Freezer Cooking / OAMC / Batch cooking challenge

[meadow lark]

I’m newly cooking every day and i am getting tired!  I’m planning to initially stock the freezer with several meals then hopefully once a week cook something for dinner  and make multiples for the freezer.  Anyone want to join?

[meadow lark]

This week’s plan - pot roast tomorrow and I am defrosting a turkey to cook on Friday.

[Metalcat]

I've been bulk cooking weekly for 5 years now, happy to share tips.

The first one is to get the Paprika App, it's life changing.

[meadow lark]

Trying to download it.  Of course my PayPal isn’t working and I’m hiding in my bathroom hennaing my hair so I don’t want to go find my purse and get a credit card.

What is your usual way of doing it?  I have done it several different ways but nothing consistently since I moved into an RV (briefly) to travel 5 years ago.  I was always the only one who would eat so I would do individual servings frozen in ziplocks and reheated in the microwave.  We are eating a lot more meals together this time around so I may want to do more freezing uncooked dishes I defrost and bake.

[Metalcat]

I cook 3-4 recipes per week, pre-portion them, and then reheat, assemble, defrost, etc, as necessary.

I only cook vegetarian, so a lot of legume based dishes.

[draco44]

I like freezing food that with be reheated in Pyrex glass containers with rubber lids rather than plastic bags. I do freeze fruit and vegetables for smoothies in ziploc bags that I wash and reuse.

I have a small household so many normal recipes are batch cooking in my case. I think it really all comes down to what you like to eat. If you can come up with five or so things you like to eat that freeze well, you are good to go if you make those recipes and stagger when you eat each dish. It's good to regularly try new recipes for variety's sake but it's also a huge help to have a few standby dishes you can make on autopilot. That will take time but you'll get there.

[meadow lark]

Draco - that’s cool you got Pyrex to work for you.  I tried that several years ago but the lids tended to get brittle and broke from being frozen.  I also had a lot more issues with freezer burn in Pyrex than I do with Ziplocs.
Good idea with 5 recipes I like. My favorite are probably Thai Coconut chicken Curry, Indian Butter Chicken, Taco meat with rice, corn, salsa, cheese.  Spaghetti.  Chicken Chili or beef chili.

Malcat - what are your favorites?  Do you freeze or just refrigerate?

[SquashingDebt]

I do a ton of batch cooking and freezing.  I use the meals more for lunches than dinners though.  I freeze in quart zip-loc freezer bags, laid flat.  They defrost at room temperature and are ready to heat (in a bowl in the work kitchen) at lunch.

The vast majority of what I freeze is soups - split pea, chicken noodle, beef stew, sausage-lentil-kale, black bean-squash-chorizo, etc.  I also do a lot of seasonal batch cooking, especially when I get free veggies from work.  This past weekend I made 12 portions of stuffed eggplant parmesan and froze 11 of those.  Last fall I made 15 or so stuffed peppers in one afternoon and froze those.

[DaMa]

PTF.  I struggle with cooking for one.  Pretty much anything I make ends up getting portioned and frozen.  I use Rubbermaid containers for freezing, but I try to avoid microwaving in plastic.  I usually thaw and dump into corning ware or pyrex for microwaving.

Edited to add:  I use the Pepperplate app to keep the recipes I use a lot.  I use the free version.

[Anette]

Ptf
I try to cook enough for two or more meals most of the time. Some leftovers get frozen, some are lunches for dh to take to work. We really struggle with portion sizes (As in we over eat) and that is a disadvantage of batch cooking for us. I love the time saved, though.
Meals include curries, filled zucchini, taco/tortilla fillings,beef stew, ..

[cupcakery]

I don't follow a specific plan, but try to make extra whenever I cook.  My freezers are full of snacks and meals.  Sometimes I freeze individual portions and sometimes family-sized portions.  It depends upon what I've made and how I think it will be used. It isn't much more work that cooking once, so it saves me tons of time and money.

[Sugaree]

@Malcat , freezer meals have been the biggest hurdle that I've faced after going mostly plant-based.  What freezes well?  I'm so used to freezer meals being stuff like lasagna/casseroles/roasts that I'm having trouble picturing what a PB freezer meal would look like.  Or is it easier to prep and freeze ingredients instead?

[redhead84]

PTF. I've been feeling burned out on meal planning and prep recently. I'm pretty good about prepping a few meals on Sunday for lunches, but I haven't utilized the freezer much (expect pre-portioned shredded chicken and pizza dough). I also struggle with organizing recipes and planning a variety of meals. I have $10 iTunes gift card that might be used for the Paprika app.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I do a slightly different system, for the four of us - my husband, myself & two teenage boys. I cook typically only on the weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), doubling the amount we need. I consider Friday, as it's been my long standing no meeting afternoon day due to time zones & I worked from home even before COVID. During the week, we have lots of activities & driving for the kids, & just generally busy schedules. We reheat one of the weekend leftover meals, and I make a salad. I often also make a fresh side to go with it.

