Finances can be tight with families at the moment. There have been huge changes that we are still coming to terms with. People have lost their jobs, others have lost their loved ones. Financial changes can create ongoing issues, which run deeper than some may see. One of the ways in which we can save money is by stretching our food budget. Making more from what we have. It might be about time to raid the back of the pantry and start rustling up some healthy but affordable recipes. Let's have a look at some top ideas for batch cooking for families.
Figure Out What You Will All Eat
One of the things with families is that everyone has an opinion. We all have different tastes and our favourite foods aren't often the same. Sit down as a family and explain what it is you are doing. That you are going to take some time to cook some meals to make it easier for everyone. You will have a meal planner based on what everyone will eat. Rather than making two or three different things per meal time, which will take longer and cost more, agree on things that you will all eat. This is what you can then base your batch cooking for families meal planner around. It could be that the kids love pasta, so you might figure out different ways to serve that up with veg. You might all love a curry but the kids like it milder than the grown ups. That is ok. We can figure out personal preferences after we've figure out the type of meals that we'll be cooking.
Soups & Pasta Sauces
Utilising your freezer with batch cooked meals helps you save time, effort and money in the long run. Starting things off with something fairly easy, we've got soups and pasta sauces. These are fantastic ways of getting hidden veg into the diets of your kids. Simply blitz extra veggies into your homemade pasta sauce and they won't see it, so won't complain. Keep all those leftover veg peels and off cuts and pop them in the bag in the freezer. Then when you come to batch cook you've got a fantastic bag of ingredients to use as the base of your soup stock. You can use zip bags to freeze them flat in your freezer overnight, before standing them up making it easier to get access to them when you need. A little bit of preparation with your batch cooking for families and planning of what you need to defrost when and you've got great healthy food every day.
Individual Meals
You know those foil tins you can get at the budget stores? They are perfect when you're batch cooking. You can fry up a load of mince which you can then use for lasagnes. You could get some cheap reduced yellow sticker vegetables at the end of the day from the supermarket and use them for a vegetarian lasagne instead. Simply create the layers within the tin itself, allow to cool and then freeze. Maybe you can do double the amount of mince at the same time and then split it, half for lasagne, half for cottage pies. Do the same, just top with mash, let it cool, put the lid on and pop in the freezer. These are perfect for coming home from work to, as you can actually cook them from frozen. You're own batch cooking for families version of a ready meal!
If you are making a chicken pie for tea, why not make a larger one and then portion off the remainder for another meal. You can use food bags or simply wrap it in foil before freezing. If you're cooking, try and maximise that time so you don't have to spend as much time in the kitchen the next day.
Easy Fakeaways
How much money do you spend on takeaways? It can be so much easier to just order out or steer through a drive through, than to cook for yourself. However, you can conjure up some amazing dishes which are takeaway style but are cheaper, better for you and also much tastier! Batch make some homemade pizza bases and simply freeze them. Then you'll be able to use them whenever you like, maybe with some homemade pasta sauce (see above!) as your tomato base. How about healthy fried chicken? Open up your own batch cooking for families takeaway on Friday nights!
Batch cooking for families can help you save time, money and energy in the kitchen. Whilst still serving up wholesome and nutritious meals for your loved ones.
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