Batch cooking ideas please

Seakay

YOu can freeze fruit cake - but there really is no need. Depending on where you have the most space you could be better off wrapping the cake in greaseproof and foil or cling film and keeping in a tin with a reasonably well fitting lid.

HoneyBee83

Had a flick through my collection and came up with this:

Raspberry freezer jam makes about 1.5kg

550g raspberries
900g caster sugar
125ml liquid pectin
2tbls lemon juice

Crush raspberries in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.Stir in the sugar and leave to stand 1hr in a warm place. Stir frequently.
Add pectin and lemon juice and stir 2-3 mins until well mixed.
Pour into small plastic containers leaving headspace. Seal.
Leave at room temp 24hrs.
Label and freeze in these containers.
Thaw 3-5hrs depending on container size,stir well before serving. Store in containers or jam jars covered with clingfilm.Keep refrigerated and use within 7-10 days.

gailey_2

HoneyBee83 wrote: »

Im the same! I love to batch cook and freeze especially during the winter months when a filling hot meal is much needed!!
Im limited to the dishes i can do as my daughter is a little fussy. I do cottage pie,lasagne,pasta sauce,bolognese.

Freezing pizza with the topping on:make up the pizza and open freeze until firm then wrap in double thickness of foil and return to freezer. Unwrap and cook from frozen.

I've never had a problem freezing cakes:Wrap plain cakes with freezer film or foil between layers.Roll swiss rolls in cornflour not caster sugar before wrapping. Ice if you like but dont fill with jam as this soaks into the cake.Freezer life:Iced 6 months/plain 3 months/fruit 6 months +
Unwrap iced cakes before thawing-room temp up to 4hrs.Cream ones slice better when frozen. Thaw plain unwrapped-room temp 1-2 hrs.

Hope something here helps!

Thanks for advice I sometimes do pitta pizzas for girls too.
Also mastered pizza bases latly from scratch but been reading o/s board and wondering if should partbake then freeeze or freeze raw.
Want to freeze with toppings on so can go straight in oven.

I already do homemade readymeals but am trying to find some ramekins to make child size fish pie/shepards pie then freeze although 4year olds blooming fussy need to do huge batch of childs pasta sauce as me and hubby like ours spicy or with red wine.

cakes im not the best can make a sponge and flapjacks plus muffins but need to learn to make more.

Never thourght to freeze jam. saw jaimie oliver jam recipie where he dident stew for hours or add to much sugar but it wouldent ave same shelf life.

Been saving old jars just thourght they be ok sterilised and tightened.

planning to do strawberry rasberry and blackberry as giving some as pressies.

Also might try moer tarts, crumbles and pasties.

Pretani

regards pizza, this is what I do now.

I bulk buy corriander and garlic naan bread when on offer at the supermarket and freeze.
I bulk buy bolonese sauce when on offer, I've got it in Asda for 50p/bottle a few times.
buy supermarket mozzerella, salami, pepperoni.....they all keep well in the fridge.

There's the basics for your pizza, cheep as chips and handy as hell!

Youdontseeme

Afternoon,

I need serious help with my food shopping budget and meal planning I have read through a few threads but there are so many!!

I live alone and am currently spending what averages out to around £150 which I know can be cut, my problem is I dont be able to get my head around menu planning I often come home from Mr T's having spent 50 odd quid yet have nothing for dinner

At the moment I am spending around £150 / 175 a month but I really want to cut this, if possible to around 30 a week (or lower!) as I need to pay my credit card off asap!

I am a reasonably competent cook, I do try to batch cook as I usually dont get home till 7 or 8 and by then I cant be bothered. So ideas that can be cooked at the weekend then reheated or on one tray stuck in the oven kind of things would be good. I am sick to death of mince.

I eat most things but don't like curry or chilli (other spicy stuff is fine)

I read how little other people spend here but they never seem to say how they do it, or maybe I'm looking at the wrong posts?

I really would appreciate some suggestions (just about to do my online shop lol) preferably healthy trying to drop few a lbs as well as £!

I think I've covered everything there!

YDSM

Pink.

Hi Youdontseeme,

Have a look though these threads for ideas of meals that can be batch cooked and frozen to lift out later as homemade 'ready meals'.

Batch cooking ideas please

Cooking for the Freezer..

Also these threads may help, the weekly meal plan thread may give you some inspiration:

Mealplans WB 2nd August

and the mea lplanning thread where others explain how they go about meal planning:

Meal Planning - how do you do it?

Quite a bit of reading , but hopefully it will help. I'll add your thread to the first link later as your question may help others.

Pink

Mrs_Jojo

Try this link too: http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html

jo1972

Mrs_Jojo wrote: »

Try this link too: http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html

This is a fantastic link, thanks Mrs Jojo!

This is the sort of thing I'm looking for, I have no idea how to meal plan, I have minimum money and have no idea what to cook. To print a shopping list out, buy it and cook what they tell you too is perfect!

crickett1234

You could also try to plan meals like hubby and I do. I get a piece of paper and split it into Breakfast, Lunch/Light suppers, Dinners and Snacks/Desserts and they then I put numbers 1-7 beside all of them, except snacks/desserts which get 1-14 (1 dessert and 1 snack per day!) Then I pop things in like cheese on toast, or scrambled eggs on toast, maybe a quiche or a homemade pizza or something and at least one nice meal that takes a bit of effort, like a roast or stroganoff or something. Then shop to that menu.

It has saved us a packet, and it also means that we choose what we are going to eat the night before and get it all ready.

Hope that helps.

Katgoddess

To make things easier for me for the planning, I have the same thing on the same day each week, so Saturday is something chicken with mash/rice, Tuesdays are chilli or spag bol , Fridays are pasta bake. Otherwise I just look at a blank piece of paper. :S