Batch Cooking Recipes for soon to be Parents

Zola.

My wife will be going off on maternity in the next few weeks.

I want to start batch cooking up loads of meals that I can defrost for dinner to save hassle for us.

Any suggestions of big batch tasty meals?

I was thinking:

- Pasta Bolognese
- Chilli Con Carne with Rice
- Chicken Curry

I want to do a nice variety of things.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

I have done this quite a bit lately. I have an 18 month old and a 4 month old so anything that helps save time is a godsend. I did bolognese, chilli con carne and cottage pie although it's not really cottage pie weather now lol. Whilst making up batches of stuff specifically to be put in the freezer was really helpful I also found just day to day when I was cooking dinner if it was something I thought would reheat well and freeze OK I would just make a bigger batch and freeze some. That way you will get a bigger selection of meals and you haven't had to do any extra work. It's good to know if you've had a hectic day you can still have a delicious home cooked meal with little effort. Good luck with the little one.

Linda32

I cook a chicken and freeze that in portions. This can be used cold as salad or re heated in gravy as a quick roast.

Just a thought, it's best to cook the rice fresh each time rather than freezing that.

tallyhoh

I do home made meatballs in sauce with rice or pasta

pigpen

As a serial parent.. I have never not had time nor had space to batch cook for the freezer and I always had other children to feed anyway.. I just prepped food during the day when I had 5 minutes and threw it in the oven to turn on later. This I find to be quicker than faffing about wasting days when you should be relaxing and growing a person and enjoying your last few weeks of quiet.. you won't get them for a long time.. toilet trips alone.. savour them.. showers.. enjoy every second..

I made a huge lasagne and a huge cottage pie when I went in to have my last one.. good job as I was in 2 days. Between hoping I would survive and getting the other children to bed my man needed it!

Seriously.. go out to lunch and enjoy your time off... it takes minutes to prepare a fresh dinner.

monnagran

How about getting a joint, roasting it and when cold slice it. Make tinfoil packages of enough slices for one meal. Then roast a couple of trays of potatoes, open freeze, tip into bags. Make as many Yorkshire as you like and freeze like the potatoes.
A packet of meat slices, a few roasties and yorkies popped into the oven and with a few vegetables you have a roast dinner.

THIRZAH

I make a big batch of tomato sauce and freeze it in portions.

JIL

I did a load of batch cooking at the weekend, we are away for a few days, daughter is home but works strange hours. I would like her to believe its because I'm so caring but it was actually because there was a lot of stuff in the fridge that needed using up!
I made a chicken and chorizo casserole, used up the old peppers.
A macaroni cheese with kale, leeks and mushrooms.
A sausage casserole, used up a load of carrots and tomato.
Chilli con carne,green peppers, mushroom and tomato.
I also made some turkey mince, feta and spinach meatballs.
I use single portion plastic dishes, I write on the top and they are reused many many times.
The above made 21 dishes which went in the freezer.
They take 6 minutes to heat up from frozen.
They will join the beef stews, liver and bacon casserole and lasagnes already in there.

Its easy to then make a salad, rice, potatoes or pasta to go with them if required.
Good luck with the baby.

ejbg2001

One thing that saves me so much time is buying pre-cooked frozen rice. Due to food safety issues, it is rarely a good idea to try it yourself, but I tried some shop-bought and it made a huge difference to the time it took to prep and cook a meal. I'd laughed as it didn't seem MSE, but then I tried it. Also batch cook mince base, with mince, onion, peppers and mushrooms. Then you can use that for bolognaise, chilli, cottage pie, etc by just varying the sauce you add to it.


Good luck!

tain

I've got a bubba on the way! Our freezer is stocked full of these already, in anticipation for when our two becomes three:

- Paella (this one actually tastes far better when it's reheated)
- Beef stifado (beef stew)
- Vegetable curry
- A basic beef bolognese sauce (tons of this!)
- Tuna pasta bake
- Mince beef and potato pie (just mince beef in gravy, then cooked in pastry)
- Smoked haddock kedgeree (can be done with tuna, I prefer haddock)
- Shepherds pie
- Tons of lasagne
- Vegetable lentil bake
- Homemade turkey burgers (turkey mince with either BBQ sauce or sweet chilli sauce mixed in)

tain

Also, if you've ever considered buying a sous vide device, you can cook meat and veg using it until perfectly done, then freeze it while it's still sealed. Then it's just a matter of reheating when you need it.

Happy to provide a lot more details of this if it's of interest