Stovetop or slow cooker. My preference now is for clear plastic (BPA free) ones so I can see what’s in it at a glance. Your email address will not be published. I absolutely love batch cooking and freezing my meals, and couldn’t eat healthy home cooked meals every day without it. Our family batch cook recipe ideas will show you how to make the following base recipes: (AND SHARE THIS POST PLEEEEEEAAAASSSE!!!! ), Super Easy Vegetable Satay Recipe (it’s freezable too! Some easy and good Meal Prep Recipes for Beginners. Check what you already have in your pantry and fridge and write up your list and do your shop or order it online and have it delivered. View recipe 'Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup' Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup . (so you can save yourself a shopping trip every so often but still have plenty of nutritious meals batch cooked!). I save upto 1 hour each evening during the week when I’ve done a batch cook on the weekend. Schedule it into your calendar if you need to. Get your groceries, clean out your freeze and make sure you've got enough containers to put the meals in. Or in this case, focus on an entire month instead of a week at a time. ), The Ultimate Must Have Kitchen Items List for Beginners (& Free Checklist!!). There’s also a Meal Planning post to go along with them. I’ve found though that when it’s in the freezer, it can sometimes fall off with the cold. Now when you’re just beginning to batch cook your meals it can be reeeeaaally easy to forget about them! Pin for later so you don't miss out! Or check out Healthy Food Guide‘s lunch recipes for lots of healthy ideas. Slow Cooker Paprika Chicken (with extra paprika pasta sauce! This extra one hour gives me more time to spend with my husband, phone family, read a book, play with our dog or importantly, EXERCISE! Be realistic and don’t overcomplicate things. Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chicken Curry (fantastically easy and tastes soooooo good!) what batch cooking is and the benefits it can bring to your life! Showing 1-12 of 32 recipes So it kinda goes hand in hand with meal planning or meal prepping . I allocate 1 hour of prep time to make 2 recipes on a Sunday afternoon. A beginners guide to batch cooking - 10 top tips to help you get started with your batch cooking which will make meal planning so much easier and quicker. But I wouldn’t worry about it, you’ll find your meals don’t last that long in your freezer anyway! https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/family-meals/slideshow/big-batch-recipes Start with a wholesome, whole grain, oil-free pizza crust. Related:  How To Reduce Food Waste At Home. As I’m working to post more cupcakes, I realized I have quite a bit of small batch cupcake recipes already. Step 1:  Clean out your freezer and fridge to make sure you’ll have enough room for your dinners once they are cooked and portioned out. Another vegetarian recipe for a beginner cook's arsenal. Don’t forget to label and date your containers so you know what it is and when you made it. Hmm, something isn't working. →  TIP:  Make a double batch of your favourite curry on a Sunday, wait for it to cool and portion it out into containers and store. Beginner. It just seems less effort to build up a stock of healthy freezer meals than cook for a full week in a day!). It is incredible the amount of time, money and energy you save by expending a little time, money and energy to batch cook. I like to choose 8 recipes (2 different dishes for each week of the month), Decide what you'll cook in week 1, week 2, week 3, and week 4, Decide which day you'll do your first batch cook and lock it in. For example, you may know that brown rice is more nutritious than white rice, but you also know that it takes about 45 minutes to cook up a pot of brown rice whereas white is done in 10. The recipes in Modern Batch Cookery are designed to yield 50 servings, and cover every meal part and occasion. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Meal Planning Made Simple: Plan Your Meals in Under 10 Minutes a Week! What day will you do it on, and at what time? Since food waste is such a costly (and environmentally damaging) problem, batch cooking recipes with ingredient crossover will help you eliminate or at least drastically reduce how much food your family is throwing out. Have you ever wondered about batch cooking and if it really works? Batch cooking is simple – you just cook your meals in a larger quantity (i.e. Our single big batch recipes are usually enough for four families of four. What is batch cooking? Because once you start batch cooking, you’ll end up with a freezer full of healthy, delicious home cooked meals (yeah!). It’s cook once, eat multiple times over. 5 Slow Cooker Advantages Disadvantages: Do You Really Need One? Step 6:  Portion it out and store it. ). There are different types of container labels you could try if you want something more organised than DIY tape. I’m Kim and I'm passionate about living a life infused with mindfulness, simplicity and self-care. And since part of the reason you’re batch cooking is to make your life easier, pick recipes that give you multiple options for serving. ♥  During the week, serve it up with something different each night  ♥. Then you portion them up to eat later. https://www.buzzfeed.com/melissaharrison/beginner-dinner-recipes ◊  You’d be surprised how different it can feel eating the same thing off a different plate can be. https://www.mysugarfreekitchen.com/batch-cooking-for-beginners 15 Easy Mead Recipes for Beginners Simple Mead Recipe (one gallon) I’m starting with this one because it is the most basic one gallon of mead recipe that I have and it explains all of the steps in detail. Because by batch cooking your meals you can: Even if you tend to plan your weekly meals, there will always be times where you have certain food items to get used up. Batch cooking saves money on groceries because I’m cooking more of the same thing and that requires less ingredients. After doing it for a couple of years, I am a convert and I am a big fan of batch cooking for a number of reasons. 