Back to Basics – How to cook once and eat twice….

If you’re short on time or trying to stretch your food budget a little further, learning how to cook once and eat twice (or more) can be a total game changer and you know what? It’s ridiculously easy to do. 

Meal planning, more specifically batch cooking is all about making the most of your time in the kitchen — cooking a bigger batch of whatever you’re cooking or planning clever ways to turn one meal into two meals. Less effort, less washing up and less money!

I’ve shared so many posts over the years about batch cooking with tons of ideas that I think will absolutely help you to save money when you’re doing your meal plans but today, I thought I’d just do a quick back to basics post because I am going back to basics myself. 

Since my meal planning re-boot a couple of months ago, I’ve really focused on meals that I know everyone will love to help them to help me stick to the meal plan. 😁

Now I’m ready to start to do more with batch cooking again and after a couple of week’s, I already have batches of soup, corned beef hash and mince and onions sitting in my freezer ready to go when I need a homemade ready meal. 

Cook extra whenever you can

Batch cooking doesn’t mean spending your entire Sunday in the kitchen. It just means making a little extra whenever you cook. If you’re already making a pasta sauce, chilli, or curry, double the recipe and freeze half for another day or keep it in the fridge for later in the week.

It barely takes any extra time, but you’ll thank yourself on busy evenings.

Here’s a batch of corned beef hash that I made for night shift packed lunches for my partner – I made a huge batch and managed to freeze three full portions to do for quick meals and I think I worked out that it cost £7 for the full batch. I used some corned beef from the farm shop, some leftover baking potatoes and the peas and carrots came from the freezer and it’s a great example of how batch cooking works.

Love Your Leftovers

Leftovers aren’t boring — they’re opportunities. A little imagination can turn them into a brand-new meal.

• Bolognese can become chilli by adding beans and spices or taco filling by adding some Mexican flavourings. It can go in wraps and even be used as a jacket potato or pizza toppings. 

• Leftover slow cooker mince makes a brilliant pie filling or a jacket potato topping.  You could also top it with mash and make a cottage pie.

• Cooked veg can be turned into soup or blended into sauces for pasta or lasagne.

• Cook extra potatoes when you do your Sunday roast and you can use them as a topping for cottage pie, as a base for fishcakes, as the star of a bubble and squeak dish or even as my favourite cheesy potato pancakes.

Use Your Freezer Wisely

Your freezer is your secret weapon when it comes to cooking once and eating twice. Freeze single portions of meals so you can grab one on busy nights instead of ordering a takeaway. Label everything clearly and make a list of what’s inside — you’ll be surprised how quickly things pile up.

Let me show you my weekly meal plan from last week so you can see how I’ve used batch cooking to help me…

I cooked a gammon joint on Sunday so what you can see on Monday is some of what’s left from that gammon joint with some eggs that we bought from our local farm shop.

The jacket potatoes on Tuesday were potatoes that I’d put to one side when I did the mash for our Sunday dinner and they were topped with cheese and beans for my partner and cheese and coleslaw for me.

Wednesday’s mince was cooked in the slow cooker and I added in some peas and carrots from the freezer and served with some homemade Yorkshire puddings. I cooked double and there’s a big batch sitting in the freezer ready for me to take out when I need it and I’m planning a cottage pie with it. 

We had freezer tea on Thursday with our corned beef hash which I’d cooked previously and frozen in portions as I shared above. 

The steaks we had on Friday night were bought reduced a couple of weeks ago and popped straight into the freezer ready for when we could could take our time cooking them after work together and actually sit down and eat them together. 

Homemade pizza on Saturday was made with pizza dough that we bought from the farm shop, tomato sauce from the freezer and chicken and gammon toppings from the freezer too. 

And then Sunday dinner had a real focus on batch cooking as I did a gammon joint again which worked for my partners packed lunches on Monday and Tuesday as well as being finely chopped and included in Bubble and Squeak for tea on Monday using the extra mash, brocolli and carrots that I also cooked extra of when I did Sunday lunch.  I made it nice and crispy and added a couple of fried eggs on top and it was amazing!

So my whole week’s meal plan was geared towards batch cooking and I think it shows how you can do it too with barely any effort at all. 

Cooking once and eating twice isn’t just good for your wallet — it’s good for your energy bills too. Using the oven once for two meals saves electricity, and you’ll cut down on washing up and prep time through the week.

Batch cooking makes life easier, cheaper, and far less stressful.

So next time you’re making dinner, think ahead — because future you will be so glad you did.

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