If your family is always busy on the go, you’ll know how hard it is to prepare food for everyone.
That’s why so many people are now batch cooking. The idea is pretty simple: you just create a bunch of meals (usually at the weekend) and then store them in the freezer until you need them during the week. It’s fun, delicious, and makes your life so much easier.
Here are some batch cooking ideas for you to try.
Fajita Pasta Bake
First, you’ll need to get yourself a big baking pan – enough for at least two whole family meals. Then start by boiling around a kilo of dried pasta in a pan of boiling water.
Next, prepare the sauce. This part is easy. All you need is four tines of tomatoes and some chopped fajita veggies – mainly mushrooms, peppers, chillies and onion.
Then, once the pasta is cooked, put it into the baking tray, mix it with the sauce and veggies and then pop it in the oven until it all cooks through. Then simply divide it up into containers and put it in the freezer, ready to eat at a later date.
Quick Chicken Stir Fry Rice
Fried rice, stir fries and chicken are all delicious individually. But put them together and you have the makings of an epic meal.
The great thing about stir fries is that they are one-pan dishes. That means that you don’t have to spend hours washing up.
If you can, try sourcing your chicken from online butchers to get the highest quality possible. For the rice, you can use microwaveable versions if you’re short on time, or parboiled. For the veg, think chopped peas, carrots and spring onions.
Start by drizzling some oil to the pan and then add your chopped chicken pieces and diced carrots and continue to cook for a few minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients: the cooked rice, pears, onions, and even scrambled egg. Cook for a few more minutes until everything is piping hot. Then, once you’re done, just distribute the food between what you’re going to eat now, and what you will save for later.
If you want to jazz up the food a little, you can drizzle some sesame oil, soy sauce and fresh coriander on top.
Stuffed Peppers
Stuffed peppers are an excellent way to batch cook because each pepper provides a natural way to assign portions. Most people will eat two stuffed peppers per meal – plus some sides. So that means that you’ll need eight for a single meal for a family of four, and multiples of eight if you want to whip up stuffed peppers for dinner in the future.
How you decide to stuff your peppers is very much up to you.
Here’s an idea. First, whip up some cashew cheese. Just add cashews, water, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and apple cider vinegar to a blender. Then mix it with some boiled quinoa, fried celery and chopped sundried tomatoes and stuff it into your peppers. Then bake for around 30 minutes to create a delicious treat.
