How to defrost batch cooking, and what to eat when planning a family

ManekiNeko

Hey everyone,

I haven't been active on these boards before I don't think, but I've heard good things and keep meaning to pop over. I'm a bit of a lapsed cook, as I haven't had my own kitchen at home for about 5 years now, and I was a lapsed crafter as well but have taken this up again last year. You might have seen me around at some point though - I was on the DFW boards (under a different nick) maybe 20 years ago when I was with my first ex (who was financially abusing me) and I was therefore trying to pay off huge amounts of debt, and I'm currently mostly on the MFW boards having bought my first home last year (after the second ex, also abusive, and via a domestic abuse refuge). So something of a bumpy road but it's nice to meet you all

I'm making a big effort to eat healthily as my partner and I are planning a family (to be clear, I'm very much in a healthy relationship now), but I have significant mental health conditions that can get in my way (C-PTSD, OCD, and awaiting assessments for autism and a dissociative disorder). I'm obviously trying to find easy meals to cook (any ideas on minimal prep food hugely welcomed), but there are days when all I can do is microwave or even just grab something ready to eat.

I was thinking of batch cooking, as then I can make extra food on better days, and heat up something that I made earlier on worse days. So far so logical, but I have no idea how to safely defrost portions of the foods I'd make - things like pasta sauce, curries, goulash, etc. It's a mix of meat and veg for the most part, with the occasional bit of fish (e.g. tuna pasta). I'm also not sure if I could make extra pasta/noodles/rice, freeze it with the sauce, and defrost both together - or best just to freeze the sauce, and make fresh accompaniments? I used to defrost meat by putting it in the fridge the night before, ready for dinner the next night, but I've no idea if the same rule applies for complete meals. I've also never ventured into faster methods of defrosting, like putting a sauce in a pan, or the microwave, etc - I'm totally out of my depth tbh.

Complicating this, guessing my way through defrosting is really hard for me, because of my OCD - as it stands, I'd be too afraid to attempt to defrost something, as I don't know how and my OCD says I've absolutely got to know how to do it perfectly, otherwise I'll make myself or others ill / various other unpleasant and worrying thoughts. Plus, I don't exactly want to give myself food poisoning at a time I'm making extra efforts to be as healthy as I can.

I've ended up in tears today on the bathroom floor, partially because of the sheer stress of trying to work out exactly what's safe to eat. I wanted to grab a snack before lunch, but every snack bar I picked up from the cupboard contained honey, and I'm blessed if I can find out from the internet whether that's definitely safe to eat, or not. (It seems pasteurised honey is fine, but the ingredients just said "honey.") Any resources/links anyone knows would also be very welcomed.

So basically what I'm after is:

• Very simple meal ideas that require little to no cooking (example: boiled eggs with salad)
• How on earth to defrost🤯
• Any help with educating myself on what to eat when planning a family
  

I know it's really cheeky to ask so many questions in my first post, I'm just having a really bad day and thought I would at least ask to see if I can make this any easier on myself (I am practicing asking for help - not my default style!). I would seriously appreciate any advice or support you could offer. 💛

kiss_me_now9

Hello! Are you pregnant now or in the process of trying/thinking about it? If you're not pregnant then I absolutely would not worry about any food rules (apart from the normal ones - don't eat raw chicken etc.). If you are then the basic rules to follow are no sandwich or cured meats, no pate, no unpasteurised cheeses like brie or camembert, no alcohol, and no more than 2 portions of oily fish or tuna etc. a week (due to the mercury levels). I'm currently pregnant and I also avoid smoked fish and anything that I feel would be a 'risky' eat normally. There's far more extensive advice on the NHS website which I would recommend looking at. Generally the rule of thumb is "could this give me food poisoning?" - which is why as our food standards have changed and there are different rules for different countries. One other thing to be sure of is to wash any fresh veggies/fruit that has a skin you'd eat (apples, lettuce, cucumber, peppers etc.). This is again to try and avoid getting any nasty bugs. 

Honey is absolutely fine as far as I know in both pregnancy and trying to conceive, it's just babies under the age of 1 that can't have it so please don't stress about that (in fact I had some on my breakfast this morning!). Most foods in this country are pretty safe to eat. In some countries eggs aren't safe in pregnancy because of how the chickens are raised and the eggs are treated before delivery to the supermarket which raises the risk of salmonella but as long as it has the lion stamp on it - which all UK eggs have to do to be sold in the supermarket - they're fine. Edited to add - the caveat to this rule is that some foods can be tricky to ensure they are safe. Smoked salmon at present is on the 'banned' pregnancy food lists because even though it is considered safe to eat there is a tiny chance it may have a bug in it that could cause problems. However when my mum was pregnant with me that worry was around eggs, when my sister was pregnant a few years ago she was recommended not to eat bagged lettuce because of e-coli risk that was going through bagged lettuce factories etc. It can change year on year and I bet if you asked100 mums of different ages they'd all tell you they were told not to eat something different! 

