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What do YOU make in batches, to use later?

20 days ago

This is my boneless pork tenderloin. It's diced, seasoned, breaded & fried in olive oil. I spend 30 minutes hovering over a hot stove....then I've got meat to make meals out of....



Comments (25)

  • 20 days ago
    last modified: 19 days ago

    It depends on your definition:

    1. I make stocks and freeze in manageable sized containers. Chickie, vegetable, greens only (mostly), beef.

    "Spaghetti sauce', which is my version of my mother's version of our Italian firiend's recipe. It's a thick, meaty ragout, and takes at least 5 hours to make, but freezes beautifully. (Though I haven't made any since I was injured, but am working my way back up to it.

    Full sized pies. Sometimes I freeze quarters in flat containers. Sometimes I freeze whole pies.

    Finished soups.

    2. Cooked meats. My mother taught me, "Why make one chicken when you can make two just as easily." If I'm not feeding the hoards, I do make a single chicken in the steam oven, which doesn't fit two, but will also make a bunch of parts for dinner plus chicken salad. Or do a couple of chickens in the big oven to have one to freeze.

    Big slab of chuck in the multicooker on lo for making enchiladas or whatever, or just having for TBD. Beans, the same. Big batch of beens, fry some, freeze some, put some in soup....

    3. Make ahead. I will make and freeze (I have two big excellent freezers) all kinds of things for holidays and general entertaining. Everything from latkes to choux puffs. Mashed potatoes to bread for stuffing.

    I do make some one off meals but I think I make more use laters. A lot of our everyday meals are use priors now.

    ETA-- 4. Portioned off big casseroles. Except enchiladas. I refuse to do more than one large dish of enchiladas, and the leftovers get 'et before I can repurpose or freeze. But Chloebud reminded me of the whole category. Like lasagna, bread pudding and other casseroles, are often made with an eye to cutting bricks which fit inn3-cup containers to freeze for laters. And if I make mac & cheese, it's almost always to be frozen in portions, in mw-able dishes, to be dressed with mix-ins, condiments and garnishes on reheating.

    And 5. New thing: stuff to put in the soup. The trick to eating the same soup for days is to make every bowl different. I add spices, stuffed pasta, leftovers, sausage, even cheese--whatever is appealing. And a topknot of greens. I'm not sure if that's inside out batch cookery, but it ends up feeling like it.

    NiCOZ5 thanked plllog
  • 19 days ago

    These days for me it’s usually stock, certain soups and maybe a baked pasta dish, such as lasagna or baked ziti. I always have some kind of cookie dough and disks of pie crust in the freezer. More during the holidays but definitely year round. I also make fruit crisp topping to keep in the freezer.

    Not relevant to making batches of things in advance, but I am adamant about doing as much ahead as possible. I never understand why someone would spend more time in the kitchen making a salad dressing/vinaigrette after dinner guests arrive. Why not do it ahead when it will also likely taste better?

    NiCOZ5 thanked chloebud
  • 19 days ago
    last modified: 19 days ago

    I make a number of dishes that give us meals for several days - that's mostly what I cook, so I don't have to get busy in the kitchen when I get home from work. I like to roast a whole chicken and make roasted potatoes, beets and sweet potatoes (if I have them) and a green salad, then put them all together as a salad bowl meal for the next couple days.

    I also make a big pot of tomato sauce with deconstructed meatballs, mushrooms, squash, peppers and onions and use it to make individual pizzas with flatbread, or with pasta, which I also cook ahead.

    Another that makes for a few days' worth of meals is chili beef with ground meat, peppers, onions, tomatoes, corn, beans and grated carrots - along with the usual seasonings, and make a green salad to have taco salad with cheese, crushed corn chips and salsa. Those 3 are my faves.