We eat a lot of the following: barbecued burgers & chicken, chicken curry, tacos, salmon, egg roll in a bowl, chicken fiesta rice, kebabs & rice, carnitas, warm taco slaw, etc.

I also have one diner who has to eat a Keto diet due to food allergies. We sub out cauliflower rice for him.

[DaMa]

Here's my favorite vegan recipe.  It freezes well and is thicker than a soup -- more like a casserole.

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Ingredients:
   1 T olive oil
   1 onion, diced
   3 green peppers, diced
   1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced
   1 14 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
   1 14 oz can tomato sauce
   4 c vegetable stock
   1 t Italian seasonings
   1/2 t oregano
   1/2 t salt
   1/2 t pepper
   1 c lentils
   2 c cooked rice

Instructions:
Cook rice.  Saute onions in medium pan. Add green pepper, saute until softening. Add garlic, saute for 1 minute.  Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, stock, spices. Bring to slow boil.  Add lentils. Simmer until lentils are soft (45 minutes for brown lentils).  Add cooked rice and serve.

[Metalcat]

@Malcat , freezer meals have been the biggest hurdle that I've faced after going mostly plant-based.  What freezes well?  I'm so used to freezer meals being stuff like lasagna/casseroles/roasts that I'm having trouble picturing what a PB freezer meal would look like.  Or is it easier to prep and freeze ingredients instead?

Well, there are tons of vegetarian lasagnas and casseroles.

I make a lot of stews, soups, chillies, curries, etc.

However, I rarely freeze much, we just cycle through 3 or 4 recipes a week for every lunch and dinner, so we have a few of the same dish in one week.

Another thing I do is shred and chop vegetables: red cabbage, carrots, broccoli, peppers, green onions, and cilantro, premake some kind of sauce (Thai peanut, chimichurri, etc), and then make rice or noodles on demand that night, throw the vegetables, sauce, cherry tomatoes, and hard boiled eggs on top.

[Sugaree]

@Malcat , freezer meals have been the biggest hurdle that I've faced after going mostly plant-based.  What freezes well?  I'm so used to freezer meals being stuff like lasagna/casseroles/roasts that I'm having trouble picturing what a PB freezer meal would look like.  Or is it easier to prep and freeze ingredients instead?

Well, there are tons of vegetarian lasagnas and casseroles.

I make a lot of stews, soups, chillies, curries, etc.

However, I rarely freeze much, we just cycle through 3 or 4 recipes a week for every lunch and dinner, so we have a few of the same dish in one week.

Another thing I do is shred and chop vegetables: red cabbage, carrots, broccoli, peppers, green onions, and cilantro, premake some kind of sauce (Thai peanut, chimichurri, etc), and then make rice or noodles on demand that night, throw the vegetables, sauce, cherry tomatoes, and hard boiled eggs on top.

Thanks!  I can't wait until it cools down a little so I can bust out more of the soup recipes.  I have like 150 recipes for vegan soup, but it's been hotter than Hell's front porch here.

[ketchup]

The first one is to get the Paprika App, it's life changing.

I don't do as much batch cooking as I should but for general cooking, seconding Paprika.  It's spectacular.

[Sugaree]

I like Paprika.  I loved Pepperplate until the development team decided to revive it from the dead, but made it a subscription model without adding any new features before charging for it.  Recipesage is a decent free alternative.

[meadow lark]

Tomorrow’s plan is to make 4 crustless quiches, cook 1 and freeze 3 uncooked in ziplock bags.

[tygertygertyger]

I batch cook vegetarian food for myself. (My partner makes his own food.) Like someone said above, making a normal 4 person recipe yields extra meals for me. I make soups, chili, sourdough dinner rolls, etc. For soups and chili (and leftover refried beans, or rice, or extra homemade frosting, really anything extra) I use canning jars with plastic lids or these Ball 8 or 16 oz freezer containers that I received a few years ago. I tried to find them online just now, but the ones I'm seeing don't match what I have. I try to avoid plastic bags, but do use them for fruit and veggies and rolls/bagels. I have pyrex, but don't tend to use them in the freezer.

I used to do all this to make office life easier, but now that I'm home all the time, it's mostly to avoid food waste. And it always pleases me to peek in the freezer and see a food present from Past Me to make my day easier. This weekend I was very pleased to see leftover refried beans so I've been making burritos for the last couple of days. Yum.

[Morning Glory]

I am joining this challenge. School starts next week and I need to get everyone on an earlier dinner and bedtime schedule, plus want to reduce meat and processed food in our diets. My goal is to have a week worth of dinners prepped on Sunday (ingredients cut up, bread/pizza dough in the fridge, meat/beans cooked, etc. so I don't have to plan ahead or make a big mess on weekdays). I'm ok with eating the same thing twice in one week, so it doesn't have to be five different meals.

