Monday, November 6, 2017

101 Ways To Live Better: Bulk Cooking




Welcome to my 101 series, which explores 101 little things you can do to improve your day to day life, and the world, just a little bit.

Our tenth post is: BULK COOK
  
Bulk cooking is a great way to save money and time and stay healthy. The idea is that once a week (or even once a fortnight) you do a big cook up and portion out meals for the fridge and freezer over the coming weeks.

You do all the shopping and cooking on the same day. Then you no longer have to cook through the week, decide what you’re going to eat, or rely on take aways. There is a huge range of meals that can be frozen and reheated and depending how many pots you have, or how fast you are at washing them, you can bulk cook 3-6 different meals in a day. You will need a lot of tupperware to store it all though!

Meals that can be bulk cooked and frozen:

- Lasagna
- Soups and stews
- Pies and Shepperd's pies
- Curries
- Pizzas
- Pasta sauces
- Meat skewers
- Chili

You can look up literally thousands of recipes online and will probably find a lot of options I haven’t listed here.

Like all things, there are pros and cons. So I will outline them here. First the cons:

- If you have a small kitchen and limited pots and pans, you might only be able to do one meal at a time with clean up in between.
- If you have a small freezer, you might not be able to store very much at all.
- Lunch and dinners for two weeks requires at least 28 tupperware or food containers, and room to keep them in the freezer.
- If you have more than one person to cook and freeze for, the space and tupperware needed is even higher.
- You might get bored having the same 4-6 meals twice a day for a fortnight.


However the pros far outweigh the cons in every possible way. Obviously if you just don’t have the freezer space then it might be impossible, however I think it is even worth looking for a chest freezer you can keep in the garage or anywhere else you have space. The long list of pros include:

- Huge amount of time saved.
- Decision making energy saved.
- If you are trying to lose weight, having planned, portioned meals that you can just defrost and eat will be a huge help.
- Meals you make yourself will be healthier and you will know exactly what is in them.
- Buying and cooking in bulk is cheaper than buying small portions for every night. Plus it will cost less to prepare.
- It's a lot more convenient and less stressful.
- There are hundreds of recipe books dedicated to bulk cooking, thousands of youtube videos and hundreds of thousands of recipes online. So even if you are eating the same meals for two weeks at a time, you never have to eat them again, as there will always be new, exciting recipes to try.


Here are some links to help you get started:

Cooking safety:

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/news-alerts/news/bulk-cooking-food-poisoning

Youtube searches:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bulk+cooking+recipes

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=freezer+meals+recipes


Bulk cooking on popular recipe websites:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/freezer-friendly

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/batch-cooking

https://www.jamieoliver.com/family/freezer-friendly-recipes/?

https://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/organising/kitchen-organising/meal-ideas-for-the-freezer/

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