    NiCOZ5 thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
  • 19 days ago

    I make stocks, mostly chicken and ham; soups frozen in individual portions; when I make a stew or a casserole there are usually at least four portions if not more so I freeze the extras for another day; occasionally I freeze a pie or cake or extra muffins etc; I do a pulled pork shoulder in the crockpot and freeze it in portions; also home made baked beans in portions; When I roast a chicken I get the biggest one in the store and we have roast chicken one night and other chicken dishes if I don't freeze some; when I do a roast beef I will either freeze some or use the rest in other dishes; at Christmas I get a large full turkey breast and freeze the leftovers in portions as well as a whole leg of ham, freezing the leftovers in slices. I also make extra forcemeat stuffing (MIL's recipe which we love) and freeze it as a meatloaf to cook when the weather starts to cool down; when I do a corned beef I do extra veggies so we can have corned beef hash another day. We love leftovers and frequently the leftovers are reimagined so it's not the same thing twice (though if we liked it the first time we'll probably like it again :-D). There is little food waste.

    NiCOZ5 thanked colleenoz
  • 19 days ago

    Yes. I like to grill two pork tenderloins and the two of us will eat one, the other is cut into pieces and put in the freezer. It makes for an awesome stir fry addition later. Im afraid Im not much for chicken or other stock. It's so dang much easier to buy the stuff. Folks will say Oh it's so much better, and less expensive. I care not.

    NiCOZ5 thanked hobbitmom
  • 19 days ago

    I love making stock. I either save up carcasses until I have 3 or 4, or buy a bag of chicken legs when they're cheap and roast them and strip off the meat to save for soup and other dishes, then toss them into the slow cooker with an onion, carrots and celery and parsley if I have it, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns, then let it burble away overnight. We wake up to a delicious smelling kitchen. :-) Then I drain and reduce the stock until it tastes right. I like it better than bought stock because it has the bone gelatin in it, which gives it a richer mouth feel.

    NiCOZ5 thanked colleenoz
  • 19 days ago

    I freeze the raw spines and giblets (except the kidneys--my mother would say it smelled like the baby neecedd changing if they got in. :) )If I don't have enough and need stock, I'll buy a couple of chickens. Turnips, rutabega, celery root, big carrots, parsnips, onions, and whatever needs using that seems right. Leeks, yes, anything red no. And no leafies. No seasoning for stock--there's no knowing the conentration when it's used. Boil then simmer until there's nothing but a little texture left. Mother would say, "all the good is in the stock." Strain well. My stockpot with the solids strained out, makes 8 quarts. For beef stock, I buy soup bones or "dog bones" if I can find them. Lately, it's more knuckles. I'm not looking for the marrow, and it seems the butchers just want to sell marrow bones. I roast the bones first, then proceed similarly, but maybe more onion and carrot and less turnip. Vegetable is all of the above, plus anything that wants to go in. For greens, it's leeks and parsnips, and green chard, collards, etc.


    The only problem with packaged is finding one that suits you. I never have, especially since they usually have at least some salt as a preservative, whereas I use a manual defrost freezer. Recently, I've found a brand of packaged soups that I like, and I've used their chicken broth as a soup base in lieu of stock, but that doesn't work for general cooking. My farther used to cut big blocks of her frozen stock when my mother wanted less with a coping saw. :) I just use little containers and multiples when I need them. :)


    But I realized in reading the other responses that one reason I do batch cooking is that I'm used to feeding hordes, and as my mother's sous, learned how to make feed a small army long before dinner for two. I don't know how to make less stock. I mean, I could get a smaller turnip, maybe, but there's no point in using half! And I wouldn't even know how to start to make a small lasagna. :)

    NiCOZ5 thanked plllog
  • 19 days ago

    I don't cook specifically for the freezer but I often make more than is needed for one meal. Gravy, spaghetti sauces, stock, soup, pastry, cakes, lasagne, fish pie, crumble.

    NiCOZ5 thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
  • 19 days ago

    Very little, as for the most part when I try to plan like that the freezer becomes the waiting room for Good Intentions eventually headed to the landfilll. We just don’t eat like that. No one seems to grab leftovers, either.

