Batch cooking suggestions?

[BrixtonBunny]

Hello ladies, I'm 38 weeks today and feeling like I should probably start on some batch cooking soon! Any good ideas for tasty food that freezes well?

Also - when you batch-cook, what do you freeze your food in? Oven dishes or disposable containers? You can tell I usually don't ever freeze my cooking

I always batch cook.. have two under 18 months and it saves a lot of hassle

Bolognese - huge pot then just buy tacos, microwave rice as a standby and add dried chilli to change it

curry

stew

pork chops in gravy

carrot and parsnip mashed

potato- I do extra at the weekend and it is handy

shepards pie

I also recommend chopping chicken fillets into strips and buying frozen peppers for handy stir fry with ready to wok noodles and whatever veg.also handy for thai curry dishes

also gnocchi cooks in 5 mins

I use a mix - tin foil with lid trays for shepards pie and I like to reheat in oven, clip lock boxes last longer but disposable are great for chucking on a mad night.

good luck with little babba

I have an anti-suggestion. Before DD1 was born I batch cooked a lot of chilli and curry and then she was terribly colicy. So if you're planning to BF, you might want to do at least some non-spicy food in case you're in a similar situation. (Now I'm pretty convinced I could have eaten the spiciest food on the planet and it wouldn't have made a difference, but at the time I was desperate and clutching at straws)

Things you can eat with one hand, and minimal accompaniment are good. For example, chicken or pork chunks, peppers and chorizo cooked in a tomato sauce is enough on its own, with maybe a tin of butter beans stirred through when reheating.

There was a thread similar a little whole back and I've been practising some of the suggestions from there:
Meatballs in a tomato sauce-I but ready made meatballs and then split the pack to only cook one portion at a time.
Bolognaise
Chilli
Lasagna-line dish with foil, freeze in the cooking dish then lift out when frozen and put in a bag or more foil.
I'm freezing all chicken portions in individual freezer bags so I can just grab what I need.

A friend suggested the same as a pp-easy things to eat with one hand. She suggested getting things like croissants, pittas, etc so you can at least grab something even if you can't face making a sandwich.
Will follow this thread for other ideas-finish work this week then have 5 weeks max so will be doing like you and filling the freezer

Lasagne!

Pasta sauce - make up a massive pot of nice fresh pasta sauce (finely chopped onion, carrot, peppers, mushrooms, kidney beans, herbs, canned toms) and freeze small portions in freezer bags.

Then you can get those lovely filled fresh pastas and just defrost the sauce - nice and healthy and super quick.

Ditto soups, and homemade bread freezes well too.

We did portions of lasagne and cottage/shepherd's pie in foil containers, so that we could just throw them in the oven and throw them away after - you can pack a lot of veg in as well to reduce the need to do anything alongside.

We also did things like bolognese, beef stew, chicken casserole which we froze in plastic tupperware, which could be tipped into a saucepan. Again, you can get all your veg in to save additional cooking.

We did also do a load of chilli and curry, but it turned out that me eating spicy food turned my breastfed baby into a screaming monster for a few months, so if you're planning on breastfeeding then maybe go easy on the amount of spicy food you batch cook just in case...

Also buy in some frozen pizzas and bags of frozen peas and veg (so you can just quickly microwave veg).

I also overbought on things like toilet roll, washing up liquid and washing powder, the sort of stuff you really don't want to run out of when you have a screaming poo covered baby on your hands.

Thank you all - I'm writing a shopping list as I'm reading!

Very stupid question... When you make lasagne, do you cook it in the oven first before freezing it? Or freeze it after assembling it?

It depends. When you reheat will it be in the microwave or in the oven? I always assemble and freeze 'uncooked' as reheating is done in the oven.

Just don't do what I did, did all my batch cooking for about 2 weeks worth of meals then rushed to hospital leaving the freezer door very slightly open :o

Just think of anything you can make that is topped with potatoes - chicken pie, cottage pie, hotpot, casseroles with new potatoes in it etc. Whole meals which need no more added to them. Make them in tin foil takeaway containers.

