Home made ready meals

Quenastoise

marking - I do batch cooking all the time but I'm never totally happy with my results. Hoping for inspiration here

helenut

I'm going for a 2 week course in Kent next week (all the way from Warrington) and I need some help for a variety of food I can cook when I'm down there.

The accomodation is like student halls - 14 people sharing one kitchen (2 electric rings on a hob and a small oven). Last time I was there, cooking anything was an absolute nightmare. I usually ended up going to the pub for dinner as it was quicker and easier but very expensive and I can't afford to do that again.

As we can get there on the Sunday and the lectures don't start until the Monday I was thinking I could go early and cook everything beforehand and just add pasta/rice/whatever on the day depending on what I cook.

Breakfast and lunch gets provided so it is just the dinners. Lectures are everyday and start at 8ish and finish at 6ish depending on the day and I am usually starving by the time I get back so I need something relatively quick.

Does anyone have any ideas? What would you do or cook in this situation? And how would you prepare before hand?

krlyr

Is there storage, e.g. fridge and freezer? Is there a microwave? I'd be tempted to prepare complete meals, e.g. chicken pasta, cottage pie, curry and rice, etc. all together, and zap in microwave or chuck at the bottom of the oven to heat up while others are cooking, save worrying about any preparation. Does depend on having the ability to store the ready-made meals though.

Alternatively, pack something to eat at 6pm - fruit, cereal, something snacky that will fill you up for a few hours and eat dinner later, once the kitchen has quietened down.

helenut

Oh yes, forgot to mention that. There are 2 microwaves and 2 fridge-freezers, but with 14 people they get full very quickly!

krlyr

Another idea, are you friendly with any of the people on the course? Perhaps get in touch now and see if they'd be up for pooling resources - buy the food and split the bill, or agree to cook a 2-person portion of each dinner and alternative days/weeks. With only one of you needing to get into the kitchen to cook, it cuts down the number of bodies clogging it up. Maybe even arrange it between the whole group - 14 people, 14 days, someone can cook a big batch of casserole/mince/stew/whatever for everyone to share?

Is there electricity in your own room? If you own or can borrow a slowcooker, you could prepare dinner in the morning, leave it on low all day and come home to it ready-cooked. You could try some quicker alternatives to rice/pasta/potatoes/etc. such as a nice crusty roll to go with a casserole, or couscous in place of rice (only takes a few mins with water from a kettle)?
You could try to borrow a mini fridge to store cooked meals in your own space, neatly packed takeaway blocks would make use of the space and you could always freeze the food beforehand - it'll slowly defrost in the fridge and perhaps stay a bit fresher (not sure if mini fridges are as powerful as the real deal). Or even just freeze everything and pack a cool box, if you make sure you bulk out the space left when you remove a meal, the meals further down shouldn't defrost that quickly and you could get away without needing freezer space until a good few days into the course - by then, others will have got through the food they've brought along with them (if they're not being greedy and hogging the space with 2 week's worth of food) and made room for you to freeze a second batch of food prepared after week 1.

GreenQueen

Just sitting here eating noodles for my lunch. They're the fine ones, and you just need to put boiling water over them for 2-3 minutes and then drain. I've got them with left over sweet and sour veg from the weekend, but they're also great with shredded, cooked chicken or prawns and chopped veg - things like peppers, carrots, onions, mushrooms that can be stirfried quickly or even eaten raw. Good for an office with lots of people and limited cooking facilities (in our case kettle and microwave).

GQ

zippychick

ive merged this with our home made ready meals thread

these may also help


Cooking for the Freezer..

What foods can/can't you freeze?

batch cooking ideas please

healthyish meals made with a kettle

microwave recipes

Thanks
Zip

pavlovs_dog

I need help! We have just had a huge change to our circumstances. To avoid redundancy, OH has had to accept a change of hours and a 25% pay cut. The pay cut means we need to take tighter control of our grocery spends but it will also have a huge impact on our approach to meals and food. For 5 nights out of 7, we will no longer be able to eat our evening meal together. He will take his to work to reheat on his break, and I will reheat mine when I get home.

The nature of our hours means that neither of us will have much time, never mind inclination, to cook on a daily basis. What I need is a bank of healthy, balanced meals that can be batch cooked in advance, frozen as complete meals (e.g adding rice to a curry) in individual portions, defrosted and then reheated in a microwave. This is a long term, ongoing situation so I want to build up a good repertoire to prevent boredom kicking in. I also need meals that I can get lots of veg into, as I don't fancy getting scurvy on account of OH's antisocial shifts We'll both eat pretty much anything.

I know we have many threads on batch cooking for the freezer, but the focus seems to be on meal building blocks rather than HM ready meals.

All ideas, advice and tips gratefully received.

Ideas so far include:

spaghetti bolognaise (i'm assuming pasta freezes ok)?
lasagne
pasta & meatballs
curry & rice
stew/casserole (do dumplings freeze ok)?
soup
shepherds pie/hotpot
fish pie
ratatouille (does cous cous freeze?)

pavlovs_dog

i should add that I can cook and bake, have a slow cooker, and the space for a 2nd freezer if required.

Popperwell

Consider a microwave combi and/or if chosen carefully a halogen oven too...