The healthiest diet for pregnancy is one that sustains you and your baby. If you're worrying and stressing about what you're eating then you might be inclined to cut your portions down, cut things out that are fine to eat, and you'll have a rough time of it. Make sure that you are taking a pregnancy specific multi-vitamin with folic acid in (Pregnacare is a popular one) - you can start this when you're trying to conceive but it's super important in the first trimester to take this as folic acid is fundamental in the formation of the spinal cord.

RE: meal prepping, we're a mainly veggie household so I don't have to worry about meat but generally the best things to do are pasta bakes, ragu/Bolognese, lasagne, carbonara, filled pastas, sausage casserole, macaroni cheese. I personally do not freeze or keep rice of any kind because it does have a high risk of food poisoning (interestingly you may notice that my previous list of pregnancy no go foods did not include cooked rice...) and needs to be prepped and store carefully. If you wanted say, a beef stroganoff with rice for a meal I would make the stroganoff portion, freeze that and then make rice fresh as it cooks. 

Personally if I was making something like a spaghetti Bolognese I would only freeze the mince in sauce part and cook some pasta as it's reheating. 

As for defrosting those dishes I personally am lazy and just whack it in the microwave until it's piping hot (stirring at some point to make sure it's hot all the way through) but I don't eat meat so advice for meat based dishes could be different. You can always defrost in the fridge overnight and into the day time - as long as food isn't sat out at room temperature (unless it's meant to!) you are safe to do it that way (again with the exception of rice - but someone who actually does meal prep with rice may be better placed there). One thing you don't want to do with any food is to freeze it more than once in each 'state'. You could buy a pack of 4 chicken breasts, freeze them that day, defrost appropriately, cook a pasta bake with them in, freeze that and then eat it safely. You couldn't defrost that pasta bake and then refreeze it. 

I would also think about what meals can you buy ready frozen? Pizzas come ready frozen and fresh for example - good indicator there that they would be fine to store in the freezer once purchased. Loads of things can be safely frozen and defrosted. You can freeze bread, butter, milk, cheese, meats, most veggies, fruits. Things that don't freeze well tend to have a higher water content like cucumber/courgette. 

As for what to make... what do you enjoy eating? You might have caught on that I loooove pasta so we eat a lot of it. 

I would say it might be worth speaking to someone about your anxieties around food as it sounds like it's starting to control your life negatively. It can be really easy to fall into a spiral of bad thoughts around food safety especially if you have a condition like OCD as I'm sure you know but rest assured that we all have to eat, if the foods that we eat were that dangerous then there'd be no human race left! 

ManekiNeko

Hey @kiss_me_now9

Thanks so much for your lovely reply ☺️ I teared up reading it tbh, you've made such an effort to help me and I really appreciate your reply.

I'm not pregnant, to the best of my knowledge, but we're trying to conceive. As it can take a few weeks for a pregnancy test to pick up a pregnancy, I'm following the pregnancy food rules, as otherwise I can't guarantee that I wouldn't be eating the wrong things in the first few weeks of the pregnancy.

I'm still new to the rules though so I'm finding it utterly baffling, I've never read so many ingredients lists lol. I did briefly look at the NHS website before, but today as I'm feeling a bit better than yesterday, I've typed it up into a notes app and I'm going to print it out to keep in the kitchen and bring shopping with me just as an aide memoire.

I really appreciate what you've said about the right diet being the one that sustains me and my (hopefully) future baby, that's a healthy way to look at things and I've actually put that as a quote at the top of my 'food rules' doc if that's alright with you so I can be reminded of that whenever I look at it. Yes, I'm definitely worried about eating the wrong things and it's putting me off eating some foods already, which is making it harder for me to eat right. I do think it's worse at the minute because of being so new to all this, I think it'll settle down as I feel better educated about eating right. I am taking a pregnancy multivit yes, I started it three months before we started trying.

