Batch cooking

Zedster21

Hi all,
Complete newbie here after a bit of help. Used to love cooking from scratch but after getting divorced have kind of fallen into the pizza, sandwiches, cereal diet, never really seemed worth cooking properly for one, especially when I do shift work so the last thing I feel like doing when I get in is starting prepping a meal. I'm really intrigued by the idea of setting aside a morning or afternoon a week and batch cooking that weeks meals (while hopefully saving some money and being slightly healthier 😁) but have no idea where to start, how long can things be stored for etc, best ways to reheat, what needs defrosting first or can just be popped in the microwave. Any ideas/hints/guides to existing threads I've missed would be much appreciated. Thanks 🙈

dan958

Head over to https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/ for all your needs. The following post is very helpful; https://mymealprepsunday.com/2015/03/09/hello-world/.

With all my cooking, I will tend to keep 2-3 days in the fridge, and freeze the rest. I just get it out to defrost the night before. Once it is in the freezer, things will last quite a long time, but I tend to make sure everything goes through a rotation so nothing is in there longer than a month.

AndyCF

Probably not a great deal of help but one neighbour used to just use a slow cooker so it was 'ready' when they got back home, but they were only out for about 4-6 hours I think. I'd not be (personally) too keen on leaving said item unattended in an empty house 'quietly cooking' but that's just me perhaps.

suki1964

I keep raw meat in my fridge for around a week ( I have a modern fridge with a ultra cold meat locker ). Cooked food for around 3 days, never poisened anyone yet

So for one person Id buy a chicken and do a Sunday roast, cooking twice as much veg as required. Eat one meal that day, serve another within the three days - microwave

With the rest of the chicken, well its up to you. Id make two portions of curry, one to eat, one to freeze ( get out of the freezer in the morning and microwave it ) use the rest of the chicken in sandwiches, pizza topping, wraps, omelette fillings, pie filling, whatever. If you don't want to eat any more chicken that week, bag it and freeze it

Same with mince. Make a large lasagne, when cold, portion and freeze. Get out in the morning. Bolognese , the same.

If you make pasty and like to make pies, they freeze in portions very well. I make quiche a lot using odds and sods, get in a lunch box or a simple supper with salad or chips. You can. make pastry in advance, will last 4/5 days in the fridge, or once again freeze in useable portions

PollyWollyDoodle

I don't batch cook, instead I work on the 'cook once, eat twice' principle. Either I will make a double portion and freeze half or it will be something that can be re-invented the next day, eg chicken with roast veg on Day 1 becomes roasted veg pasta on Day 2. Do this for a few weeks and you should have a few standbys in the freezer.

Planning is absolutely key to this, and when I'm doing the week's meal plan I will write in 'get X out of freezer' on the previous day. As far as possible I get home frozen dishes out and allow to defrost before I cook them, but most things (bolognese, soup, stew) can just be microwaved till they're hot without spoiling them. I also make up salad or coleslaw and keep in a box in the fridge for up to three days.

PasturesNew

Batch cooking for one just means .... make one family slow cooker meal

In the main, if you're going to cook something that serves for 4-6 meals you'll be fed up with it by the time you've eaten two portions, so then you freeze the remaining 4. Trouble is - when are you going to eat that? If the weather changes you won't fancy it - and it's filling up the freezer, so you quickly get to the point where you can't make any more food, you don't fancy what you've got and the freezer's full.

I find the weather being so changeable is the biggest reason things languish in the freezer. The stew you're making today seems great as it's raining, but tomorrow there's a heatwave and you'll think "Blimey, why did I make this?", or it's the weekend now and you've suddenly got an invite, or fancy a takeaway treat instead.... so you can perpetually be staring at food you wished you'd never made

I tend to cook up one SC meal, say chilli, then eat it first with rice, then spaghetti, then chips - all three of which can be knocked up in 10-15 minutes to serve.

juliettet

I think if you loved cooking from scratch it will be easier than you think to get back.With me it was a bit of a mindset.I looked at it from another angle as to eat healthy and with good ingredients. It was perhaps easier as I don't eat meat or fish. Most cooking starts with an onion and as soon that is chopped up and cooking the rest is a breeze.I'm far from perfect though and when i work late (2-3 days per month) I fall on omelettes and pasta with frozen homemade sauce stirred in. Look at first what you really like to eat.

buildersdaughter

I head somewhere between. For instance, on a cooking day, I might cook up:
Batch of basic mince (I always use a mix of beef / pork) say 6 'portions'
Batch of roast vegetables, say 3-4 portions
Bechamel sauce, say 3-4 portions

From this I'll make:

2 moussakas / lasagnes - 1 for tomorrow, 1 for the freezer
1 portion of roast veg for this evening, eat with say, jacket potato & something grilled
(sometimes make even more roast veg to add to a salad or sandwich)
1 or 2 portions of bechamel to freeze for another day (caution will only freeze for a few weeks)
Freeze portions of mince.

That means I can quickly make a simple meal without having to eat the same thing.

I do the same with basic tomato sauce and curry paste.

If I cook roast beef or gammon when people come round, I always chop the last bits and freeze, to add to tomato sauce.

Hope that helps.

D&DD

I think one of the best tips I read was one from Thriftlady (I think) she froze all her batch cooking into bags,flattened them out and stacked them so it was like a library in her freezer! I still use this method now.


I sometimes have a freezer cooking session but my problem is I've never the space in the freezers to put in lots of stuff!


I'm still struggling to find my new normal atm myself but I have started doing a lot of the veg and fruit prep one evening here and there so that there's always ready chopped stuff in the fridge. I meal plan so I have a rough idea of what I'll need that week,then buy and prep accordingly.
Anything that is left after a few days gets popped into the freezer so there is no waste.

FrankieM

I'm also on my own and I batch cook on the weekends (I just don't enjoy cooking enough to want to do it every day)

I store my meals in Chinese takeaway containers and each container holds 2 servings of the 'main' part of the meal and I generally cook for 4 or 6, so 2 or 3 tubs of each thing.

Obviously some things are single portion (lasagne, cottage pie etc)

So I eat it in the evening -with the carb and salad or veg and then have the 2nd (leftovers) portion for lunch the next day.

Because most weekends I cook 1 or 2 different meals to freeze, I've got a good range of meals to choose from and I also do a meal plan for the week so I know what I'm getting out of the freezer each evening for the next day.