This month I feel like I’ve properly found my rhythm in the kitchen with some really intentional cooking. Nothing fancy, nothing Instagram-perfect, just food that actually works for us.
I’ve been batch cooking a few simple things, popping them in the freezer, and quietly feeling that little glow of achievement (AKA feeling smug) every time dinner comes together with no stress. It’s made such a difference to how the weeks have felt, so I wanted to share a few of the batch cooking wins that have genuinely made life easier.
I thought I’d share a few of my batch cooking wins from this month with you today…
Breakfast Sandwiches
I’m counting calories and carbs at the moment so I like to have nice easy options ready to go when I’m hungry so I’ve been batch cooking breakfast muffins this last month and I am loving them.
I usually make a batch when I have leftover gammon as it’s nice and easy to chop up and bake in the oven on a shallow baking tray that I top up with beaten eggs.
I bake the eggs until they’re just set and then use a cookie cutter the size of my muffins to cut out circles. These are then added to a wholemeal muffin that I’ve cut in half with a slice of cheese. I made six muffins using my nice and neat little circles and then I made another two from the off cuts which we ate pretty much straight away – I pretended we were testing them but in reality, I just didn’t want to freeze messy muffins. 😁
I wrap them up individually in greaseproof paper and freeze them ready for when I need them and then try and get one out the night before so it’s there for breakfast. I’ve tried heating them from frozen and the egg just goes rubbery so I prefer to heat them in the air fryer when they’re defrosted.
I worked out the calories and carbs for each one using Nutracheck so when I want one, I know how much to count.
They’re really tasty and they’re so easy to make so I can make a batch on a Sunday night while we’re watching TV.
Soup
I got rid of my soup maker when I moved out of my home because we didn’t have much space here for all of my many random and often unnecessary gadgets so some had to go the journey. I’ll be honest, I never missed the Tassimon, the quesadilla maker, the milk frother or even the popcorn maker but I have often wished that the bread maker and the soup maker moved out with me. 😁
I found a soup maker on Marketplace for £10 last month and I decided it was time to replace my old one!
I found a set of three glass bowls with lids in TKMaxx for £5 which are perfect for batch cooking soup as they are freezer proof and microwave proof and they’re the perfect size for a lunchtime soup portion.
(Ignore the fact that this looks really unappetising – this batch was a use up what was in the fridge so it ended up a bit of a murky colour.
I added some leftover pulled pork in after the soup was blended up and it was the perfect addition!
I’ve also made a batch of spicy butternut squash soup and a batch of my herby pea and brocolli soup too so I’m pretty pleased with my purchase!
Shredded Chicken
I used to make shredded chicken in my Instant Pot all of the time as I loved having something so versatile on hand.
I would regularly make a big batch of Instant Pot Shredded Chicken and freeze it in batches to use for quesadillas, pizza toppings, pasta bakes, pie fillings, salads, soups, nachos, enchiladas, sandwiches, fried rice and so much more.
The Instant Pot was another gadget I lost custody of when I moved out but I realised that I rarely used it for anything other than shredded chicken so rather than us buy a whole new Instant Pot just for shredded chicken, I thought I’d try a batch in the slow cooker and it worked brilliantly so I now have lots of shredded chicken in the freezer ready to go.
Yorkshire Puddings
We’ve started to batch cook Yorkshire Puddings and freeze them – if Aunt Bessie can do it then I can too!
We tag-team when we make Yorkshires – I do the mixing and my partner does the cooking and I think we’ve mastered it now although if you’d seen our first attempts then you would have definitely not wanted to come for tea anytime soon! Now we can whip up a batch of larger ones for Yorkshire Pudding wraps and some smaller ones to use for mid-week meals.
We pop them in the freezer and when we want them, we’ll get them out and heat them through in the oven just like you would with Aunt Bessies.
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