Healthy freezer meals

If you love homemade food but don’t have time to cook every night, cooking and freezing could be the way to go. Batch cooking is the perfect way to fill your freezer with yummy, healthy meals at the weekend, and save yourself money, time and washing up during the week. It's especially great if you have kids! So go on: make the most of your freezer!

How to do it

Depending on how many spare hours you have and the size of your freezer, there are three ways to tackle batch cooking:

• Double batch: Every time you cook anything, make double or triple the amount you need and freeze the leftovers. This technique is perfect for spontaneous cooks.

• Weekend batch: Each weekend, plan what you will eat the following week, then make and freeze as much as you can ahead of time. This is ideal if you’re a good planner and enjoy doing lots of cooking at once. 

• Once a month: This is hardcore batch cooking, cook enough meals to last you a whole month! Perfect for those with a weekend spare and particularly great if you’re super-organised and have culinary stamina.

What you'll need

Before you embark on your batch cooking adventure, there are a few things you’ll need to make it a success:

• Time: If you don’t want to dedicate an entire weekend to batch cooking, you can spread the load by shopping a couple of days beforehand. Remember, although it is a big time investment, you’re saving yourself precious relaxation time on weekday evenings.

• Space: You will need plenty of preparation space in your kitchen and, of course, lots of freezer space.

• Equipment: You'll need pots and pans big enough to make mega portions, as well as portion-sized plastic containers or bags to put your food in, and labels so you can see which meal is which.

• Help: It’s handy to have someone on washing up duty to clean utensils as you go. This will keep the kitchen clean and free up more equipment for you to work with.

What freezes well

Some foods freeze better than others, so it's a good idea to try just a few recipes at the start of your batch cooking journey, to help you work out what suits you best.

• Sauces: By cooking large quantities of versatile sauces you will have a base for lots of different dishes. For example, meat sauce be reheated for bolognese, lasagne and chili con carne. When making sauces, it’s a good idea to add a little more liquid than you usually would, as freezing can dry food out.

 • Meat: Casseroles, stews and curries all make excellent freezer meals. You can cook and freeze a batch of these meat-based dishes, so all you have to do in the week is cook the rice or pasta to go with them.

• Pies: Pies of all kinds - fish, meat, chicken or veggie - are another great freezer staple. The best way to do this is to freeze the pie before you cook it to avoid soggy crusts!

What not to freeze

Of course, there are some foods that just do not freeze well. Avoid putting these in your freezer at all costs!

• Eggs: When frozen, eggs will expand and crack through their shells.

• Cream: Food containing cream should not be frozen, as cream will turn lumpy and watery, and whipped cream will fall flat in the freezer.

• Gravy: Gravy, as well as other thick sauces like sour cream and mayonnaise, will separate out in freezing conditions.

• Cheese: Blocks of cheese will tend to turn crumbly and dry in the freezer - especially finer, fresh cheeses - so keep that stilton out of it!

• Potatoes: A lot of technology goes into making freezable chips and jacket potatoes. Not something to be attempted at home, unless you like your spuds mushy!

Freezing safety

When it comes to freezing and reheating foods, there are some simple but important steps you must take to make sure your healthy freezer meals defrost safely.

• After cooking, cool your food quickly (within one to two hours) before freezing it. This can be done by putting the food in the fridge if it will not cool quickly enough on its own.

• Label and date your food so you know how long it has been in the freezer. You can use this storage times checker to make sure your frozen foods are still edible.

• Defrost meals overnight in the fridge or by using the defrost setting on your microwave. You can cook them straight from frozen, but to do this you’ll need to cook it at a low temperature for longer.

• Eat your meal within 24 hours of taking it out of the freezer.

• Always cook your meal until it is piping hot all the way through.

• Never refreeze food that has already been frozen. 

If batch cooking sounds like the way forward for you and your family, there are loads more resources out there to help you, from batch cooking recipes to bulk-buy shopping lists. And if you need some lovely new kitchen equipment to inspire you on your culinary adventures, check out DotComGiftShop’s gorgeous selection. Happy cooking!