Once a month cooking..

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Once a month cooking..
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Deedee

Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 7:45 am Post subject: Once a month cooking..

following on from the storecupboard theme does anyone practise once a month(or roundabout) cooking? I try to have a good bake up at least once a month so the kids have plenty of cakes and munchies in the freezer and for their packed lunches,also I do huge batches of their favourite dinners and freeze them in dinner sized portions.I make a massive sausage toad for example and cut it into individual dinners then freeze,stuff like that so if I have to throw dinner on quick at least I have something nice in the freezer!

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 7:50 am Post subject:
Good for you. Good use of Freezers, is probably for most people with busy lives an essential part of being able to control what you eat, whilst holding down a job etc. I'm pretty lousy at it myself jema

Deedee

Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 8:09 am Post subject:
yes I think its a habit I got into while I was juggling two jobs,outwork and 3 kids LOL.It does shave a bit of time off in the evening when you get in from work and are really knackered!

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 8:26 am Post subject:

Not exactly, perhaps mainly because we don't tend to have enough space in our freezer to store a month of meals! But most times when I make something big like tomato sauce, soup, chilli or curry I'll make as much of it as I can be bothered to and freeze that, which means exactly as you say we've got ready meals for when we don't feel like or have the time to cook.

For example this week we had pasta bake, chilli with potato wedges, and pasta with tom sauce, all based on my tomato sauce from a couple of weeks ago because I can't be bothered to cook at the moment.

We'll probably have soup or pizza tonight and whichever we don't have on Friday, because we've got very little in the house and had no time to shop.

OK, we could do with being healthier and sticking some veg or salad in those meals (I'm thinking of sowing some rocket this weekend to see how it does) but we haven't had to go out to buy anything, the packaging is pretty minimal, and above all it's cheap but decent food.

Baking on the other hand I do as I go along, because I'm not sure how well things would freeze, and I have the time to do it and enjoy it. Haven't done any for a couple of weeks though

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 9:38 am Post subject:

I've also got restricted freezer space and adopt the oppostie method of keeping very little in the house, planning a menu for the week ahaead, get the ingredients at the market and use them up. Any leftovers get eaten for lunch. The little one is only 14 months so she refuses everything you cook for her anyway. When she's older and I've sorted the freezer situation out we may see a shift to your method.

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 10:25 am Post subject:
I am moving over more and more to the once a month cooking, and hope to be fully in place for the summer, when it goes manic here.At the moment we are doing eating the freezer down meals, so we are having some unusual combinations, depending on what I find next.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 10:32 am Post subject:
There's a book by an American woman that often comes up in this subject, called Frozen Assets. I don't know much about it but this is the woman's page... https://hometown.aol.com/dsimple/aboutme.html - might be a starting point. There's also a recentish book by Mary Berry "Cook Now Eat Later" which might cover the same sort of thing.

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 11:58 am Post subject:

good thread! What about adding some recipes! I like the idea of the huge toad recipe - I've got a large enough tin....

Am hoping to pop in to countrywide store at weekend and suss out a huge tin of toms or two and get some pasta sauce going!

I do make large cake quantities, Alison gave me the recipe - 6eggs, 12oz everything else, and 3 teaspoons baking powder all done in a roasting tin. Trouble is I can't do a monthly bake or I'd have eggs coming out of ears due to the chickens ( 3eggs a day - you work it out!) but I do have a bake when I get too many.

Am also trying to make more bread dough in the machine and then dividing in to two and baking in the oven, one for now, one for tomorrow. If anyone has any large quantities of bread dough recipes I can try in the old Kenwood I'd like to have a go at that. We do get through the bread in this house!

Deedee

Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 12:17 pm Post subject:
Have we got a place thats just for recipes or shall I stick some on here..I do a mean carrot cake Also must recommend Robert Dyas for huge size pyrex and tins!Their casa range of tins is fantastic and half price at the moment!

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 7:30 pm Post subject:
Deedee, Post it on the site then put it in here, so it can be found in the future. https://www.learningindustries.com/nrk/recipes/

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 05 7:42 pm Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

There's a book by an American woman that often comes up in this subject, called Frozen Assets. I don't know much about it but this is the woman's page... https://hometown.aol.com/dsimple/aboutme.html - might be a starting point. There's also a recentish book by Mary Berry "Cook Now Eat Later" which might cover the same sort of thing.

had a good look round that site - very interesting, thanx! and have signed up for free newsletter!

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 05 11:52 pm Post subject:

I popped down to my local chinese wholesaler and picked up 100 plastic take away cartons with lids for �5 and when ever we cook soups ,stews, chillies ect the extra gets put in a tub and frozen as a tub holds about 1 portion and they stack neatly in the freezer. If you use some scotch magic tape and a felt pen on the front you can see quickly and easily whats in there and have what ever you like and cos the tubs can go straight from freezer to microwave they can provide qiuck tasty meals in minutes

Deedee

Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 05 9:38 am Post subject:
What a great tip I'm always running out of containers even though I recycle everything I can and I just so happen to have a wholesaler within spitting distance from here Another thing I tend to do when running low on tupperwares etc is pop out the soups and stuff when frozen into bags this helps a lot in the summer/autumn when freezing the 'harvest'!

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 05 11:40 am Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

There's also a recentish book by Mary Berry "Cook Now Eat Later" which might cover the same sort of thing.

thanx for that hint, spotted that book in the library yesterday so have borrowed it! I'm really quite interested in this idea.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 05 11:55 am Post subject:
I love cooking, it's a source of relaxation for me. I'm in the opposite camp, it's daily cooking for me. (confit of goose leg with split peas on the menu tonight)

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