batch cookers...what are you making?

[woodwaj]

Looking for some easy meal suggestions for some fussy eaters!

Also pretty much all of my pregnancy i have gone off meat...for anyone else that went off any foods...did you enjoy it again afterwards?

Oh this thread is a gold mine of ideas

Does anyone know how I can save it for when I'm needing to batch cook? Or do I just need to do the "I'm watching" thingy?

woodwaj I used to just use stickers on the tubs.

Great to find this post.

I am not pregnant, but have a teenagers who want to eat late at night, or expect a meal when I am about to go out. Had decided to go to the supermarket this morning and do some cooking for the freezer this afternoon. I am going to do the usual:

Chicken Curry
Bolog sauce
Chilli
Soups
Bread rolls
Chocolate muffins - if they make it to cold without the kids eating them.

I also have in the freezer from Christmas:

Left over bread sauce - only dh likes it so in individual portions.
Red Cabbage - kids don't like it to so cook a whole cabbage with apples and froze portions for two, easy to get out for meals.

In my eternal optimism I am planning to get the kids to help me cook.

Thanks to the PP who mentioned the Amazon ziploc bags, they are exactly what I have been looking for. When it comes to freezing things, most other containers/bags are either too big or small for our family of three, but they are perfect

I found that what worked best for me was to cook double any time I made stuff we'd normally eat, then freeze the excess. Easier to find time for than doing a big batch of stuff, and ensures variety. Things that worked well

Chicken paprika (delia recipe)
Sweet potato and butternut tagine (couscous is so quick and easy to prepare to go with it)
Veg curry and dal
Soup (made with a lot less water than normal so it took up less space and defrosted more quickly)
Thai curry paste, pesto etc in ice cube trays

I did this just before my youngest was born. It was a good half day's work but it tasted AMAZING - best lasagne EVER and best of all you could just take it out of the freezer and put straight into the oven. I made several large lasagnes to feed the rest of the family and about 5-6 individual portions to have as needed. They kept us going in the first few weeks. I got the foil containers from lakeland but have since discovered that you can get much cheaper ones on amazon or eBay.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lasagne_95631

(ps I didn't bother making my own lasagne, just got fresh pasta sheets instead)

Jess - I love the sound of your butternut squash and sweet potato tagine - do you have a link to the recipe?

Home made chicken nuggets are great to batch make then freeze. I froze them on a baking sheet then put in to bags in portions. They're best bring cooked from frozen.

Oh yum. Didnt think of nuggets!!

Love this thread and marking as I am Madame Thrift. Batch cooking will be my Mat Leave task in Feb/Mar.
wood I used to be #1 carnivore. I have managed to get back onto mince if pushed and I can cope with "carvery" meat, fish, seafood, sausages and bacon/salami. Ie anything salty! But I can't bear chicken breast or steak! I'd still rather have veggies, quorn, fish or tofu do you agree?

Same as you!! Its not that i cant eat it i just really really dont want to!!

recipe for oaty choc + cranberry cookies.

The dough can be portioned up and then splodged on a baking sheet for cooking when you need something to munch on. I just wrap it in greaseproof paper and pop it in a plastic bag to freeze it.

I have a brand new chest freezer and am fully expecting to get snowed in this winter.

So excited by this thread! Am batch cooking next weekend so might have to keep watching this one.

We have the takeaway dishes ready!

thanks dwarf rabbit - that comes from 35 years of freezing!
awfulmission - they fill up very quickly - I'm like a pp in that I don't do a concerted effort to do it all in one day, I just look and think, ooh I've used up all the xxxx , we'll have that for tea tomorrow and make lots to freeze as well.
A small bit of advise to new batch cookers/freezers is that some herbs/spices intensify or vary a bit in the freezer - pepper being one of them, so I tend to very slightly under season , and when I re cook, I adjust it then.

Agoodbook - freezer now filled with plastic bags- result! Thanks for the tip x

Not preg but a big fan of batch cooking. I freeze bolognese, chilli, chicken curry, sausage casserole, bacon and leek pie, tomato pasta sauce, ratatouille and soups.

