Step by step guide to planning a batch cooking day, can anyone help, please?

weezl74

danni121 wrote: »

This sounds like a fab idea!! I'm
new to all this and I'm excited at getting all organised. I know for many of you it's so simple but the step by step basics are just what I need. It wasn't really passed down to me and I'm eager to get my family eating well and on budget. With a toddler and little one on way this is really gonna help x

Hi Danni,

I batch cooked 2 months of evening meals for us while pregnant, and I was so grateful to myself when my son was born, it was like being my own best friend, and popping round with a casserole!

Congrats on your pregnancy

danni121

Thanks. I seriously can't even imagine batch cooking that much. All I can of batch cooking is a bolognaise sauce and chilli con carne. My freezer is seriously under used lol
I guess I will def have to keep a closer eye on the batch cooking thread as 2 mths worth meals ready would be fab!

Allegra

danni121 wrote: »

Thanks. I seriously can't even imagine batch cooking that much. All I can of batch cooking is a bolognaise sauce and chilli con carne. My freezer is seriously under used lol
I guess I will def have to keep a closer eye on the batch cooking thread as 2 mths worth meals ready would be fab!

What other things do you cook on a regular basis ?

All curries, casseroles, pasta sauces, pies etc. can all be cooked in a big batch with a minimum of extra effort. You don't have to stand on your feet all morning and cook 20 different dishes - just cook double of whatever you are cooking that night and freeze half, and at the end of the week you have a week's worth of meals stashed away in the freezer ! Do this for two months, and you are all sorted for a couple of months after the new baby arrives

Lesley_Gaye

weezl74 wrote: »

*weezl goes away to google gant chart*

Thank you

did you find gant chart Weezl?

It's something used by project managers et al to plan the time of a team.

Once all the tasks are entered, each task having a defined effort time and elapsed time, you link them together with dependencies

eg 'bake cake' is dependent on all the steps to make it, so if any of the make cake steps are delayed, the PM enters the (possibly projected) delay and the program pushes all the dependent steps forward, thus giving you a new finish time

does that make sense?

weezl74

Allegra wrote: »

What other things do you cook on a regular basis ?

All curries, casseroles, pasta sauces, pies etc. can all be cooked in a big batch with a minimum of extra effort. You don't have to stand on your feet all morning and cook 20 different dishes - just cook double of whatever you are cooking that night and freeze half, and at the end of the week you have a week's worth of meals stashed away in the freezer ! Do this for two months, and you are all sorted for a couple of months after the new baby arrives

Indeedy! And filling your drawers in a logical way is good too, like each of our freezer drawers can hold 2x 2 meal tupperwares, 4 x 1 meal tupperwares, but it's still not fullfull, so I Slide in 2 square pizza bases (takes up less space relative to it's size). Then I make 3 bags of a 'wet dinner' like bolognaise sauce or lentil dahl, and they cleverly ooze themselves into any shaped space you have remaining. Finally little squares of cake and brownie get posted into the gaps . 13 meals in one drawer, and I have 7 freezer drawers

weezl74

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

did you find gant chart Weezl?

It's something used by project managers et al to plan the time of a team.

Once all the tasks are entered, each task having a defined effort time and elapsed time, you link them together with dependencies

eg 'bake cake' is dependent on all the steps to make it, so if any of the make cake steps are delayed, the PM enters the (possibly projected) delay and the program pushes all the dependent steps forward, thus giving you a new finish time

does that make sense?

love it

Allegra you need one of those with your cat on batch day

boultdj

I do pot's with flavor's in first ie:doing chill, bolonase,cottage pie I will get pot with lid's and put the amount of chilli powder I need in a pot and put the lid on and put the big pot away again,then do herb's for bolo, same again for the pie, then do the veg that goe's with the mince to make that combo I like,then I put flavor pot with the veg so everything is together[ I'v done chilli cottage pie by mistake:o by not putting lid's on pot's]

danni121

Hi allegra
I generally just cook something pasta sauce and veg or maybe like fish in parsley sauce (boil in bag eeek) with veg. Very simple stuff like that. Just need to get organised and do it properly and I know it'll work out better.
Luckily my little boy or hubby aren't that fussy. These tips are great x

maryb

Once you know what you are doing you can plan forward but I found it easier to start with to plan backwards if you see what I mean. In other words work out when you want to be finished. Eg chicken casserole (and other things which can be fitted in the oven at the same time)needs to be cooked and ready at 5 pm and it needs 2 hours which means not only that the casserole has to be ready to go in the oven at 3 but also other stuff has to be out of the oven by 3 so THAT stuff needs to go in at x o'clock etc

Work out the things which need the longest cooking time like that then slot in the things that need to be finished at the same time but take less time. eg 15 minutes before the end do x so that means you have to do x at 4.45 or say 4.40 to give yourself a bit of leeway/let the water come to the boil

Allegra

danni121 wrote: »

Hi allegra
I generally just cook something pasta sauce and veg or maybe like fish in parsley sauce (boil in bag eeek) with veg. Very simple stuff like that. Just need to get organised and do it properly and I know it'll work out better.
Luckily my little boy or hubby aren't that fussy. These tips are great x

Okay - fancy trying something slightly new ? Here's a few recipes that can be made in a large batch and frozen; dead simple pasta sauce a tasty one-pot dish ; a restaurant-style tarka dal ; and a curry pulsing with goodness