Batch cooking for one

Fusspot

I live alone and work full time, currently live on ready meals and jacket potatoes, the McCain ones, all for convenience. I want to cut ready meals down to once a week as a treat. Have you any ideas on batch cooking. I have a slow cooker and George Foreman grill aswell as a standard oven. I mainly like fish, mince, chicken and pasta. I don't have a massive freezer. I eat out socially usually once a week so that's one meal sorted.

I love the convenience and taste of ready meals and don't think my own cooking tastes the same but I want to try and eat a bit more healthier and save some money.

Linda32

Hi,

Its more than possible to batch cook for one. I do it for two, so where I use two portions you will just use one.

Any meal made from mince freezes perfectly. Take out of the freezer the night before you want it and re-heat in the oven for 30 minutes at gas mark 6.

I cook a whole chicken and portion that up. Defrost same as above and eat cold mixed with sweetcorn, for example over jacket spud. Or re-heat as I do in gravy with leeks and onions. Serve with whatever you like.

I'm sure you could add this chicken into any recipe which calls for chicken with the assurance that it is already cooked.

There are lots of frozen fish pieces which you can just bung in the oven one piece at a time.

I know its a matter of taste, and I can assure you that I am no foodie, but once you have made your own, any ready meal is a sloppy salt laden mess. Just my opinion.

Fusspot

Thanks for your reply. Is it ok to reheat cooked chicken once it's been in the freezer.

Linda32

Yes it is perfectly fine. Trust me, I DO NOT take risks.

If you want it for tea tomorrow night, lets say. Take it out of the freezer tonight and put in the fridge to defrost.

Then I make up a jug of bisto. Pour this over the chicken in a oven proof dish with leeks and celery is quite nice. Then I re-heat for 30 minutes at gas mark 6 by which time its bubbling hot.

Or I pour over a jar of curry sauce and re-heat as above, serve with rice and naan bread.

I've tried and tried to make curry's but they don't turn out well so I pay Pataks.


I am aware that its basic stuff and probably not to everyone's taste but it suits us.

[Deleted User]

I am down to cooking for one recently and just bought a few ingredients from sainsburys on the way home from a visit. This will be my first real batch cook session since my husband died but so important to do as I value my health and like to control what I eat

I bought lamb mince (organic) and a chunk of choritzo, parsnips and carrots. I have lots of home grown large shallots and garlic. I always have a ready supply of tins of tomatoes, organc stock granules, lentils etc

So what I plan to do is ad hoc, I am going to fry the mince, and choritzo, drain most fat off and add the shallots and garlic. This will go into a casserole with stock, parsnip chunks and carrots and I may well add tomatoes and lentils for health and to reduce the amount of meat per meal. I may or may not add some hm red wine and will thicken with something or other if needed at the end. So this is it, I will cook slowly either in the oven or on top of the hob, then I will portion into dishes, cool and freeze.

Yesterday I made two malt loaves, I had malt that I wanted to use up, macaroons just from almonds egg white and sugar and gold cake with the yolks. Everything is in the freezer now, all in one person portions. I can`t resist a cake so much better to make my own. The malt loaf is superb, so am going to buy more malt

re re-heating cooked meals, I always heat from frozen as it cuts out the middle bit when cooked food is thawed and getting to room temperature, got to be careful to avoid food poisoning

I tend to use one pot when I can so when planning to have a meat meal like above, then I use my small rice cooker with a small portion of rice and I put any veg on top of that to cook, at the moment courgettes and swiss chard from the allotment. All quite easy, one pan to wash as I intend to use disposable foil dishes

Linda32

kittie wrote: »

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re re-heating cooked meals, I always heat from frozen as it cuts out the middle bit when cooked food is thawed and getting to room temperature, got to be careful to avoid food poisoning

Just to confirm, I defrost in the fridge. So the food never goes above 3-4 degrees.

I just prefer to re-heat like this. Equally if you prefer to re-heat from frozen them I'm sure its fine.

[Deleted User]

I too cook and portion it up.When I lost my husband 12 years ago it was difficult to not get in the habit of jacket spuds with different toppings as they were quick and easy and I hated shopping for ages. I now batch cook for my freezer and portion stuff up in those plastic take-away boxes with lids

Easy to stack in the freezer.Tonight I took a small veggie curry from the freezer to eat for lunch tomorrow as I go to my DD's for dinner every Sunday evening.I made a stash of five V/curries last Sunday to use up the past-its-best veg from the fridge.

I have never had a problem reheating any food,meat or veg I usually use the microwave. Chicken is always fine from the freezer once defrosted and reheated, I make mostly curries,chilli's or even some nice braised beef and veg in a big batch from the slow cooker. Shepard's Pie or fish pie is also nice defrosted and reheated .I always put the food in the fridge to defrost the night before

As I look after three of my DGS after school 5 days a week at their house I am often not home till gone 6.30 so a quick reheat in the microwave saves me standing cooking in the evenings.