I never cook one lot of something if I can make a batch of it. it become instinctive.

ooh dwarfrabbit - what did you make ? I have some parsnips to use up, but don't like curried/ spiced parsnip soup, so am going to try them with celeriac - and toying with the idea of adding some blue cheese to cut the sweetness

I love this thread!

I have found it so satisfying in the past to plan ahead for a day spent batch cooking before I started a new job. It's great for the winter months and most of my recipes are autumnal / wintery but I'm keen to hear of the spinach and feta pies and the thai green curry that sound ideal for spring when it comes. Any more lighter ideas? I don't freeze soup as I tend to think it's not really worth the space. I'd rather have a couple of slices of moussaka in there that would make a base to a hearty meal than a lunch / lighter bowl of soup.

When I did batch cook I made moussaka (I definitely second this as a nice alternative to lasagne) ratatouille, chilli con carne and lasagne. I tended to save on both time and washing up of the biggest pot I had if everything was tomato based and I could get on to the next recipe. I'd bought 3 packs of those take away trays and I wrote on the contents, date and cooking instructions (which on reflection seems unnecessary as it's all just a bit 'bung in the oven') on top. I did find I could re-use most of the metal takeaway style cases and some of the lids (not all) Some pens run in the freezer but I found a biro was fine with these (rather than a marker pen)

My other recommendation with these is make sure the portions are right. When I buy them again I'll get the ones shaped like loaf tins to ensure it caters for 2, rather than individual ones which I found were ideal for 1 generous slice of something (e.g. moussaka) but a bit in-between for others (e.g. too much ratatouille for 1, too little for 2) Means you can neatly stack and fill the freezer and I did take a picture on my phone at the end of the session to remind myself of what I'd made and how many of each thing I had.

That's another good tip I read online years ago - before going off to the supermarket, taking a photo of that shelf that may (or may not) have the ingredient you need. For me it's the one with my spices - I seem to have ended up with 3 jars of cumin having thought I was running low in the condiments aisle!

Thanks again for starting this - definitely have food for thought now.

yes dotty - definitely portion size! I weigh my bolognese and savoury mince into bags :).

Oh I really want to have a batch cooking day. First need to empty the freezer. So much stuff in there its like a bad game of jenga!! On annual leave this week so that's a good job to do.

agoodbook I'm not a fan of parsnip soup but have made it before with cheddar not blue cheese. I also add a wee bit of mustard rather than curry/chilli type spices.

I normally just make recipes up on my own but it's fairly similar to this:
www.rivercottage.net/recipes/parsnips-garlic-blue-cheese/

Thanks comeagain - I don't grow parsnips myself as our family are not keen, but I was given a bagful by a fellow allotmenter, and I hate not using them! and I have loads of garlic

I have a ridiculously tiny freezer. To make best use of my space I line a tall rectangular container, that is a good fit for my freezer drawers with a plastic bag. Fill, freeze, remove bag from container and I have the perfect sized frozen block to fit the freezer.

This thread popped up in "active topics" (by way of explanation as I'm not pg). This is a subject close to my heart! Confession: I think I might be a "feeder". You can hardly get a slice of bread in my freezer!

Today I made 8 portions of Turkey mince chilli, 2 days ago 6 x bolognase and 12 x lasagnes!

There is a FB group I love love love: Bulk Cooking and Menu Planning. Heaps of like minded people, all with limited time but want to cook homemade.

HTH

I have just read that you can freeze stuffed baked potatoes too. I was thinking about them for lunches. You could do lots, fill them with different fillings and then they can be tin foil wrapped tight and then bagged.

I was also thinking of doing potato slice, cheese and onion layers and then portioning once cooled and freezing.

Am going to do a batch of tomato sauce this evening, thanks to whoever mentioned that option! Must get more containers

Making roast tomato sauce underneath the roast chicken as we speak, thank you to HazyShadeofWinter for the suggestion!

nannynome - no need to get more containers! follow agoodbook's advice and pour the stuff into a container that is lined with a plastic bag. then when it's frozen you just take the container away and tie a knot in the bag ( and I sharpie pen what's in it!) . I did bucket loads of leek and potato soup yesterday that way. unreasonably excited as it means that I can empty the drawer crammed with plastic bags! I'm doing a batch of Hungarian goulash tonight - that freezes really well. also going to do my new plastic bag trick! xxx