Good things to batch cook for student

[ItsOhSoQuietThisChristmas]

I want to batch cook some food for my DD who is going to Uni in a few weeks.

I’m thinking a lasagna, chilli and meatballs. I’ve got some glass Pyrex dishes for freeing and cooking. Also, I’ve got those tinfoil takeaway dishes with lids.

My DD can cook, I’m just trying to make sure they’ve got decent food for the first week whilst they get orientated.

There’s a lot if red meat there. They don’t really like veggie. What chicken dishes can I cook and freeze? Also I’d like to make and freeze some desserts.

Any recommendations?

Do you know that she will have sufficient freezer space? I know lots of hall will have small freezers where students get a drawer to share between two or a single drawer each if they are very lucky. I'd recommend freezing anything you do make in flat sandwich bags, as they enable maximum stacking. Obviously doesn't work for lasagne but fine for bolognaise sauce etc.

I’ve seen three off to uni! I never even thought of cooking for them. Part of the university experience is them learning to fend for themselves. I know that’s not what you were asking but honestly, I’d save yourself the trouble and do something for yourself instead.

Don't bother because it definitely won't get eaten!

Have you asked your DD whether she would like this?

One of my aunts did this and honestly my cousin was teased about it for years. His best man joked about it in his speech

God don't bother, as PP said there might no little freezer space anyway, she's going to be out with new mates grabbing a kebab and chips on the way back, not sitting in heating up her mum's lasagna.

Ask dd. Mine would have been embarrassed to be treated like a young child.

If you want to do something like this, I would take her round the supermarket and pay for a shop before you leave after dropping her so she can choose what she thinks she will want.

Don’t do it. They don’t have the freezer space and they get the piss taken out of them if you do it.

Unless she spontaneously asked you* for this, I think that a) she won’t have the freezer space and b) no one wants to be the girl whose mum has kitted them out with 700 ready meals, it’s just not cool and that’s not what anyone needs in freshers week.

Buy her protein bars, Moma porridge sachets with milk, packets of nuts etc. This way she won’t starve, she can keep them in her room, and proffer them when everyone declares they are starving at 4am.

It’s all part of letting go..

*saying yeah ok mum doesn't count

Your daughter is unlikely to have the fridge or freezer space if she’s in halls.

Honestly, sending her off with pasta & pesto and super noodles would be useful though.

There's a chance she could miss out socially on eating out/on campus or even cooking with new housemates. Hogging freezer space will make her unpopular with them too.

It's a lovely idea in theory but in practice it might make things harder for her. Teach her some of her favourite recipes and send her with the containers, ingredients etc so she can recreate them herself when she's ready.

Pesto pasta and noodles v popular with my student too. Partly because it can be largely stored in his room as virtually no freezer space.
Don't do it OP, sorry!

You need to let her go! In theory it's very kind of you, but it's actually about you wanting to mother her when she's actually away from you.

Now is the time that she is going to be standing on her own two feet and doing her own thing.

I send mine off with homemade fudge and brownies - you never know how much freezer space this is. With these if there is space they can be frozen for moments where they need a reminder of home and if no freezer space they can be shared with flat mates!

If you’re going to kit her out, buy useful or expensive stuff like olive oil, a coffee machine (and pods!), toastie machine or an air fryer.

She won’t want to stand out - everyone else will probably be eating pesto pasta tops so a home made lasagne will look out of place and like she has an overbearing parent.

This is precisely the time when young people make significant steps towards independence. Don't infantalise her by batch cooking! Your job now is just to loosely observe that she has the things she needs to survive at Uni (duvet, pillows, sheets, towels, a few kitchen bits) and then let her get on with it. If she's hungry or surviving on beans on toast or pizza for a couple of weeks - she learns a lesson out of it. Which is good.

Don't
Send her with homemade brownies/cake etc or sweets, great for offering round and introducing yourself
Also the £££ stuff - coffee, herbs, olive oil etc

I understand why you want to do this, and it is lovely, but as the others have said it just won't be received in the way it is intended. Load a card with money to buy groceries.

Mine took an air fryer (only from Aldi £30) and that has been a good send because they can keep it in their rooms (the kitchen is quite gross)

I would leave it so she can sort meals with her new friends - freezer space could be an issue.
Maybe share some recipes with her to cook herself?

Do a grocery shop with her when you drop her off after you've seen how much storage space she has.
Most students end up keeping pasta and rice under their beds due to lack of room.
At most she will have a single drawer in the freezer and a shelf in the fridge, although one of mine was in a flat with 12 drawers/shelves between 13 students!

Are you planning on taking up all the freezer space ? That will not make her popular with her flatmates.

I'd suggest freezing it in sandwich bags, they generally only get one small drawer each.

While PPs might be right about other students taking the piss, that's not a given. We were overjoyed with the Punjabi delicacies and pots of frozen dhal which my flatmate used to get (he was happy to get them, his mum was happy to cook). She was even happier when we taught him to cook and she could just pass on the recipes to him (and us).

Nope, don't do this. Instead, take them out for big grocery shop once there, after you've sussed out the fridge/freezer space. Chuck in a mix if convenience food (pizzas/kyivs/fishfingers) with healthy but expensive berries, plus stock up on the big expensive things like lurpak and marmite and ribena, and buy her a ltr of Smirnoff and some mixers. Finally, bung her £100 in cash and tell her to enjoy freshers week.

That’s a POV, but I just don’t think frozen lasagne and cottage pie have the same impact. Unfair though this is.