PasturesNew

Just set out to use the SC, say, once a week, to produce one meal you'd have typically bought as a ready meal. So, which three ready meals would you typically buy?

I'd typically buy macaroni cheese, chilli/rice, curry/rice. My fourth choice might be sausages/mash.

I make mac cheese in the microwave (but it can be done in a SC), I use the SC to make chilli (and to make regular savoury mince/veg) and I've made turkey curry and chicken curry. For sausages and mash I use the microwave and use Linda M's frozen veggie sausages (for the colour) and instant mash.

The savoury mince I might then serve with instant mash, or I might make some dumplings- I make my own dumpling mix in a tub in the cupboard (suet/flour), but I did trial a couple of the dumpling mix packets in the supermarket and there's not much difference. Just one dumpling's enough (nuke them).

Yesterday's tea was: Oven chips and a nice cod fishcake with mushy peas. If I'd bought that in a packet in the chilled meals it'd have probably cost me £2. By using Lidl frozen chips (59p/Kg), Lidl frozen fish cakes (£1.49/4) and half a tin of mushy peas (30p), my meal cost me 67p. I cooked it all in the microwave, it took 8 minutes. Of course, I probably have to eat that again today as I've half a tin of mushy peas to use up (EDIT: Actually, this thread just reminded me I have to get through the chicken curry I made the week before last, so I've just taken a portion from the freezer and popped it into a lidded box in the fridge; I'll nuke it later, maybe with some frozen chips, or maybe with rice if I've remembered to buy more).

I've just started using packet mash as it's easier than always having to buy/possess/prepare spuds .... and, compared to a £1 ready meal of, say, sausage/mash, it's tastier. I always keep tins of potatoes in the cupboard because they're a great thing to chuck into the SC (sometimes whole, sometimes sliced).

For portions, I've got several ready-meal containers (I kept to re-use as microwaveable dishes), so I put a bag in those and spoon in my SC dishes, so I know I'm freezing in portions and not just being a piggy as a single portion doesn't really "look like much" so it'd be easy to end up freezing (piggy) double portions.

For rice, I use a microwave steamer - it's a smallish one (makes two portions), being about 1.5" tall. That takes 15 minutes to make.

Pasta I make in a jug - I pour boiling water into a jug, stick a lid on it and leave it 10 minutes,give it a stir, reboil/change the water...and leave it again. Then I test it and I might microwave it then for 2-3 minutes to finish it off.

krlyr

On your own, I'd go more for batch 'blocks' than whole meals. For example, instead of buying a small pack of mince to do one or two meals, buy a 750g pack or two and cook up a batch of bolognese. Freeze in single portions - you can then have one with spaghetti, one on a jacket potato (I'd personally not bother with McCains - microwave a potato for convenience, about 6 mins each side for a medium potato, and then 10 mins in the oven if you want a crisp skin), one with pasta and cheese for more of a pasta bake type meal, etc.

You could also set some of the mince aside after frying it off and use an alternative sauce - make a stock/gravy, chuck in some carrots, and you have a freezable base you can use for cottage pie, a minced beef pie, and so on.

To go with the bases, you can freeze sides separately too - so a portion of mashed potato (make a bit thicker than you like it, as it can go a bit sloppier when you microwave it), rice (fine to reheat as long as you cool it quickly - run under cold water or spread on a baking tray to cool quickly), and so on. Just mix and match bases and sides for each meal.

You then get the benefits of batch cooking, i.e. cheaper to buy in larger quantities and the convenience of something cooked (for the most part), but you're not eating the same meal every day for a week, which can be a risk with limited freezer space.

IrishRose12

MY favourite ATM is making pasta bake and freezing it. Even though I'm not on my own, it's easier for me as it means I can swap and change for my lunch in work etc aswell as at home.

I put peas and sweetcorn in with the pasta and sauce, melt cheese over the top and then when it's done leave to cool, then portion up to freeze. Can get about 7-8 portions out of it depending on how much I make.

I would also make batches of Chilli, Bolognese sauce and Lasagne, portion up into takeaway containers or buy them in the £ shops, and they're always something in the freezer of needed.

I'd love to be able to do chicken curry but it just doesn't work for me Think I'll have to start just using curry sauce in it's own lol.

[Deleted User]

my batch cook is now freezing. 7 good portions in costco (cheap) foil dishes, just need to add some rice/veg/baked potato whatever I fancy. I cooked on low on the hob for an hour

I only used 1 lb organic lamb mince and a chunk of chorizo, to which I added some soya mince and lentils as well as the other ingredients. It smelled divine. I already have a few riverford or vegetarian bits in the freezer, which I want to use before I do another batch cook

It took only minutes to prepare everything and then to pack, was so worth it