5 minutes. Ways to batch cook. Because if you do, you’ll even be able to make a full batch of cooked meals just from staple and long life ingredients! you can choose to: But when you’re just starting out, you’re best to take it slow and not overwhelm yourself! Okay, so whatever you decide to batch cook, you’re gonna end up with a lot of portions. Step 3:  Make a grocery list. Batch cooking is like the saviour of all saviours when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. Use whatever you’ve got to make it happen. Whether you're looking for batch cooking for families or just for yourself, it's a great way to reduce food waste and save money while still eating well all week. FREE Healthy Eating Guide to help take you back to basics. I have a huge assortment of plates and bowls that I’ve collected over the years. Truth be told, I love to cook. A medium-sized roast chicken could last two, three or even four dinners. Grab your slow cooker, or put your oven to work if you don’t have a slow cooker. The great thing about batch cooking your meals is you don’t really need any special equipment (as a beginner to batch cooking or as an expert!). …you’re giving yourself the gift of time in the future (and time is super duper precious, so it’s an awesome gift to give!). … Minimizing recipes that call for a lot of cooking vessels is going to make things much easier to coordinate, as well as clean up at the end of the session. It’s the batch-cooking equivalent of throwing in some oil and lemon to liven up all manner of dishes. Step 5:  Meal Prep and Cook. After the cooking time has elapsed, add the preserved lemons and apricots to the stew, stir well and cook with the lid off for a further 30 minutes. the different ways you can batch cook and the, the type of meals suitable for batch cooking and how long you can freeze them, top tips for successful batch cooking for beginners. Double the batch and freeze for a burger dinner any night of the week. Typically, my brain is a whirring train, perpetually in motion. In a Hurry? When I’m cooking… And you can even set reminders for yourself to take meals out to defrost the night before you’re planning to have them . Try out some great batch cooking recipes below, and get ready to enjoy and share convenient and tasty meals, plus all the extra time on your hands! Cook once, eat twice (or even three times) by batch cooking one of our delicious recipes below. Batch cooking will definitely help busy ladies, especially moms who wants their toddlers to eat homemade nutritious food. Sep 2, 2016 - A beginners guide to batch cooking - 10 top tips to help you get started with your batch cooking which will make meal planning so much easier and quicker. If you are new to making mead I would read this recipe first as it … https://www.thespruceeats.com/one-loaf-bread-recipes-428192 Or what’s your favourite batch cooking recipe? You could use masking tape or some other tape and write on that the name of your dish and the date. So you’re best trying to batch cook one or two meals each week, so you can build up a stock in the freezer. However, there’s more than just a matter of healthy food! I prep one dish and get it cooking, meanwhile I prep the second dish. In other words, have a batch cooking party. Batch cooking is cooking dinners ahead of time so that you have meals ready on hand (either in the fridge or freezer) for when you don't have time to make dinner from scratch. Apple Pie made PLANTSTRONG! And if you’re looking for some specific recipes to try that are easy for beginners to batch cook, why not try: Now when it comes to freezing meals you’ve batched cooked, you can safely keep them for between 3 months to a year (it all depends on what you’re actually freezing). Thinking. Try this beginner's beef casserole for your weaning baby. Because if you batch cook your meals, you get to have healthy homemade meals all week  (without having to cook all week!). https://www.jamieoliver.com/family/freezer-friendly-recipes The trick is to add something different each night to the curry to make it seem new and exciting from the previous night. (And this is especially true if you’re batch cooking and then freezing them.). Not only will it provide a fantastic source of iron but it's a great batch cooking recipe too. . Work out if you’ll have enough spare containers to portion it out either into single serves if you’re cooking for one, or double serves if you’re cooking for two. Batch cooking for beginners is easier when you concentrate on three meals or less. Because why cook every night when you can just take a healthy homemade meal from your freezer . Hi there! And you can download them for FREE! Just choose recipes based on what you do have and build up your stock of equipment as you go. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Having a well stocked kitchen of staple items (such as herbs, spices, tinned tomatoes, stock cubes…) is a super easy way to make batch cooking simple. In fact, I only followed a few blogs at that point and I don’t remember them ever using the term! Over ten years ago when I first started getting hands-on in the kitchen (meaning trying to make things from scratch) I had no idea what batch cooking was. Email me at suzanne@happilyvaried.com or use the button below: want to learn how to plan your meals in under 10 mins a week? …you do. Because if you sit down and make a plan of what you’ll be eating that week, you can check what you’ve got in your freezer as part of the process. 15 time-saving batch-cooking recipes 30 December 2020 We're all about shortcuts when it comes to family mealtimes. Thanks! Have slices of the roasted breasts on the first day, then use tidbits in curry sauces, stir fries, casseroles or sandwich and jacket potato fillings for the rest of the week. And discover my secret strategy for making healthy eating an easy part of your lifestyle...not a hassle! Required fields are marked *. Subscribe to my email list and get your FREE “Beginners Guide to Healthy Eating”. 6 tips to picking recipes for batch cooking: Select recipes that are one-pot. ), The 23 Best Long Life Food Items You Should Have in Your Kitchen (especially for healthy eating! And if you’ve got basic kitchen equipment (such as the items in my Kitchen Equipment for Beginners post), you’ll be totally fine! . Some simple meals to start with include cottage pie, lasagne and fish pie. So there are a few ways of doing this big batch cooking thing to free you up from cooking. The guide is almost yours – check your inbox for a confirmation email. …let this Batch Cooking for Beginners guide take you through the basics. So I’d love to help you reap the benefits of batch cooking too! And pretty much anything can be batch cooked and then frozen – soups, stews, pasta sauces, curries…. And this technique is especially handy if you don’t have a huge amount of space for lots of different flavours in your freezer! Recipes Show Filters. Because you can easily make a batch of use-up-veg pasta sauce or chuck-everything-in-and-blend soup. AK Club Members get access to hundreds of great recipes suitable for babies, toddlers, and the whole family. There are sooooo many benefits to batch cooking your meals (even for beginners!). But you might not always want to eat them that week (or throw them out! As they help you throw a batch of healthy, delicious, nutritious meals together super easily! You want to find recipes that you know you will like and will actually make. This is your game plan to help prepare for a healthy week, broken down into a 4-step approach to keep things simple. Stressing. If you can't see an email from Suzanne at Happily Varied, please check your Junk or Spam folder (I sometimes go there). But since part of the reason you’re batch cooking is to make your life easier, you want to be able to find meals quickly (and without getting freezer burn! I’ve used both glass and plastic storage containers in the past. Now when you batch cook your meals (even if you’re a batch cooking beginner!) Menu. Aaaaahhhh dilemma!!). Get ahead by batch cooking these freezable recipes. Its great for Sunday afternoons when you have an hour spare to get your meals sorted or you and hubby (or even your family) so you have less stress during the week, get dinner on the table with ease and eliminate those awful 5pm grocery runs on the way home. (Okay, I’ll put my hands up here and be honest – I may be a wee bit biased on this one as this is my favourite way of batch cooking! For example:  If I'm doing a slow cooker recipe, it might only be 10 minutes of prep and then 8 hours cooking. GET THE RECIPE: Low-carb Chicken Parmigiana This chicken parmigiana is so easy and delicious, It reheats perfectly in the oven, so make a double batch - one for now and one for later! And you also want to keep your kitchen well stocked with long life food items (such as potatoes, carrots, frozen veggies…). Which is where batch cooking is great! This gives you four servings of two different meals that you can rotate through the week. terms of use. Here I share my recipes, tips, insights and wisdom for eating well, slowing down and reconnecting with the things that matter. But if you are a complete beginner to cooking in general, to help you batch cook healthy homemade meals, you’ll be looking to have a: But don’t feel you need to rush out and get all these if you don’t have them. WANT TO EAT HEALTHY BUT NOT SURE WHERE TO START? Okay, so now you know the basics for batch cooking your own healthy homemade meals (yeah you!). ), Meal Planning Made Simple: FREE Worksheets, bulk out your meat dishes with extra veg or pulses. Batch cooking for beginners. Mar 17, 2018 - Batch Cooking for beginners! Don’t run before you can walk. A comprehensive dessert for two guide about Small Batch Cupcake Recipes for two people made from scratch for beginners. So, you want to eat healthy homemade meals every day. Now to help you with this, I’ve created these colourful, ready for you to complete, Meal Planning Made Simple Worksheets. You can probably tell from this plan that we LOVE curry in our house! So by taking the time to batch cook your meals now…. These are easy to portion and store for later. Because when you’re making a big batch of food to do multiple lunches or dinners, the last thing you want is something you’re not gonna like! Pinterest But you want to avoid freezing egg dishes and anything with milk or cream based sauces (as these don’t tend to freeze well – you can always add these when you are reheating).