Weekend food prep

[CuriousKangaroo]

When my DD is away for a few hours on a weekend, I use the time to do food prep for the week.

She is with friends today, so I am making a Spanish omelette (for lunch today and Monday), a coleslaw to go into salads for the next few days, and katsu sauce so I can make katsu curry very quickly during the week, with extra sauce to be portioned up and frozen.

Looking at my diary, I can see she is away for a few hours next weekend too. So tell me, sensible MNers, what weekend food prep shall I do next week?

No dietary issues here. And I already have a good basic tomato sauce in the freezer from a couple of weeks ago.

A curry base gravy

A big bolognaise and portion it up. Then you could do spaghetti bol, lasagna etc.

Thanks for the suggestion but what’s a curry base gravy?

I'll be making pitta bread and ice cream! Given the weather forecast... I've also made some coronation chickpeas to put with the pittas.

greatcurryrecipes.net/2013/12/31/make-indian-restaurant-style-curry-sauce-large-batch/

@CuriousKangaroo

You can portion it and freeze it and just add a few ingredients to make a speedy midweek curry.

Oooh, dough is an excellent idea. Haven’t done that for ages. I used to make a big batch and then use it a few different ways over the course of the week. Not sure why I stopped!

I sometimes make pesto and it keeps for about 5 days in the fridge but it also freezes well. It has so many uses beyond pasta: chicken, salmon, stir into soup or risotto, put in a tart/quiche/omelette.

A basic bean chilli can be used for enchiladas, jacket potatoes, tacos etc…

Savoury flapjacks, cheese muffins, and sausage rolls for lunches

Batter for Yorkshire puds and toad in the hole.

Interesting. I’m Indian by heritage though, so use traditional family recipes for curries. Not a fan of UK restaurant curries so that suggestion isn’t for me, but I am sure they are great for those who do!

I tend to do a “curry feast” on days I have loads of time - 2 different curries (often a lamb based and a chicken based one) done in relatively large batches of each , with proper naan bread or puppodums etc. Enjoy it that evening, and freeze up the rest in portions suitable for the family size for midweek meals. (They used to be 3 person portions - I moved to 1 person portions a while back as DD was often doing sports until late and DH or I might be travelling, or an extra person joining at short notice, so 1 person portions worked best for flexibility).

I also do batches of Mediterranean veggies - dice up (size doesn’t matter so much as all being relatively similar sized dice) a mix of onion, garlic, tomatoes (halved cherry toms are lovely), mushrooms, courgette, peppers, (aubergines if you like them - we don’t). Mix with a dash of balsamic vinegar, a decent fluffy of olive oil and season well (salt, pepper, herbs like thyme, rosemary, oregano etc). Lovely roasted as a side dish.

But leftovers can be frozen either before or after cooking. Before cooking, just pour out enough on your baking sheet and add an extra 5 minutes to roasting time. After cooking, thaw to reheat as a side dish or add to your basic tomato sauce (and some bacon lardons, chopped up country sausages, diced chicken etc if you want meat) to heat and serve with pasta.

The other prep thing I do is diced potatoes for fast oven cooking - put into a ziploc bag with olive oil, lemon pepper and garlic granules (and dried rosemary if you want), seal and let marinade. They can last 24 hours in fridge but don’t really work frozen - but roast in about 30-40 minutes which is faster than proper roasties and handy with the med veg and some form of meat that I throw all in the oven.

Today I’m doing a tray of roasted veg which I will add to a cous cous salad and a pasta sauce.
A batch of cookie dough.
Whizzing up some stale bread with the end of a bit of Parmesan, I’ll pop it in the freezer for when I need to top a pasta bake.

Im not doing them today but often do a batch of falafel and a batch of fish cakes for the freezer because they are a bit faffy when you’re in a hurry!

As soon as we hit autumn I will revert back to soups!

I’m making two big lasagnes (one veggie, one meat) for dinner today and tomorrow, and a dry-ish chickpea curry to put in wraps with salad for my work lunches this week Mon-Wed.

Recipes always lie about how long onions take to cook.
So, I make a large batch of slow-cooked caramelised onions, then freeze in smaller portions.

Adding to oncemoreuntothebreach’s idea, I forgot that I also do batches of the slow cooked onions, then add garlic and ginger, base for curries and freeze that in 1 cup portions to short circuit a proper curry midweek.