Stinkers we have both an oven and a microwave, but I'd imagine reheating in oven as tends to give nicer results? Great idea re: potato topped things too, next time I make mash I'll do a double load to stick on top of a dish!

Shitebag

Yes, oven us much better. No need to pre cook the lasagne then, just assemble! I used to batch cook for my dh if I was away for a few weeks. Fish pie, cottage pie, chicken pie, any pie with mash on top rather than pastry. Lasagne imo is a complete dish with pasta, meat and as much or as little veg as you want to add. No fannying around with rice/pasta etc. One pot cooking is what it's all about!

I am looking to batch cook things to freeze in single portions, for when it's just me at home (ds3, the last of the dses, heads off to university in the autumn, and dh works away from home a lot, so is away a couple of nights a week) so this thread is very well timed for me.

I am planning to do curry, lasagne, bolognese, casseroles, shepherds pie.

I also thought I could do meat in marinades - chicken thighs cubed and marinated in either teriyaki marinade or yoghurt, lemon juice and cinammon, and then frozen, or lamb or pork chops in a marinade, or chicken thighs/drumsticks in BBQ marinade - things I could defrost and cook fairly quickly, without the hassle of the marinading. Plus I am sure I remember Nigella saying that the meat carries on marinating whilst in the freezer so you get really tasty results.

Meatballs in tomato sauce is a great idea.

Ooh staying that sounds like a fab idea!

I'm going to do some serious batch cooking this time. We're getting a second freezer! With ds I just did it all wrong, I made Thai pastes and things like that, thinking that I'd just chop up some veg, make up the Thai curry and maybe some homemade roti. I clearly had no understanding of how busy and knackered I'd be!! So my advice would be to make up whole meal (ie make up the whole bloody curry...and the roti!) and make stuff that's good with microwave rice/part baked baguettes. Also stuff like homemade pizza that's good gone cold and you can eat with one hand.
This; www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/great_sausage_casserole_73010
is a favourite in our house too. I'm also going to make loads of portions of fish pie etc for ds- there's no way he's having take aways like we did when he was born!

Just to add

M&S do Cumberland pies and cottage pies - three for £10 and they are delish and not bad value at all :)

All brilliant suggestions, can't think of any more to add. Re the lasagne, I make a big tray, cook it, eat a portion of it that night, then freeze the left-overs. As long as it's thoroughly defrosted it can just be reheated.

I always freeze food in plastic tubs - ice-cream tubs, takeaway tubs (you can buy these in pound shops) as I find it's less messy. Just pull something out in the morning and leave it on the draining board, dump it into a pot in the evening and heat it, cook pasta/rice/potatoes whatever to go with it and meal on a plate in minutes :)

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3256/moroccan-lamb-with-apricots-almonds-and-mint

I love this recipe, and it's high in iron and fibre which I imagine is quite good post - birth :-)

Could substitute chicken to make it cheaper or if you don't like lamb!

I made things I could have for lunch too like corned beef pies/pasties and soup.
Also flapjack freezes really well and is a great little snack. I made 2 batches

My only regret about batch cooking is not doing more.

Huge pot of ratatouille then can freeze and have with meats, pasta, rice etc. Lasagne and curries freeze well. Other than that teach hubby to make cheese sauce then have mixed fish in so he can quickly make cheesy fish pasta bake...its addictive. Good luck for next few weeks xx

Oh and cookie dough freezes week you can even cut into shapes and freeze on greaseproof paper so ready to pop in oven

If your partner is getting leave make sure you save the batch frozen meals for when they go back! Also get them to make you a lunch box before they leave for work. Sandwiches freeze amazingly well for this purpose.

Slow cooker is useful too, I buy diced neat and frozen casserole veg, I throw it in frozen with liquid and seasoning and its a two minute job. I also buy frozen diced carrot/celery/onion which is great for bases.