    Some exceptions do come to mind:

    A breakfast patty made in batches, sliced, frozen.

    Braised short ribs will be portioned and frozen, for short rib grilled cheese. That was a staple for a short while, haven’t done it in s bit.

    Very occasionally I’ll make a batch of meat sauce and and portion and freeze that.

    NiCOZ5 thanked foodonastump
  • 19 days ago
    last modified: 19 days ago

    besides chili and ham a beans I don't make much to freeze and include with another meal later. The only thing I can think of is making a whole slab of roasted pork belly and freeze it in portions to include in fried rice meals. I haven't done that since I retired because the Mexican market I bought the PB is 45 miles away from my house but only 5 miles from my old office.

    NiCOZ5 thanked LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
  • 19 days ago
    last modified: 19 days ago

    Hubby will not eat anything froze. I get tired of eating everything in the freezer.

    The last time he said it did not taste the same, I said , “Well, I could not cook that again unless we had company, because I could not cut it down for two.” It was something he really likes.

    ETA: I also cannot find a restaurant he likes. There is something wrong with all of them.

    NiCOZ5 thanked Sherry8aNorthAL
  • 19 days ago

    Some things freeze better than others. Liquidy things and fatty ones freeze and thaw the best, but if you're going to hold them long, you need a manual defrost freezer (cheap) or very high end evaporator freezer (very expensive and can freeze itself into not working). Freezer compartments in dual compressor fridges and middle of the road free standing evaporator are okay, but have a much shorter optimal food life. Freezer compartments in single compressor fridges and self-defrost ones are actively trying to kill your frozen food, and might hold stock longer, but prepared foods start to decline in texture and flavor soon, and probably won't hold at their best for more than a few weeks. Some people may notice the changes sooner than others.


    There's also batch cooking meant to be refrigerated only, and used through the week.

    NiCOZ5 thanked plllog
  • 19 days ago

    I do most of my cooking on Sundays, sometimes Saturdays, so I can have food during the week without having to cook. Usually whatever is on the menu for Sunday dinner is enough to last the workweek; today it's lasagna, for example. I'm fine eating the same thing for lunch or dinner all week, so a pan of that and I don't have to cook on work days. I also batch cook vegetables, here again so I can avaiable throughout the course of the week (gotta have my vegetables).


    The only think I'll batch cook for the freezer is my spaghetti/lasagna sauce at the end of summer when I have an abundance of fresh tomatoes. But other than that, no I don't feed the freezer.

    NiCOZ5 thanked porkchop_z5b_MI
  • 19 days ago

    Oh! Porkchop, I do that with vegetables and didn't think of it! I'll cook the whole giant cauliflower (sometimes in two ways), or the whole bunch of asparagus, or whatever. "Ingredients", like celery and carrots go as needed. For stand alone vegetables, however, sometimes I'll have cooked on hand when new raw comes in, but if I cook half the asparagus today, the other half will rot before I get back to it, and cold cooked veg make good grab and go snacks,

    NiCOZ5 thanked plllog
  • 19 days ago

    Put your asparagus in a glass of water like you would cut flowers and it will stay firm and fresh for 7-10 days in the fridge. No reason for it to ever rot.

    NiCOZ5 thanked LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
  • 19 days ago

    ROTFL!! Jack, then I'd just have spilt water all over, and no reach in and grab a snack cooked asparagus. I only do the matchstick size.

    NiCOZ5 thanked plllog
  • 18 days ago
    last modified: 18 days ago

    I like to always have a meal in the freezer for the days I don't feel like cooking or going out.

    I do batch cooking and vacuum freeze most meals. I do meat loaf, ham loaf, spare ribs, chicken, corned beef, pork tenderloin, chili, soups, taco seasoned meat, meat sauce and probably more I'm forgetting. It's hard for me to cook for two people.

