The Best Batch Cooking Recipes
I am a big convert to batch cooking. In my opinion, it’s one of the best things you can do in late pregnancy, and ahead of going back to work. It’s the perfect gift to the over tired, over worked person you know you’ll be in the future. I’d go as far as saying, you never regret a meal you prepared in advance.
Nothing makes me happier and more content than knowing my freezer is full of home cooked, tasty things that I can defrost and reheat in a hurry. For storage, I swear by these disposable foil containers - but I’m sure there are plenty of reusable versions that are freezer friendly too. If you lower the salt content you can also portion up smaller pots and blitz them for baby meals too.
While I like to make up recipes for myself, I’ve used (or adapted) plenty of existing ones from great recipe sites. Here are my favourites:
Peanut butter chicken has become a firm favourite of mine. I make it with large chucks of diced chicken breast instead of thighs, but pick whatever cut you prefer. And don’t forget the poppadums or prawn crackers to serve with rice.
Pulled chicken and black bean chilli, from the BBC Good Food website is a super tasty Mexican style dish. You just need to cook some rice (I live by the microwavable pouches) and tortilla wraps or nachos, and this meal is one of the quickest and easiest to heat up in a hurry.
Spiced lamb meatball stew is easy to initially cook. I rarely cook lamb unless it’s an over the top Easter roast dinner. But for this dish I used pre made minted lamb kebabs and made them into smaller meatballs, and served with a packet of flavoured couscous that only takes 5minutes with some boiling water over.
This Sausage Ragu was one of the tastiest meals I’ve made in a while. I used a home grown onion, and fresh herbs from the planter on our decking which made it feel all the more home made. My top tips for this one are don’t over-do the chilli flakes, and pick good quality sausages. It was easy to serve with some quick cook pasta.
Good Housekeeping Five Spice Beef Stew was simple to cook, and smelt amazing. I actually slow cooked this by throwing all the ingredients together into the slow cooker and left it on medium heat for 6 hours. You don’t get more ‘minimal effort’ when it comes to preparations, and then it can go straight into the freezer.
Chicken and Chorizo Ragu is hearty and warm and something a bit different on your pasta. The chorizo and smoked paprika give it a bit of heat and plenty of colour, so don’t drop this down your best white top. Once defrosted serve it over pasta or rice.
This Chicken Tagine with tons of vegetables thrown in ensures that even with the busiest of schedules you can get your 5 a day. Couscous is super quick to cook – I’d advise eating this one with a spoon (especially if you are trying to breastfeed a baby at the same time)!
Any Easy Curry – with meat, Quorn, fish or just vegetables this is the most versatile and easy curry you could make – I’ve even made this with left over Christmas turkey! It’s nicer and healthier than the jars of sauce and so easy to make. I dropped the garlic down to 4 cloves, and in case you didn’t know a ‘Dutch Oven’ is just a deep casserole type dish.
What’s your favourite freezer friendly meal?
