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OK, most of you know that spending time in the kitchen is not my forte. In fact it normally bores me and I am sure I am not alone in that.
A few years back I found a way of dealing with the boredom I felt with cooking by challenging myself to maximise my time, my patience and my cooking abilities by batch cooking. The silver lining for me was finding easy, tasty and freezable recipes that meant I could cook many meals all at the same time. Allowing me to spend one afternoon in the kitchen and then a minimum amount of time there after!
For me the meat of choice has always been beef. Super lean minced beef is an ideal option for any meat-based meal as it’s amazingly versatile. Lean red meat is naturally rich in protein, low in salt and provides 8essential vitamins and minerals that support good health and wellbeing. These are: iron, niacin (vitamin B3), vitamins B6 and B12, zinc, riboflavin, potassium and phosphorus. I’m featuring these batch cooking meals aspart of the Family Favourite campaign, sponsored by The Scotch Kitchen www.scotchkitchen.com.
Batch Cooking
For me the batch cooking process meant I had to select meals that I could start with a very similar base of ingredients and then separate into different pans for different recipes and meals so I could keep them all super easy to make.
My go-to recipes to do this are: Lasagne, Spaghetti Bolognese, Chilli and Cottage Pie. All these recipes I start with a lean beef mince, diced onion (I prefer frozen onion) and beef OXO cubes.
I have popped the recipes below for my batch cooking favourites but you can alter ingredients based on personal tastes and preferences.
I have also popped my full shopping list below for all the recipes combines and I bought my ingredients from Asda at a cost of £47.28. This is obviously changeable depending upon the supermarket used. However I made 10 family-sized meals for the £47.28 so the cost per meal is £4.73 for all 4 of us which I think is amazing for tastyhome-cooked meals.
Shopping List
4kgs Lean Mince Beef (5% fat)
3kgs White Potatoes
Beef OXO Cubes
Beef Gravy Granules
Frozen Chopped Garlic
Frozen Sliced Carrots
Frozen Green Beans
Frozen Peas
Frozen Peppers
8 x Tins Of Chopped Tomatoes
2 x Family Sized Bolognese Sauce
2 x Boxes Of Lasagne Sheets
White Sauce Mix
2 x Chilli Con Carne Mix
1 x Tube Of Tomato Puree
Mild Grated Cheddar
Method
For all 4 recipes I start with cooking all the mince with the frozen onion and adding in beef OXO cubes. I do use a fair amount of the bag of frozen onion but this can be adapted to your own tastes.
Then I split this mixture once browned into 4 portions. 1 portion goes into the slow cooker. 1 portion goes into a large pan and then the last 2 portions remain in my big pan.
I tend to use the slow cooker for the cottage pie, and the large pan is then for chilli and the biggest pan with 2 portions in I use this base for spag bol and lasagne!
In The Chilli Pan
(3 family sized chilli’s)
After adding the mince, onion and beef OXO cube mix I then add in the full bag of frozen peppers and stir for 5-10 minutes until the peppers are thawed and cooking.
The next stage is to make up the packet chilli con carne seasoning and adding this into the pan along with 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and a squirt of tomato puree. We don’t add kidney beans as none of us like them. However you could add a tin of these at this stage. – This meal is practically done it’s just a case of adding in any extra water to adjust the thickness if required but other than stirring you are done and can move on to another dish.
Making Cottage Pie
(3 family sized cottage pies)
For the cottage pie while the mince mixture is browning I peel and cut the potatoes into a pan to boil ready to make the mashed potatoes topping and once the mince mixture is complete I then add this into the slow cooker and add in at least half a bag of frozen peas and half a bag of frozen carrots. Although if I want to stretch the recipes I wouldn’t hesitate to add full bags in of both! I also add in a handful of whole green beans but not to many. The joy of this recipe is you can add in any veg your family eats from sweet corn to mushrooms. Although this is not the standard cottage pie recipes I find it works super well at ease of cooking as its all in one pot and also encourages the kids to eat more veg!
Next I make up some gravy granules and make this fairly thick as the veg will produce juice as its cooking that will thin this out.
After a big stir I put the lid on the slow cooker and move onto prepping something else. Once the mince mixture has been in the slow cooker for 4 (high) -8 hours (low) I serve into the dishes and leave to cool so I can add on the mashed potatoes once cooked.
low) I serve into the dishes and leave to cool so I can add on the mashed potatoes once cooked.
Spaghetti Bolognese & Lasagne
(1 family sized portion of bolognese & 3 family sized lasagnes)
I use the same base for these 2 recipes and after putting in my biggest pan I add in garlic and stir well for a few minutes. I then add in the contents of the Bolognese sauce jars and the rest of the tinned chopped tomatoes and stir well. After gently cooking and stirring for around 10-15 minutes take out the portion of spaghetti Bolognese and pop it in a container to freeze. Then gently spoon out the rest for the first layer of the lasagne. Add in a layer of lasagne sheets, then cover with white sauce. Then do another layer of spaghetti Bolognese before finishing off with another layer of lasagne sheets and white sauce before adding on the grated cheese and cooking for around 40 – 50 minutes at 180.
For me batch cooking with a versatile meat makes an ideal way to get the best of both worlds. Home cooked tasty and nutritious meals and being able to cook 10 meals in one afternoon or morning so all I have to do on those busy after school evenings is to remember to take out a meal the night before and then whack it in the oven/microwave on the night we need tummies filling.
The next stage for me it to develop some further batch cooking recipes with some other delicious red meats to offer the kids more verity and to save me even more time! It would be amazing to spend one day in the kitchen and prepare a whole month’s worth of food!
For now however I will just settle for a happy well fed bunch of Olivers!
For more great recipes head to www.scotchkitchen.com.
