Easy Cooking In The Kitchen

If your one of those people that find yourself stopping at the supermarket every day to pick up something fresh for dinner and would like to make life a little easier when it comes to meal preparation, then batch cooking and freezing may be the right way to go for you.

Before you begin your batch cooking and freezing plan, it’s important that you follow a few simple rules to make this as easy as possible.

Make a List and Check it Twice

Before making a list of ingredients that you will need for your batch cooking shopping trip, it’s important to decide what sort of meals you would like to create. It’s best if you include the entire family’s likes and dislikes into the plan. You don’t want to take the time and effort to cook everything and find out no one likes your choice of recipes.

Once you have decided if you have a house full of carnivores or vegetarians, it’s time to start researching different types of recipes. Once you’ve found a few recipes with pictures that you think everyone will like, show them to everyone with both the ingredients as well as pictures of the finished meal. Have each family member pick and choose their favorites and write the recipes on individual index cards.

Starter Foods

Here are two main foods to begin your batch cooking and freezing recipes with that will not require many ingredients. Those two base foods are ground meat and chicken breast. From these two food groups you can make quit a few different dishes. Ground meat can make just some of the following:

• Meatballs
• Meatloaf
• Hamburgers
• Chili
• Mexican style casseroles

Chicken can be used in a variety of ways:

• Chicken cutlets
• Stuffed chicken breast with ham and cheese
• Chicken and rice casseroles
• Chicken strips for salads, fajitas, or even added to pasta with broccoli

Pantry Items

If you begin your batch cooking and freezing by spending a little bit more money on fully stocking your pantry, you will find that having everything on hand is going to make life simpler and easier on all levels.

Once you’ve bought the meats and poultry in bulk, separate and cut it up yourself, you will have the beginnings of a successful effort at batch cooking and freezing with very few ingredients. Stocking your pantry with broth’s, marinades, and spices will make batch cooking and freezing as easy as pie (meat pie maybe).