Friday 12 October 2012

Friday Finds ~ Batch Cooking

It’s that time of year when I like to feed my family on casseroles and other such warming fare. I came across this system back in the summer at Ring Around The Rosies and it lends itself perfectly to that style of cooking. I’m going to give it a go next week and I thought you might like it too.

  • Plan your meals for the week ahead
  • Buy everything you need
  • Prepare the ingredients
  • Place in freezer bags
  • Seal and Label
  • Freeze

All your meals for a week could be prepared in a morning, or a selection of meals ready and waiting in the freezer for your busiest days. The post includes several recipes. Just remove the bags required from the freezer in the evening and empty into the slow cooker (crockpot) the following morning. How simple is that?

Because I am at home most days and have the time to cook from scratch, I have never invested in a slow cooker. Any recommendations?

8 comments:

humel said...

I batch cook a fair bit, but I've never used a slow cooker either - we're not so keen on casserole type dishes in our household. Which is to say, I like them, but the rest of the family? Not so much!

Jaki Morris said...

I cook everything from scratch but I do have a slow cooker which I use every now and again. If you have the space, they are worth investing in.
As to writing a meal plan every day, I've been doing that since the eighties!
I sat last night with my Hairy Bikers Diet book and planed the weeks meals and the shopping list on the same piece of paper!
I don't bulk cook and freeze though
Take care

Jakix

Sian said...

I love casseroles and I love my slow cooker. I just looked in the Argos catalogue and picked one which seemed like good value. I bought a cookery book from Amazon, but these days there are plenty of blogs with slow cooker recipes to use. Honestly I can't recommend it enough - I call it the crafter's secret weapon

Sian said...

ps - this batch cooking idea seems like just my kind of thing!

Annie said...

Thanks for calling by....get that slow cooker and enjoy is all I can say. Ours is a family sized one even though there is only the two of us now cos I cook enough for a couple of meals for us and put meals by for the twins too....yum yum
Hugs,
A x

Julia Dunnit said...

Couldn't lie in tout mine..use it at least twice a week and especially on days when I'm away from home for any reason. Makes a treat of 'on the bone' cheaper cuts and I just love using it...even on home days it frees me up at a time of day that I dont want to be working in the kitchen. Mine is called a crock pot and is oven and hob useable too..it's the one thing in my kitchen that I would instantly replace if it broke...anything else I'd do a trial period to see if I missed it!!

Jo said...

That is a great idea and such an amazingly simple idea x

Lisa-Jane said...

I think mine is a Crock pot and its huge so I can do lots of cooking in one go, eat one and freeze the rest. Must check this site out, thanks.