Batch cooking ideas please

MushyPeas

Awww, Graham don't be too disheartened about your cooking tonight, sounds like you tried which is the main thing I've had many mishaps over the years...but I also cook some fab dishes

Maybe you should try something different next time? I'm sure you'll find your 'signature' dish

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Person living on his own...

Don't want the same meal 3 nights in a row, but want to be able to cook more.

So looking for stuff I can maybe freeze in batches.

Considering I been living on my own for a year, i have hundreds of plastic chinese take away box things, so thinking I could use them to put in the freezer...

So, whats a good thing to batch cook? I can cook, but the only thing I can cook is toad in the hole (from scratch). Anything else I have a go at, but does not always work as it should.

Anyone fancy training me? Willing to give this a go this weekend.

I have, a microwave, 1 frying pan, 3 saucepans.....erm, thats about it...oh and a couple of baking trays. So please bear that in mind! I dont have blenders or other posh stuff

LOL... you're ahead of me. I have 1 small frying pan, 3 saucepans and a pizza tray that doubles up as a baking tray if I put foil on it. I've also only got 1 pair of those chinese plastic boxes. And also no blenders or posh stuff. DID buy a tin opener last weekend though!

Re training you ... I'd offer except [a] I've probably missed my chance I would be making it up as I went along

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I bought some mince once but just ended up frying it and putting it into a sandwich. Didnt know what else to do with it, but it was on special offer, so would have been rude not to buy it.

You're brilliant you are! Mince sandwich ... if I'd thought of that I'd have started buying mince years ago!

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Ta, but I will only touch the breasts. Really have an issue with any slimy meat, meat with brown bits in, or meat with a bone surprise.

Me too... that's why I don't bother buying meat... I hate fat, bone, skin, gristle... ewwww! Don't want to touch raw meat either

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

drain all the fat off (I know you get lots of it)

Can I ask what you're doing with the fat .... don't chuck it down the drains.
I keep margarine tubs and I pour the fat into a bowl, then when it's cold, I scoop it into the margarine tubs. Then I can pop it in the bin on bin day. But don't forget as after a couple of weeks it goes really manky and nasty.

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Well, that was nice. I don't think I will do that...ever again.

I saved my gormet burger until I had finished the first one, which, was erm, different.

Excitidly bit into it, no cheese, hmmm, like a jam doughnut, where is it. Half way through, I'm worried. So I split it up again. There is no cheese anywhere to be seen. It's all in a mess on the baking tray.

So, thats me through with cooking anything, ever again!!!

ROFLMFAO ... awwww

PasturesNew

I live alone, have a dinky kitchen, not half the utensils you do and no freezer - and in the last week I've typed up a couple of the things I cook that I batch cook then eat over the next 2-3 days without freezing. Yet giving me a bit of flexibility so I am not eating the same things.

Here's a link to my postings in that thread, where about 3 of them have my "Batch cooking things" in. I generally don't buy/use meat, because buying for 1 is very expensive and you have to use it (because it's meat and cost a bomb!)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.html?searchid=13515113

Good luck.

Graham_Devon

Hello Post happy

Mince sandwich? I eat everything in a sandwich if I dont know what to do with it.

As for the fat, well, I seem to have a lot of that downstairs right now. It's on a baking tray which I'm looking at in disgust and will throw it away. I aint cleaning that. So what do I do with myt fat? Just chuck it.

My kitchen now smells of cows butt. My burgers have done god knows what to me. So I'm sticking to birds eye. It's much easier all round!

As for frozen meals, think I shall stick to my tesco value.

I may try baking a cake though, something is niggling at me to do it. That will probably end up in custard to disguise it.

And I will not make any type of jam sponge, they really do make me heave, jam and sponge.....it's just rancid.But I will try a cake, maybe next year And call it a buscuit.

PasturesNew

I agree with you on the whole. These people who don't live alone don't understand that you don't want to eat the same meal 4x in a row ... and that the reality of batch cooking is: [1] over-eating on the day (weeeellll, it's there!) followed by [2] you alone at some point still have to eat all this food. And if you're cooking for 4-6 and then freezing it, it ultimately means you've 1/4-1/6th of the choice in the freezer.

It DOES take ages, it DOES create a mess and in the end it's easier to just find 2-3 easy things to eat and rely on things randomly chucked into your basket in the supermarket. At least you know they're 90% edible rather than 60%.

I tend to not bother much. Life's too short.

As for making a cake: DON'T!!!!!!

You'll only end up eating the whole thing over a very short period of time, followed by not being able to move for the rest of the weekend. Apart from the fact it won't rise on one side (the side that has the burnt edge), any attempt at icing this will produce some nasty goo that finally sets (and tastes awful) and makes another mess of the kitchen that right now you probably wish to never go into again.



and "call it a biscuit" .... probably would too

Graham_Devon

Not only does it create all this mess, but it stinks in there this morning, wondered what the hell was up, my nose aint used to that smell.

Icing, mmmmm, love that stuff. As for eating it all on one day, thats half the fun, surely!

I think I should try a cake. I like them moist though (no pun), theres a cake my mum used to make, and you could squeeze it and it sounded like a wet sponge, and it had moisture in it, something banana cake? I want one of them, was stodgy and absolutely lovely!!

My other problem is when I actually go tesco's and battle through all the idiots, I don't know where to find anything. I know the normal isles, but come to sugar, baking stuff, sauces, im screwed.

I spent at least 5 mins trying to find patak's sauces yesterday in tesco's, then gave up. You just end up looking stupid going round and round! Really wanted a jar of that minty stuff too that you get in the indian. I know they do it, but can't find it, and I need it for a sandwhich filler!