 Will definitely try that stuffed pepper soup recipe-yum!

[PMG]

Hi!  I want to join in for motivation and ideas. 

I was meal planning for about 6 months last year and that worked really well, but I fell out of the habit.  Meal planning included cooking for leftovers fairly often.

Since early summer, with our return to the office most days I've had to really get more intentional.  I've lost all those routines!  For the first month lunch packing was insurmountable!  I was surviving on packs of crackers and ... it was miserable.  For the past 5 or 6 weeks my spouse and I have been doing really well about batch cooking and prepping almost enough leftovers for the week.  We're also adjusting a bit to make sure we always have a bit more convenience food around, like canned soup, frozen potpies, for quick packable meals with some substance.  I've also started buying bread and sandwich meat!  It's just never been something we ate regularly, but of course it's so quick and easy, it's been a godsend.  We're trying to plan in those easy things that while not aspirational from scratch cooking are a whole lot better for us than living off crackers or fast food. 

At any rate, here we are. Trying to do most of our cooking on the weekends. We usually eat leftovers, but I do freezer portions when I've made a bigger batch and want to try to keep up some variety. I've also been stocking the freezer with baked goods to pull out a few pieces at a time. That is a joy! And so so nice to have a fruit and grain filled muffin for breakfast or afternoon snack instead of just going hungry or the dangerous vending machine. We eat some meat, but not every day.  I have several go-to recipes that use ground meat, so I like to cook up a pound when I can add in a bunch of cooked lentils and shredded carrots and then split it into recipe sized portions for the freezer.  Then it's so easy to turn it into a quick meal, my favorites are shepherds pie (topped with instant mashed potatoes... oh my grandmother is horrified but what a blessing!) or a stuffed pepper soup!  I also cook up bulk beans and portion to freeze.  Big batches of humus portioned and frozen.  etc. 

This past weekend I made a vegan broccoli soup that I blended a chickpeas and lentils into.  It was so good.  Packed it for work with half sandwiches. Monday night I made a vegan tomato veggie soup loaded with different beans and my spouse grilled some chicken breast and assorted veggies. 

I've still not made a plan for this week.  We still have a ball of mozzarella cheese and lots of cherry tomatoes and basil in the garden, so probably make a caprese salad and add some chickpeas to it.  We'll have some cucumbers in the garden too and I have a cucumber sandwich spread recipe I like to make wraps out of. I'm not sure what my "big" batch will be. 



 

[dblaace]

I use an Instant Pot for almost everything!

I don't go by a recipe usually jus what I have on hand. I use the Tupperware containers.

Chickpeas with Turmeric and Cumin, salt to taste. Makes 4-5 containers. refrigerate 1 freeze the rest. Save the aquafaba for soup. I'll use them on salads in soups and chana masala.

Typical dishes
A bag of frozen veggies some fresh if I have some in the fridge that I need to use up.
Can of beans
Can of diced tomatoes
A potato if its soup, brown rice separate if not. (I'll the rice together for the leftovers)
Aquafaba for soup broth or water.
Stir in some salad greens to soup if I have any that are about to go bad,

Season for what you like. I tend to use more Indian spices but sometimes Italian seasoning, Mediterranean. Asian curries green or masaman. Usually makes 4 servings. Eat one refrigerate 1 freeze 2.

A new favorite besides chana masala is vegetable korma. I'm using a jar sauce right now. I need to figure out how to make my own.

Just experiment and find what you like.

https://www.veganricha.com/ is a great site for Vegan Indian dishes.

[Poundwise]

PTF. I am so burned out with cooking. Every few years I make a stab at OAMC.  If I were cooking just for myself it would be a great idea; unfortunately my family gets bored quickly with the bland recipes that these make (unfortunately I have spoiled them with my other cooking, doing Indian cooking one day, soul food the next, etc.)

For instance, here's a guide to make 10 freezer to slow cooker meals (can be easily adapted for pressure cooker):
https://www.superhealthykids.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Slow-Cooker-Freezer-Meal-Recipe-Download.pdf

I tried this recipe set once and it was okay; certainly were balanced meals and rapid to assemble.  My family was meh on the recipes, but I guess there was nothing stopping me from adapting the methods to make them more flavorful, except that I didn't.

Maybe I should think about making meal kits out of family recipes. Or perhaps I could look into OAMC for more ethnic foods.

[brooklynmoney]

I love batch cooking. This week I made a Shrimp Broil in the Instapot and actually doubled the recipe which turned out to be an enormous amount of food. So I had my mom over one night and two friends over another night. Even though I am a household of 1 all I ever do is batch cook on the weekends and never cook during the week. I make a bowl of overnight oats for breakfast, a salad for lunch and then a dinner which in the winter/fall is normally a stew or stir fry.