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Batch Cooking Healthy Meals

Pussinboots61
Posts: 29 Forumite


Hi, can anyone recommend healthy meals to batch cook. I mainly eat chicken, fish and mince.
I work full time and find then when I get home I feel too tired to cook from scratch. Any ideas would be welcome. Thank you.
I work full time and find then when I get home I feel too tired to cook from scratch. Any ideas would be welcome. Thank you.
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Comments
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Shepherds pie.3000/6000 emergency fund
160/600 sinking fund0 -
If you make mince and tatties you can freeze them separately and have mince and tatties or shepherds pie when defrosted.
Also, I swear by my rice cooker. I have a bag of frozen salmon in the freezer, get one out to defrost the day before, get home, pop on some rice, fish in the oven (could do chicken the same way) and quickly cook some veg.3000/6000 emergency fund
160/600 sinking fund0 -
Chilli and spag bol are my two automatic mince go tos to shove in the freezer then it doesn't take long to cook the rice or spaghetti to go with it. I usually add lentils to make it go further.
Not batch cooking but when I am knackered I am a big fan of a stir fry. Chicken, whatever veg you like/have in, a bit of jerk seasoning, or lemon/garlic etc and you can cook pitta bread from frozen in the toaster if you want some carbs.
Or make and freeze mashed potato so you have zap that in the microwave with your fish/veg of choice which again you can cook very quickly from scrstch.All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.2 -
What style of food do you like to eat? Chinese? Curries? Pasta? Meat-and-two-veg? Also, for how many people are you cooking?
The most straightforward thing with batch cooking is to just double up ingredients when next you cook your favourite dishes, and to then freeze half. Dish up the “freezer meal” at the same time that you dish up dinner, to avoid eating extra and not having a sufficient quantity for next time.
Since so many of my recipes start “fry onion with mushrooms, add garlic”, I regularly cook up batches of this base, using one portion for dinner and freezing the rest in takeaway tubs. A minute or two in the microwave and a frozen tub can be emptied into a saucepan to be heated, ready for my next ingredients.
You can do the same for a mince-based meal. Get your mince to the point where you’d normally add your spices for a chilli or a keema curry, and then divide it up into tubs for the freezer. (For me, that’s when the mince is browned, after frying it with the above base, just before I’d add tinned tomatoes.) When you come to use your frozen mince-starter, gently fry your spices until the aroma rises - i.e. you can smell them - then add your mince-starter and your tinned tomatoes ASAP. Continue cooking the recipe as usual.
HTH
- PIp"Be the type of woman that when you get out of bed in the morning, the devil says 'Oh crap. She's up.' "
It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it - that’s what gets results!
2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge 66 coupons - 8 spent.
4 - Thermal Socks from L!dl
4 - 1 pair of "combinations" (Merino wool thermal top & leggings)3 -
It depends on your palate, but I currently have
Various chillies, various curries, beef in red wine, goulash, cooked sausages, chicken casserole, ragu, pizza & naan dough, roasted veg, leftover mash and various cooked beans.
I tend to operate on a "throw together and add a carb" basis
I don't freeze the carb side, except leftover mash. Rice, quinoa etc or pasta are 10 minutes in the instant pot and do not require supervision.2 -
Hello pib61, I'm not sure that my most useful recipes are going to be helpful to you because I'm a vegetarian but here are some I've found both healthy and delicious.
For days when I need a quick filling meal I make this DIY dal mix recipe - BBC Food which really is ready in 10 mins if you make up the jar in advance. I find it needs a good squeeze of lemon juice and a grind of salt at the end plus a dollop of yoghurt and usually eat it with cous cous and whatever frozen vegetables I've got. It makes three good portions for me.
My other fallback meal for desperate days is half a tin of low sugar and salt baked beans on brown toast with marmite and a fried egg, if I'm feeling energetic enough I also dry fry a few mushrooms alongside the egg. The bread and mushrooms are kept in the freezer and the eggs live in the fridge until needed so this meal is always available no matter when and suits any time of day.
Anyway here are some recipes I've batch cooked before now and would make again.
Tomato, pepper & bean one pot recipe | Good Food (bbcgoodfood.com) (makes 6 portions) This one gives you suggestions for different toppings to keep it interesting throughout the week and I think you could easily add a piece of chicken or fish on the side or include mince in the actual recipe. If you're wondering where to get the beans I bought tinned cannellini and borlotti from M&S today and think you could sub chickpeas, kidney or butter beans for pintos.
Slow Cooker Bean Chilli Recipe | olivemagazine (makes 4 portions) tasty but I find chipotle paste a bit hot so taste as you go.
Coconut cashew & butternut squash curry recipe | Good Food (bbcgoodfood.com) (makes 4 portions) This is nice as it is but if you were adding chicken you could probably skip the cashews which would save time and money as well as washing up.
Goat’s Cheese, Mushroom and Lentil Hotpot (goodhousekeeping.com) (makes 4 portions) this is delicious but might be difficult to reheat without spoiling the look of the potato and goat's cheese topping. I do think you could add mince to the mushroom and lentil part.
Slow cooker vegetable stew with cheddar dumplings recipe | Good Food (bbcgoodfood.com) (makes 6 portions) this is delicious and, in my opinion, you do not need to buy the expensive baby carrots but can use the cheapest bagged ones on the supermarket shelf. It does need to be finished in the oven to brown the tops of the dumplings but if you don't they still taste good.
PS you can see the photo I took of this on the Forum home page down at the bottom.
Then I had a quick look around the BBC good food website and found these pages that might be helpful
Big-batch bolognese recipe | Good Food (bbcgoodfood.com) (makes 12 portions) this includes alternative meat suggestions as well as a potato topping bake idea.
Vegetable stew recipe | Good Food (bbcgoodfood.com) (makes 4 portions) I haven't tried this myself but it has a lot of positive comments which is always a good sign and I think that you could swap the lentils for mince and vary the other ingredients and seasonings to suit your own preferences.
I hope these are helpful and let me know what you think when you've tried them, best wishes, goldfinches.
10 -
Thank you for all your replies and the receipes Goldfinches. I will have a look through those. My diet consists mainly of fish, chicken, mince and pasta. I have an oven, slow cooker, air fyer and microwave. I do have chicken breasts and fish for inbetween meals but I do want to do some batch cooking too as then I will have my own ready meals when I know what's gone into them. I do want to eat more healthily.1
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If you're batch cooking chicken then I'd suggest thighs and/or drumsticks - more flavour and cheaper than breast.
A turkey leg will make a good amount of curry with lots of added veg and spices then you'll just need to cook some rice to go with it or grab a naan from the freezer - always useful to keep in stock and a bit quicker than cooking rice.
If you like brown rice or wild rice which take longer to cook than white rice then that is something else which is worth batch cooking and freezing in portions. Very quick to reheat in a microwave.
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https://www.inspiredtaste.net/36368/slow-cooker-lemon-chicken-thighs/#itr-recipe-36368
https://www.cookingclassy.com/slow-cooker-greek-lemon-chicken-and-potatoes/
I love making these recipes as I can throw them in the slow cooker and there's plenty of leftovers to freeze1
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