar level of organisation - but even getting half-way there would be a big improvement

winemakesmummyclever · 10/09/2007 22:38

Aw, just tip a bowl of mash over his head for being unappreciative! lol.

MrsMarvel · 10/09/2007 22:50

" I wish you could see the look on dp's face when I read this out to him

a kind of mixture of disbelief and hysteria "

Hubby won't be snorting at you when you are headlining the Sunday Times Magazine as the "Annabel Karmel for Real People"!

tcmummy · 10/09/2007 22:50

doodle - not sure dh would let me overspill my kitchen hoarding into the garage

f&z - i am a complete lazy mama and just want to bung it in the oven straight from the freezer!

FrannyandZooey · 11/09/2007 08:37

LOL at Sunday Times magazine. Dp is quite capable of snorting at anything I do

I know people are thinking this is really organised, but I promise you it isn't. I don't make menu plans or keep track of what is in the freezer, or anything like that. The OP is really just an organised sounding example of how it could be done. I just cook and cook and cook and freeze - then in a couple of weeks when the freezer is running low, or dp says "erm we have had shepherds pie every night for 2 weeks now", I do it again. That's about it for organisation.

OP posts:
MrsMarvel · 11/09/2007 14:42

Shhhh don't say that too loud! Well with an exceptionally good marketing team I still think you might make the best-seller list...

laura032004 · 11/09/2007 15:55

I freeze lots in freezer bags with tie handles. It works really well for kids size portions - I just bag up 20 or so small portions into a bigger bag. I usually have a bolognese, chicken casserole, pork casserole, lamb stew, chicken dahl & tuna casserole in the freezer. I cook once a fortnight or so on a rota basis to keep the levels up

chopster · 11/09/2007 18:54

btw, seen the message about mash - if you add extra milk to the mash before freezing it, it works quite well. I prefer fresh, but it comes out well enough for emergancies.

Dabbles · 12/09/2007 20:20

Inspired by FrannyandZooey today I made a basic mince recipe (mince onions carrots garlic mushrooms ) and spilt half for shepards pie today and half for spag bol tomorrow! why thank you FrannY!! will buy some freezer bags adn tupperware and bulk cook!

(had to improvise and put whole sauce pan into fridge today...)!!

MrsMarvel · 12/09/2007 23:30

I think that's a good start, but F&Z is talking 12 meals at once... But good to start with two.

I've already recommended that the Government hands out her new book to new pregnant mothers along with their £120 cheque for fruit & veg.

Tatties · 24/10/2007 20:21

Thought I would resurrect this thread as I have finally got my act together and have started Bulk Cooking today! I think it is going to change my life

I made all tomato-based sauces today: pasta sauce, veg curry and chilli. Just looking at your recipes now Franny to get inspiration for the next batch...

New posts on this thread. Refresh page