Batch cooking ideas please

Ruby789

Oops, sorry all, seems I've made no sence!

I used to make curries, chillis, soups and casseroles etc... and freeze them. But they were all one pot meals, and most importantly, no one else I made them for liked them . Though I can sustain life fine, it seems I can't actually 'cook'. And it's nothing obvious either, it's not burned or anything. I used to just follow recipies loosely I suppose.

I want to be able to cook for other people, so I thought I'd try out lots of new recipies and learn to cook them properly step by step, and try making meals with more than one part.

I had a routine with the one pot cooking which I don't have now. I'd make massive pots three times a week and it was fine and simple. Now I'm making a single portion of cottage pie on monday, a small quiche on tuesday, a lentil bolognaise on Wednesday etc.... while I try out recipies, and ending up with lots of bits and bobs. I don't want to make bulk versions of these until I know I like them. I have made that mistake before.

So what I'm wondering is, how do you meal plan so that you don't end up with lots of ingredients hanging around, but not cooking in bulk either. Thought about having an ingredient a week that I focus on, or mexican week or something?

Hillbilly2

We have added Jamie Oliver pizza dough to our batch making. It makes 6-8 bases and can be frozen. If you are feeding a family then you could double the amounts and have a weekly pizza night.

We have alos added Nigellas white bean mash as a side, different from the usual and easy to make.

Apart from that why not pick 4-5 recipes that have similar/same ingredients and do 1 a week. Then you could do a
Mexican
Thai
Italian
Indian
Veggie
themed month etc.

mr1971

I have just started to batch cook and it is going quite well so far. I have a freezer full of soups, pies, casseroles etc

My query is, am I spending more money recooking the items when I have defrosted them to eat that I would be cooking them from fresh each day?

bargainbetty

I can cook a batch of shepherds pie in one go, and I can get six portions from only a little more energy than cooking one. I then heat up a shepherd's pie in two mins in the microwave or ten in the oven. If I cooked a shepherds pie from scratch every night, it would certainly add up to more than one cook and a few reheats.

I think, anyway!

Why not mix and match a little? Do your big pots for half the week, and then experiment on the other nights. As your cooking improves, your batch cooking will too....?

Ruby789

bargainbetty wrote: »

Why not mix and match a little? Do your big pots for half the week, and then experiment on the other nights. As your cooking improves, your batch cooking will too....?

Thanks Betty, this is sound advice. I tend to get a bit carried away it seems and want to learn overnight. This will solve many of the issues! Thanks for replying

Ruby789

Hillbilly2 wrote: »

We have alos added Nigellas white bean mash as a side, different from the usual and easy to make.

This sounds nice, going to look this up!

Hillbilly2 wrote: »

Apart from that why not pick 4-5 recipes that have similar/same ingredients and do 1 a week.

This seems like a sensible approach. I just get carried away and want to learn overnight. I blame watching masterchef at night, makes me want to go make things!

Thanks for replying, this has been helpful

strandedinaber

You could set yourself a challenge - 2 new recipes a week? 2 batch meals, 2 freezer from previous batches, 1 wildcard. That's what I did after throwing myself into trying new recipes with wholehearted abandon and realizing that I was tripling my food bill.

JulieGeorgiana

I have a menu plan (4 weeks) which I just reuse over and over... However 60% of the meal plan is interchangeable to allow for veriety. For example one night is Spaghetti Bolognaise night, however it can also be spaghetti and meatball night or lasagne night. When 60% of the menu can be changed like this it helps make it less boring.

Over the 4 weeks we never COOK the same meal twice. And most meals will have 1-2 meals to freeze for later.

I then add in 'new' recipes I want to try into my plan from time to time...

Ruby789

strandedinaber wrote: »

You could set yourself a challenge - 2 new recipes a week? 2 batch meals, 2 freezer from previous batches, 1 wildcard. That's what I did after throwing myself into trying new recipes with wholehearted abandon and realizing that I was tripling my food bill.

Lol, yes my food budget is definitely out of control right now! So was the cooking experiment worth it? Was it your cooking you wanted to improve or to just to expand your meal repertoire?

Sounds like that system will fit in nicely with the other ideas. Think my wildcard will be a mish mash of left overs or soup, but maybe I'll invent something edible one day. :rotfl:

Ruby789

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

60% of the meal plan is interchangeable to allow for veriety. For example one night is Spaghetti Bolognaise night, however it can also be spaghetti and meatball night or lasagne night.

I like this idea too. If I use the limited freezer space to store building blocks of meals (and not portions of meals as I currently do) then like you said, I can chop and change a bit more.

Spent a chunk of time last night sorting out my list of recipes by main 3 ingredients. Can add a column for common base sauces too ..... I'm really liking the idea of getting organized.

Made a vile lentil concoction last night. The LO's won't be wasted but must be resurrected in a more edible form next time. Another one for the never again pile.