    NiCOZ5 thanked lizbeth-gardener
  • 18 days ago

    Grilled chicken. It's cheaper per pound to buy the family saver pack of skinless, boneless breasts so I cook them all, portion them out and freeze the individual portions for later use. It's much quicker to thaw an individual portion of cooked breast than to start from raw. Plus, I use less water and power, too, by doing it that way.

    NiCOZ5 thanked Fun2BHere
  • 18 days ago

    LJ, I’ve done the same with asparagus in water. What also works well for me is wrapping the stalks in damp paper towels then into a Ziploc bag for the fridge.

    NiCOZ5 thanked chloebud
  • 17 days ago

    I can a lot of broths, sauces and soups, and things like tomatoes, peppers and onions for chili etc. If a casserole or something is freezable, I'll cook it into two dishes and freeze one. Husband makes better meatloaf than I do, and he'll mix up several small ones to bake and freeze.


    Our latest favorite is schnitzel. Costco had a great sale on pork loins so we set up an assembly line and tenderized and breaded a bunch, then froze them on trays and dumped them into freezer bags. Now I'm thinking chicken and steak fingers (breading is one of my least favorite chores).

    NiCOZ5 thanked KatieC
  • 17 days ago

    @Sherry8aNorthAL "ETA: I also cannot find a restaurant he likes. There is something wrong with all of them." It's probably not the restaurants that there is something wrong with, lol! I hope you still get to go out so you're not expected to cook every single meal.

    NiCOZ5 thanked Olychick
  • 17 days ago

    The only thing I ever make ahead to freeze is pesto. I make a big batch in the summer to eat all winter. I freeze in large flat sheets and store in zip lock bags and can break off just as much as I need. I read Martha Stewart's method once and she adds some fresh lemon juice, which keeps it bright green, even when frozen, so I do that now, too.

    NiCOZ5 thanked Olychick
  • 17 days ago

    LoneJack, that's exactly how I keep my asparagus, in a wide mouth quart jar with some water in the fridge, it's how Grandma kept it too. Because I have 200 asparagus crowns growing in the backyard, sometimes I need more than one jar!


    Like KatieC, I do a lot of canning. I'm a bit more unusual in that I have a farm and raise beef, chickens, a big garden. I can huge batches of things like spaghetti sauce and tomato basil soup and chicken stock and potatoes so they are easy and quick to use later. That's not why I do it, though, it's to preserve what I grow. Gardeners eat what they can, and can what they can't. I grew up on a farm and that's just what farm families do and have always done.


    I also have frozen pie crusts in the freezer, always some frozen cookie dough, sometimes biscuit dough or muffins. Occasionally I'll make a "double batch" of something like lasagna or meatballs or cabbage rolls and freeze them, but those are generally discovered by my oldest daughter who gladly cleans the freezer, LOL, I seldom eat them.


    I do not particularly like leftovers and I particularly dislike warmed up meat products. I may eat something twice, but that's probably going to be it. I do sometimes turn leftovers into something else, roast beef will become beef vegetable soup or a pot of beans will become refried beans or baked beans or bean dip, but that's about the extent of my leftovers. I'd be abysmal at meal prep because I'd eat it twice and the rest would sit in the fridge until it was old enough to feed to the chickens. I'd rather have peanut butter and jelly or a bowl of Raisin Bran than eat the same thing all week. That's where my canned stuff comes in handy, I just open a jar of something if I don't feel like cooking or am pressed for time. We used to have a name for it here, it was Pulled Out Of Pantry. We also had Pulled Out Of Freezer, POOF your meal!


    Annie

    NiCOZ5 thanked annie1992
  • 17 days ago

    I can't be bothered with batch cooking. If I don't feel like cooking then we'll have an omelette that takes 3 minutes. Lovely with good bread and butter and a green salad. Quicker than getting something out of the freezer.

    NiCOZ5 thanked Islay Corbel