Batch cooked meal for freezer that don't use mince?

[RenegadeMrs]

I love cooking but currently have a very clingy 5 month old and am knackered. Can you recommend me some good batch cooked recipes that can go in the freezer that don't involve mince. We are all getting a bit sick of spag bold / lasagne/ chilli.

Thank you!

How about Peanut Butter Chicken?

@RenegadeMrs I have a toddler and am pregnant so I also am looking to batch cook- I'm the same getting sick of mince based batch cook!

@JingleJohnsJulie

How about Peanut Butter Chicken?

That looks great! Thank you I'll give that a go. I have rediscovered peanut butter in lockdown and am loving it.

Aloo Gobi Masala
Chicken Karahi
Spinach Dhal
Minestrone Soup
Butternut Squash Tagine
Pulled Pork
Beef Stew and mashed sweet potatoes
Rice pudding
Toads in holes
Chicken Paprikash
Fish Pie
Lentil parsnip and apple soup
Lamb and apricot stew

Veggie chilli, veggie curry, soup...

We love a batch of chicken carnitas in the slower cooker (like pulled pork but chicken). Fantastic for quick and easy fajitas, tacos, sandwiches, quesadillas etc.

Beef bourguinon and sausage casserole (we use the hairy bikers one) are other greats.

Also, I love having a batch of twice baked jackets in the freezer as a quick lunch. Just freeze before the second bake and then either defrost and bake for 15 mins, or stick straight in the oven for 45 mins from frozen if you forget to defrost like I do.

[quote TOWGA]@RenegadeMrs I have a toddler and am pregnant so I also am looking to batch cook- I'm the same getting sick of mince based batch cook![/quote]
Congratulations on baby no 2! Mine is a second baby as well - I have a 3 year old.

I have loads of lovely cook books but they are all useless at the moment. I really need one called 'The knackered mum cookbook - low effort meals for adults and toddlers'.

@MoltenLasagne

We love a batch of chicken carnitas in the slower cooker (like pulled pork but chicken). Fantastic for quick and easy fajitas, tacos, sandwiches, quesadillas etc.

Beef bourguinon and sausage casserole (we use the hairy bikers one) are other greats.

Ooh chicken carnitas sound right up our street!

I had no idea you could do that. Brilliant.

Above comment was about the jacket potatoes. Although i should have known really as we used to buy shop bought ones for my nan.

I do chicken carnitas too, but the pressure cooker can make carnitas in 12 minutes flat from frozen.

All I do is lob in frozen chicken breasts with some fruit juice, half a lemon and some spices. Press a button. It’ll be ready in 12 minutes but keeps itself warm for ten hours so no stress there. Sometimes do with green salad, sometimes rice, sometimes tacos, paratha or wraps

My freezer is full of veggie stews (green roasting tin beet bourgignon is lovely and very easy made with bought vac packed cooked beetroot), daal, chilli, curry and tagine. Also, mash freezes really well.

Chicken thighs are cheap and reheat well, pork too but pick fattier cuts like shoulder

Sausage tangine freezes well too, I use lamb lausages

The Jamie Oliver 5 cookbook may be a good one for you OP. It's a bit too simple for my tastes - I usually add things in - but in terms of just knocking something out quickly when you're knackered I think it would be great.

For batch cooking, anything saucy I basically cook double and freeze: tomato sauces, soups, stews, curries as well as the mince-based stuff. One thing I do is every couple of months or so I get the food processor out and chop masses of onions, carrots, leeks and celery and freeze it in small bags, so that's the chopping part done for tonnes of recipes. See also frozen onion and garlic in the supermarket. Just getting rid of some of the faff makes a huge difference to me.

I also try and use my oven well, so will often roast two chickens, eat one as a roast, then strip the other one into freezer bags. If I'm feeling super organised I'll make one bag into a pie sauce.

The Batch Lady also has some useful tips.

Mushroom stroganoff
Soups or stews
Curries
Veggie bakes, sliced and frozen in portions.
Risottos

realfood.tesco.com/recipes/fish-lasagne.html
^fish lasagne

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_kids_fishcakes_70996
^fishcakes

My two non-mince batch cooking recipes which get better in the freezer are beef in red wine (if you slow cook it then you don’t even need to brown the meat, can just chuck in slow cooker over the course of an hour or whenever you get a spare moment) and chicken puttanesca (though that may be too salty if you also want the kids to eat it). Happy to share recipes if either of those sounds good to you.