I'm seeing my doctor Monday and I'm going to ask her again about food - she and I have been trying really hard to get me specialist help with eating, as I struggle with it a lot at times, but there's a lot of eligiblity rules about whether I'm likely to get any help until I'm actually pregnant. Tbh, my best chance at the moment to get help is an upcoming assessment to see if I'm eligible for an Occupational Therapist (OT) - if I am, I'll suddenly be eligible for a mental health dietitian as well. If not, I'll have to wait until I'm already pregnant to be able to get any help from the dietitian, unless the eating disorder clinic accepts me (my GP has referred me there too, but we haven't heard back). I definitely agree with you about my food worries being out of control, I rationally understand that they are but that doesn't necessarily translate into being able to do anything to change things. I've been trying to get mental health support, and access to the dietitian, for a really long time, long before we decided to start trying for a family. The only difference now is that I'm forcing myself to eat in a certain way for the sake of the health of our (hopeful) future child.

That makes sense about freezing the sauces but preparing fresh pasta or rice to go with them, and about not freezing more than once in each 'state' as it were, that makes it very clear what to do. So I guess I just need hopefully a meat or fish opinion on whether I can defrost in the fridge, e.g. put it from the freezer into the fridge at say 7pm on the Wednesday to cook around 7pm on the Thursday (I think I understood you right to say that if it's a veggie sauce it's ok to do that?).

Things I enjoy eating - gosh, almost everything? Lol. I do a good line in pasta, Thai and Indian curries, Hungarian goulash, and Sunday roasts. I also quite enjoy a bit of fish from time to time, like say fish, potatoes and veg - but I wouldn't need to freeze that, it's more a cook on the day thing. I think soups, sauces and stews are what I'm mostly likely to freeze tbf. But it's more quick breakfasts and lunches that I'm struggling for inspiration for, I'm all set for dinners really. Obviously I'll do salads with a protein, and soups are OK at the moment when it's cold, but I'm less sure of what to eat in spring/summer that's super quick. The NHS website mentioned filled pitta breads so I might give that a go.

joedenise

Things like curry, chilli and goulash are all great for batch cooking and freezing.  Just make sure to portion into usable amounts.  I always try and defrost food in the fridge overnight although it's also fine to defrost slowly in a pan or in the microwave if you forget.

One of my go to breakfasts is overnight oats - which is just oats, yoghurt and frozen fruit layered in a jar and then put in the fridge overnight.  Next morning give it a good stir and eat straight from the jar.

kiss_me_now9

@ManekiNeko Tell you a secret… I had two incredibly boozy weekends (one wedding and one celebration party) the two weeks before I got a positive test! I also had a lot of sushi and smoked salmon at those events. Baby is 36 weeks and cooking fine  I would bet most people you ask were the same. Worth remembering too that some people don’t ever bother following food guidance and they have healthy babies and pregnancies. As long as you don’t eat/drink those things once you know you’re pregnant you’ll be ok and will be giving your baby the best start in life. One thing that might make trying to conceive harder is worrying and stressing too much about it as your body will subconsciously be thinking “I don’t have the reserves to make a baby/I am in danger and can’t make a baby right now”. A lot of people find that when they stop trying to conceive that’s when they get pregnant for that reason! 

I would definitely say your scenario about defrosting sounds ok, it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten meat but that sounds like what I would do. Something like a tomato pasta sauce doesn’t necessarily need to be defrosted over night, we just whack it in the microwave but that means it is harder to get out the pot  

Salads are great like you said, soup is also a good one (I can’t think of any soups or salads that would cause issue - obviously washing the salad bits properly as you should do anyway), sandwiches are good - sandwich meat like I said is a no but vegan/veggie sandwich meat is fine if you want to switch to that. Cous cous with some cooked chicken breast and roasted veggies mixed through is nice, you can get the flavoured packets if you want to jazz it up a bit. I like pasta bake cold the next day which you don’t need to put a ‘spoilable’ food in (like a meat) and could always use a higher protein pasta/some good veggie protein sources like chickpeas in if you’re concerned about that. 

RE: prepping from what you’ve said, the goulash, curries and pasta are great prep ahead meals. You could even do some of the curries in freezer ‘prep bag’ style which is all the range on TikTok right now - then you just pull out the frozen contents, and slow cook it for 6 - 8 hours! With roasts we prep roast potatoes by peeling and chopping potatoes, parboiling them until fork tender, bashing them about a bit in a pan and then freezing them in portions. Don’t need to be defrosted and you can just pull a bag out the freezer and they’re ready to go in the oven. Could try buying things like ready made Yorkshire puddings/frozen veg help with that too and then you’d just need to prep the meat on the day?  

For pregnancy there’s a lot of mental health support but I wouldn’t want you to wait that long, it sounds like you’re really struggling. I actually work as an OT so agree that they would be a fab resource for you to get in with (I don’t work in mental health - but did do my dissertation on eating disorders!). I wonder if reframing the ‘rules’ as ‘guidance’ might help ease some of that mental load too? You’re absolutely doing the right thing wanting to give your baby the best start and the best life but you’ll miss out on enjoying pregnancy I think if you’re worrying about what is safe to eat/drink all the time. Best of luck x

elsien

If you’re not confident about freezing and defrosting, but don’t mind having the same meal twice (nearly) in a row, I tend to cook larger amounts of curry/bolognaise etc, eat one lot on the day of cooking and the next the next day but one. So Monday and Wednesday for example. 

