Batch cooking

[Razor]

What a great timesaver. Cook a big old pot full of stuff then freeze it to have whenever you like, hardly anymore work then cooking an individual meal and healthy home cooked food when you're pressed for time.

Tonight I cooked up a huge chilli, over 3lb of mince, few onions, couple of tins of toms, kidney beans, half a pot of chilli flakes etc etc the whole enchilada!

Then I cooked a whole 1.5KG bag of rice.

Didn't take any longer than usual - eat what you like then freeze the remainder.

Erm the freezers gone hungry tonight, I don't think I'm very good at portion control


Well it did taste very nice

PS for flips sake no one tell Jenny she thinks the diet is going well

[Rorschach]

We often do this, as you say hardly more effort to make 8 portions than 2. Soups, stews, curries, chilli, risotto, gumbo, jambalaya, all sorts. I never make a small lasagne, we have a large dish that makes 6 portions, eat 2 on the day and we have two more dinners that only require warming up.

[Inky Pete]

I made a huge Cottage Pie on Sunday, and you've just reminded me that it's still in the kitchen waiting to be portioned up and frozen.

[Razor]

The problem is I have a 12" serving dish that's quite deep I got from Ikea and would you believe it the whole lot just fitted in there.

And I nommed all of it in one go

[kellys_eye]

We do this all the time - so much so in fact that I'm now planning on selling my curries locally! With the nearest takeaway 25 miles fromthe locality I reckon it will be a popular addition to local 'services'

[big-all]

yes i always cook a minimum 5 portions
i usually make around 8 potions off soup but purposely use 20% less water so you can stand your spoon up in it this saves room in the freezer i then add about 25% extra water so when i dip my bread it wets it nicely

[Inky Pete]

We also tend to cut and freeze a couple of smaller portions of things like lasagne or cottage pie.

Mrs Inky's parents are getting on a bit so they appreciate a couple of smaller portions for their freezer.

[p4ult]

Yup, my wife does this too.
Stews, curries, casseroles and bolognese sauce for pasta, jacket pots etc.

[Rorschach]

yes i always cook a minimum 5 portions
i usually make around 8 potions off soup but purposely use 20% less water so you can stand your spoon up in it this saves room in the freezer i then add about 25% extra water so when i dip my bread it wets it nicely

Haha, we do this too. The missus likes to take soup to work for lunch, she also has to thin it down, using water from work though, we aren't made of money!

[big-all]

top tip
if its frozen individual potions home made or otherwise
put it on the plate before re heating
no waste or scraping the container
i also plan ahead and place them covered in the fridge
this gives not only a quicker warm time but the fridges uses less energy as the frozen portion cools the fridge as it warms

[ayjay]

And I nommed all of it in one go

Did that include all the rice?

(Ten times what myself and the wife will have with a curry or whatever).

[kellys_eye]

...i also plan ahead and place them covered in the fridge
this gives not only a quicker warm time but the fridges uses less energy as the frozen portion cools the fridge as it warms

'kinell, do you wash and reuse bog paper too B-A ??












j/king - some good tips there

[big-all]

...i also plan ahead and place them covered in the fridge
this gives not only a quicker warm time but the fridges uses less energy as the frozen portion cools the fridge as it warms

'kinell, do you wash and reuse bog paper too B-A ??












j/king - some good tips there

it is a bit anal
if you have a life or a family it wont make sense apart from placing on the plate from frozen
the likely savings are very small perhaps a few pence a year i dont know to be honest
to me its the overall package
the satisfaction off doing your bit to save the planet to save money and feel good
often the effort is disproportional to the benefit but you feel good rather than lazy
of course if you have kids or a busy working life then its not worth the effort
but as i have a healthy happy 70% retired life style i can easily fit in the effort required to save the planet and few pence from placing in the fridge

[Razor]

Did that include all the rice?

(Ten times what myself and the wife will have with a curry or whatever).

No I left half a dozen fork fulls of rice. All the sauce had gone by then

What do you think I am, greedy??

[nick200]

We do this all the time and also big pots on the slow cooker. Plus now that we have a new cooker with more room we can do more. My wife looked at it for cakes, for cooking meals, me I saw that you could fit 8 pizzas in one of the two ovens.