My morning of batch cooking

(Wednesday afternoon)
I am so, so tired this afternoon. This morning I did a big batch of cooking and made at least the start to a bunch of dinners for our family. While it was exhausting work, I really only worked for 4 hours. And I saved myself a lot of dinner prep during those first couple of weeks of school, dance classes and back to my paid and volunteer work.

What did I make? I made lasagnas (and had leftover cooked Italian sausage to add to pasta for a quick meal), pot roast, beefy vegetable soup, some vegan mexi mix (it's lentils, barley, onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin and dried red peppers) for tacos, burritos or bun tacos (tacos on a bun), and a pan of oven-roasted chicken pieces. Our freezer is full to the gills!

Big batch cooking doesn't have to mean an exhausting day in the kitchen, though. You don't really need any specific recipes. Just think through what you and your family like to eat, and make more than the usual amount. So, big batch cooking for a young couple might mean preparing enough lasagna for 8 servings. that would provide dinner on the first night, plus leftovers tucked in the freezer for 3 more nights. Or batch cooking may mean making a huge pot of soup for a family or singles, with leftovers for a couple of following nights.

I know many of you already batch cook. Shara from Mama's Mission is cooking once to eat twice. Belinda from Frugal Workshop batch-cooked individual pizzas about a week ago. Carol from CT on a Budget cooks for the freezer on a regular basis. And, Sarah at Everyday Life on a Shoestring blogged about inadvertently batch-cooking cucumber sandwiches (a humorous look at how too many sandwiches come in handy with a hungry family). Batch cooking comes in many shapes and sizes. But the end result is the same. Cooking extra gives the home cook a much needed break from the daily grind of meal preparation.

I only big batch cook a few times a year. Once just before school starts up in the fall. Once just before the holidays, so I can have more free time to enjoy Christmas festivities. Again, in mid-March, just before the rush of tax preparation and spring birthdays. And maybe one other time during the year, if I'm feeling like I need a break from daily dinner prep. Otherwise my batch cooking looks more like a double recipe here, triple that there, cooking just a bit extra so there are planned-overs.

A few pointers to big batch cooking frugally

• as I see things on sale or marked down throughout the month, I buy and freeze, as needed. The beef for the soup and pot roast were loss leaders items at Safeway a couple of weeks ago. The chicken Italian sausage was marked down to clear. The chicken pieces were both loss leaders and marked down (I bought one fam pack of legs and one fam pack of breasts). I had several other chicken pieces that I bagged up raw, and froze in meal-size portions.

• I have a plan for first aid. I know what to do if I get a burn or cut, and keep bandaids and antibacterial ointment handy. Accidents happen. My knife slipped this time and I cut my finger. But I knew what to do. I turned off the stove, took care of the cut, and got back to cooking in a reasonable time. I do wish I'd had sanitary gloves to put on after treating the cut, as I still had meat to dice, and wouldn't want to introduce bacteria into the cut. So that would be an extra suggestion -- have food service gloves handy.

• I use big batch cooking as an opportunity to use up odd bits in the pantry. As I was making the mexi mix, I remembered a dried chili pepper I had in the pantry, from a batch of enchiladas a while back. I soaked this and scraped the flesh to add to the mix. Used something up and gave extra flavor to the mix. I also like to use up dried spices that have been hanging around a while. For a rub for the chicken pieces, I used the traditional poultry seasonings of sage, marjoram, salt and pepper, but also added a bit of coriander, just to make it interesting, and use up some of the coriander. The beefy vegetable soup was a great dish to add all sorts of leftovers needing to be finished off, from pasta sauce, and barley to cooked garbanzo beans and lentils.

• I cook the protein foods first. Once those are done I can assemble casseroles, stews, soups and fillings.

• I use every cooking device I have. I admit, I have a great kitchen for batch cooking, with a 6-burner stove and 2 ovens. But for many years I had just a toaster oven and 4 burner stove (no main oven), and still batch cooked. If you have a crockpot, oven and stove top, you can have several dishes cooking at any one time.

• I take a break mid way. I get quite tired after about 2 hours. This morning, I really needed that lunch break.

• I allow cooked foods to cool at room temp for 30 minutes, then get into the freezer.

So, that was my day. I'm tired, but glad to have that done. And dinner for tonight is all taken care, so there's a bonus! And tomorrow is my day off. We're going to poke around in the shops in the vintage district we like so much. And treat ourselves to $1 ice cream cones at the general store. This has become a favorite leisure activity for the girls in our house!

Back to the cooking thing . . .do you have any favorite recipes that you like to double up on? I'm also wondering, how do the kitchen staffs, in fine restaurants, make it through an 8-hour shift?