veggie cooking

callywally

Hello,
I am quite new to all this but would like some advice please.
As I need to try any save money at the moment (like everyone!) I want to try doing more home cooking. Im a veggie and there is just me at moment. Has anyone got any tips on reciepies and what I can freeze etc please. Can quorn be used for batch cooking and then frozen? Is a slow cooker a good idea. I am out most of the day during the week. What is the best way of freezing single portions so I can just heat things up when I come in?
Any advice please. Thanks

Farway

I use my slow cooker to make a veggie curry, but the vegies tend to be a bit crunchier than you may like, I did read this is because slow cookers do not get hot enough to break down some veg fibres

Freezing single portions, I got some snap lid containers from Wilko, no doubt available elsewhere, come in various sizes, so I just portion the food out and freeze when cooled, mainly use for soup, curry, stew, pasta etc

No help on quorn as I do not eat it [makes me ill every time]

marri_lou

I have a copy of Leah Lenemans vegan cooking for one, and its very good for organising your week, gives you seasonal shopping lists etc. I would give you a run down of a typical week, but I lent it to a friend at the moment.

When i lived on my own I used to make microwave meals. I'd have 5 tubs lined up, and would cook enough mash/rice and a main/stew for each and a portion of each went into each tub. Kept well in the freezer and I just pulled it out in the morning pre-work and left it in the fridge for coming home.

Bean stews and soup are also a godsend. A pot of soup portioned, frozen and/or a portion kept in the fridge is good.

Quorn I tend not to batch cook, but I will batch cook up the basic curry sauce/bolognaise/and throw in the quorn mince/whatever when I want curry which works well.

Lentil Bolognaise freezes well and is fairly cheap.
Honey and Mustard Butter beans (mmmm)

Will have a scour on the Veggie Weight Watchers Board as they ahve some lovely recipes and post back.

Oh and any sort of bean stew, topped with mash, will make a great "shepherdess" pie.

Strongly suggest in investing in freezable/microwaveable tubs for portioning.

Catzpaws

I'm veggie and I do veggie bolognese and chillis that I freeze in individuals portions. I've only started doing this since start of Jan and it's been a revolution, I can tell you!

I have used Morrisons own veggie mince recently (soya based). Cheaper and OH can eat this (like Farway, OH also is ill on quorn) if he fancies some. This is already frozen though, so I'm refreezing. Probably not 'ideal' but has worked ok for us.

You could try cooking the rest of the meal without quorn and then freeze this. Once you're reheating the defrosted meal on the hob, you can throw in the frozen quorn - quorn really doesn't take long to cook in this way.

As well as chilli/bolognese for the freezer, I've also been doing a fair few curries. Also done soups. Have also frozen batches of red lentils recently which has been fab for chucking into meals.

HTH.

Berni888

A good website to hunt through for some recipes is http://jeenaskitchen.blogspot.com/