Bulk cooking - recipes to stock up the freezer

[xmummy]

Hi

I am 35 weeks pregnant with ds2. I thought I would try to be more organised this time and fill up the freezer with lots of home cooked food, to make life easier after the baby is born

Does anyone have any recipes they could share as I am bored of cooking the same stuff all the time!!

Cheers in advance

I'm not batch cooking anything but the only thing I considered was soup. Chicken and leek, minestrone, carrot and coriander all freeze well.

Same here! Just a few weeks behind you with ds3 ☺

I make bags and bags of simple tomato, onion and garlic sauce for pasta, pizzas etc. I'm freezing pizza dough, and veg lasagnes in oven dishes so they can thaw in the day and go in to heat up while we get the kids down.

I also make extra every time I do dal or lentil casserole, and bung a load in the freezer. It can defrost and warm up in the microwave and the kids love dal with strips of naan to dip in it. Brown or puy lentil casserole goes well with baked potatoes or as the bottom of a veggie cottage pie.

Frozen helpings of pasta bake /macaroni cheese for the dc.

I put a load of pancakes in there the other day.

Last time I had a baby I froze loaded potato skins and veg burgers but nobody liked them except me so it was a waste of effort.

Not exactly an answer but when I had DC2 I'd just got a slow cooker and it has been brilliant - all the effort (if any) is at the beginning of the day when you feel vaguely human then it's all ready without any thought in the evening. Worth getting in advance as you can try out a few recipes and get used to it.

Not sure whats going on with that emoji, it was meant to be a straightforward smile

Like this

I second the slow cooker and also having a basic list saved with an online supermarket so I can repeat the order easily, including all the basics and things like fresh pasta that cooks in a couple of minutes, bags of salad, smoked mackerel and other stuff that you can use to throw a meal together with no effort.

plan to do my bulking up in January.

will do stuff like standard bolognaise etc to bung on pasta (or toast because I am wierd)

we make a chicken/chorizo & chickpea stew loosely based on spanish cuisine which will be batched in.its something like this though I never follow a recipe:
pipandlittleblue.com/2013/08/01/speedy-chicken-chorizo-chickpea-stew/

I also love tarragon chicken - essentially I make a chicken fricassee (make a roux with flour and butter on the chicken then let down with wine - cream at end). This recipe is similar but I don't use the cumin, I use fresh tarragon. DH loves it despite not liking creamy stuff

DH really loves this and it is suitably different - though you can probably guess I love paprika :
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sausage_and_chorizo_06598

THen it'll probably be ready cooked baked potatoes & we will end up cheating a lot with microwave rice etc

Brilliant suggestions thank you everyone. I have a slow cooker but have never really got on with it. Defo going to have a go again!

Also a breadmaker. If you get into a routine of putting it on overnight you wake up to the smell of fresh bread and feeling like mum of the year.

I make. What has lovingly been termed 'brown surprise' a huge Bolognese split in 3 batches, one turned to chilli (add chilli add kidney beans), one to cottage pie (add baked beans and more stock, extra peas) and one left as Bolognese. I pop them in the freezer in portions for 2 and by the time I come to eat them the label has rubbed off, hence the name!

i would always suggest classics like lasagne, cottage/shepherd's pie, beef stews, chilli con carne (although maybe not if BF!) veg soup etc.

I made a shepherds pie and a large batch of chilli. That combined with some takeaways and some gifted food lasted us a couple of weeks and then I started cooking simple things again.

For my first I made

Bolognese
Chilli
Pork and med veg stew (bit ratatouille like)
Cottage pies
Chicken curry
Lamb curry
Veg curry
Sausage casserole
Lasagnes - veg and meat
Aubergine parm

I kept a stock of microwave rice pouches and fresh pasta and microwave packs of veg.

I made the lasagnes/cottage pies/aubergines in disposable foil trays so I could just ditch them rather than me or DH having to wash up!

I made LOADS and people mocked me but between those meals and a few pizzas/stir fries/steak and chips and a handful of takeaways we didn't cook for a good couple of months! It was ace!

Currently pg with DC2 and have nearly run my entire freezer down to empty ready to start a cookathon in the new year!

Brilliant suggestions and inspiration...thanks everyone