Chicken casserole. Well - any casserole. Tastier once it’s been frozen and defrosted.

Any risotto - if I know I’m going to freeze it then I stop cooking 5 minutes early. But just freezing the leftovers works too.

Any pasta bake.

Cauliflower cheese.

If you have a slow cooker, another option is simply to prep the meals but not cook - so divide large packs of meat into meal sized portions, prep the veg, add herbs and seasoning, freeze in bags. So then you can just tip the bag into the slow cooker and add hot water/stock. Not as quick as nuking a ready cooked meal but 5 minutes in the morning with no washing up rather than trying to chop veg and juggle raw meat whilst fending off toddler.

Good thick soups.
Pizza - either roll and freeze the dough as bases or else with all the toppings.
Fish pie.

Have a look at 'Freeze' by Justine Pattison - lots of lovely food ideas and tips and advice on using the freezer to cook in advance.

Thank you all for your brilliant ideas. I know I can goggle but I'm in that stage where I'm so knackered I can't see the wood from the trees.

And yes @SilenceIsNoLongerSuspicious I'd love those recipes.

I'll also checkout 'Freeze', thanks @je4852

Chicken puttanesca
6-8 chicken thighs, Skin off, fried until brown
1 Small tin anchovies
1 Large onion, Sliced
3-4 Garlic cloves, Crushed
1-2 tbspn Tomato puree
A glass White wine (red if no white)
1 Tiin chopped tomatoes
1 cube, 200ml Chicken or veg stock
1 Jar of kalamata olives

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
2. Drain the oil from a small tin of anchovies into a large casserole, heat on hob, and fry the whole chicken thighs (skin off, can be boned or not) until browned on all sides, then set the chicken aside.
3. Chop a large onion in half and then in slices, and fry in the casserole in the oil that is already there over a medium heat until soft. Then add 3-4 crushed garlic cloves, the tin of anchovies and fry for another few minutes.
4. Add 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste and about 250ml of white or red wine (white prob better), and cook to deglaze pan with stirring.
5. Add a tin of tomatoes, some veg or chicken stock (crumble a cube or make in 200ml water), a jar of kalamata olives, and the browned chicken thighs. Season with salt and plenty of pepper.
6. Stir, lid on, bring to the boil on the hob, then transfer to oven and cook for 1-2 hours. (Lower temperature to 160C if want to cook for longer). Keep an eye to check doesn't dry out too much, add water if needed.

I double this, to have a good amount to freeze. And it’s better if you use boned meat, as otherwise it can be a bit fiddly to eat.

Beef in red wine

3 rashers bacon, chopped
400g diced beef
3 tbspn (ish) all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
2 big carrots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 tbspn tomatoe puree
1 pack button mushrooms, wiped
about 12 pearl onions, peeled (if not using frozen - but use frozen ready-peeled as they’re fiddly)
1/2 bottle / 375ml cheap red wine
1 beef stock cube / melt, crumbled
a few sprigs (or a sprinkle of dried) fresh thyme

Directions
Set slow cooker to high.
Finely chop bacon (scissors are good) and toss the beef in the flour with salt and pepper.
Peel and dice the onion and carrots, then grate the peeled garlic.
Put the bacon, floured beef, onion, carrot, garlic and tomato purée into the slow cooker, along with the mushrooms, peeled pearl onions and herbs.
Pour in the wine and stir in the crumbled stock cube then cook for 6 hours (or more).

Serve with mash or new potatoes (400g) roasted in a 200C oven in oil, salt and pepper and thyme for about 30 minutes. Plus green veg.

Works well doubled in a 6L slow cooker.

I haven’t got any specific ideas off the top of my head that haven’t been mentioned already but I do watch people on YouTube preparing batches of freezer meals, I’m also addicted to watching large family batch cooking (even though it’s only me, dh, and DS age 3) so that might be worth checking out for some ideas. They are mainly American but it’s so strangely addictive to watch lol