Then you can microwave or reheat in a pan and do fresh accompaniments. 

Perfectly safe as long as it goes in the fridge as soon as it’s cooled.

I do it like that at the moment because it’s a miracle getting anything into my freezer but I don’t want to waste my free/cheap veg. And I’m time poor sometimes. 

Otherwise freezing and defrosting in the fridge overnight is fine. 

And my quick and easy go to is a stir fry with wraps or pitta bread. Packed full of veg and takes less than 10 minutes. 

Rosa_Damascena

joedenise said:

Things like curry, chilli and goulash are all great for batch cooking and freezing.  Just make sure to portion into usable amounts.  I always try and defrost food in the fridge overnight although it's also fine to defrost slowly in a pan or in the microwave if you forget.

One of my go to breakfasts is overnight oats - which is just oats, yoghurt and frozen fruit layered in a jar and then put in the fridge overnight.  Next morning give it a good stir and eat straight from the jar.

I use take-away sized plastic containers - around 600ml I think - and they do me for 3 portions. But then I don't mind eating the same thing several days in a row. I defrost them in a tray in the fridge and it can be 2-3 days before I get round to taking the first helping out. This is all vegan food though.

I wouldn't bother pre-cooking your carbs and freezing, this just takes up precious freezer space and is easily done just before meal times.

joedenise

Rosa_Damascena said:

joedenise said:

Things like curry, chilli and goulash are all great for batch cooking and freezing.  Just make sure to portion into usable amounts.  I always try and defrost food in the fridge overnight although it's also fine to defrost slowly in a pan or in the microwave if you forget.

One of my go to breakfasts is overnight oats - which is just oats, yoghurt and frozen fruit layered in a jar and then put in the fridge overnight.  Next morning give it a good stir and eat straight from the jar.

I use take-away sized plastic containers - around 600ml I think - and they do me for 3 portions. But then I don't mind eating the same thing several days in a row. I defrost them in a tray in the fridge and it can be 2-3 days before I get round to taking the first helping out. This is all vegan food though.

I wouldn't bother pre-cooking your carbs and freezing, this just takes up precious freezer space and is easily done just before meal times.

I don't bother pre-cooking carbs either, just the sauce which will go with them.

ManekiNeko

Thanks so much everyone, I really appreciate your advice. I've been a bit overwhelmed lately so haven't managed to reply properly yet but I do intend to.

In the meantime, the news is that I had my assessment for an OT on Thursday, but I won't have any decision for about a month. They've advised me to ask my GP to refer me to a dietitian in the meantime, as I won't have access to the mental health dietitian unless I get an OT, so they think (and I agree) it's best to get both irons in the fire, so to speak. My GP might be relieved too as atm I keep asking them a million food questions 😂🤦‍♀️😬

Also: success! I made a chickpea curry the other week, and I'd frozen it in a plastic sandwich bag (is that the best thing to use?). Last night needed a quick dinner after a long day, heated it up and hey presto 🪄 a healthy home cooked meal with the speed and convenience of a ready meal. This was possible without any OCD worries because I felt confident that I'd only frozen it once in each state, and that others defrosted by leaving it in the fridge overnight so it must be pretty safe to do it. So your advice has really helped me, thanks ☺️ 🙏

Katiehound

You can easily freeze things in plastic bags but plastic boxes are easy too as you can stack them- the square / oblong ones. Plastic take-away boxes are a good size for one or two portions- and again they stack easily.

I sometimes freeze portions of cooked mince in plastic bags and pack them into a small margarine tub so that they don't collapse through the wire baskets and get caught! (yes, it has happened!)

newlywed

I often batch cook bolognaise sauce with beef mince, and chicken curries portion and freeze. Plastic tubs are easier to wash and reuse but if your bad days would make that seem overwhelming then a freezer bag can be binned.

My microwave has a defrost option but I only use that in emergencies, or just before food will get fully cooked or fully reheated. So I would never defrost in the microwave and leave it sat for hours before eating it for dinner.

I usually defrost things in the fridge overnight, even raw meat to be cooked, just stick a plate under it so no meat drips on fresh food.

the main issue is when food is Luke warm, so if reheating, make sure it’s properly hot, and don’t leave it out of the fridge for more than a couple of hours (think that’s the catering food advice).