Batch cooking on a budget!

Nargleblast

If you can get bulk packs of chicken breasts or thighs then you can make batches of chicken curry, Mexican chilli chicken (use chilli con carne recipe but make it chilli con pollo) and Italian chicken (mushrooms, bacon, red wine, tomatoes and herbs). I did this recently with a bulk pack of chicken breast from a wholesale butcher.

Brambling

Tink_04 wrote: »

. I have never had cheeks before - I am always wary as not sure how to cook things like that.

I find meatballs & burgers hard to make because of my hands

I cook with both beef (ox) and pork cheeks as both are frequently reduced on the meat counters. I use my electric pressure cooker but you can use the SC. For the beef cheeks I add chopped carrot, onion and a stick of celery and a tin of tomatoes you can add some red wine if you have it opened. There's lots of easy recipes online for both but well worth giving them a try as they are good value and tasty.

Are your children old enough to be roped in to rolling meatballs to help?

melanzana

Don't forget, if you are going back to work and want to save time, you can also freeze pre made sandwiches. I did this for ages, and saved myself a fortune in the process!

The successes for me were...

Ham and cheese
Peanut butter and creamed cheese
Any kind of leftover cooked meat. (even if it was frozen before cooking it is ok to re freeze once cooked)

Do not use eggs, salad or mayo in your frozen sandwiches, but bring them in a little bowl on the side if you feel it is necessary.

Just make up all your sandwiches for the week at the weekend or whenever convenient, take out of freezer in the morning, perfect by lunchtime!

Google frozen sandwiches for more ideas.

All the above ideas for batch cooking are fab too. Best of luck and hope your health improves.

Prinzessilein

Hi Tink!...as you know I also have health-isues...and whilst I don't have the luxury of a chest freezer, I have a smaller freezer and do like to prepare a few meals for freezing on a 'good' day so when I need a 'ready meal' on one of the many 'off' days I have healthy home-made versions to grab.

Veggie Curry is a staple...tinned chickpeas and mushrooms is a favourite, and very budget-friendly.

Sausage and barley soup is another family choice...slow cooker job...cook sausages cut into chunks along with barley, loads of tomatoes, and chillies ...you can easily sneak in extra veggies too!...then freeze in portions as usual.

Don't forget you can prepare and freeze dessert ideas too!...I always have apple mousse in the freezer (a thick apple puree)...ready to add a crumble topping or just custard!...but if you have a spare ice tray (for 'larger' ice cubes not the mini ones) then you can freeze smooth fruit compote in mini portions...perfect for topping a microwave baked apple or to go on top of ice cream or rice pudding....compote is really just cooked and pureed fruit, so not hard to do!

Wraithlady

Can I also add, batch-cook a load of sausages in the oven, then freeze any you are not consuming immediately. Just defrost, chop and add to sauces to make quick pasta dinners, or to cooked pasta with dressing to make pasta salads for warmer weather, or even just split and microwave/dry fry to heat for a quick sausage sandwich

maman

Wraithlady wrote: »

Can I also add, batch-cook a load of sausages in the oven, then freeze any you are not consuming immediately. Just defrost, chop and add to sauces to make quick pasta dinners, or to cooked pasta with dressing to make pasta salads for warmer weather, or even just split and microwave/dry fry to heat for a quick sausage sandwich

You can do that with frankfurters too and they don't need cooking. Maybe not the healthiest meal but a good stand by chopped into a pasta sauce.