Last weekend I stayed with a college friend (mother of 5!) and we filled her freezer with nourishing, crowd-pleasing food. Believe it or not, her family liked all the recipes I brought.
I’ve been batch cooking for 15+ years. If you’re a newbie start small. Double one recipe. Learn as you go. Take notes and do it again!
Tips for batch cooking:
We both had Instantpots and used them to their fullest capacity, cooking beans, whole chickens, and broth.
Freeze sauces and soups in ziptop bags, flat in a 8x8, 9x13 or on a cookie sheet.
Reuse quart yogurt containers to freeze soups.
Write out what needs to be done each day (soak beans before bed, thaw beef, debone chicken, etc.)
Decide what’s for dinner. It’s the worst to cook all day and have nothing to eat.
The first night we made these enchiladas. Doubled the recipe to have one for the freezer. If freezer space is limited, freeze the innards and sauce separately in baggies and build the enchiladas the day you eat them.
Lunch the next day was PW’s mac and cheese. My friend was homeschooling, so while mindlessly browning 5 pounds of beef and 2 pounds of sausage, I made lunch. The sausage was for #6 in this post.
The second night we ate burritos. If you haven’t, please slather your next one with butter and bake at 350* for 20 minutes for total crispy goodness.
Bare Bones Burrito
2lbs beef (browned with onion, garlic & taco seasonings)
beans** - 2 cans refried or 1 lb soaked/cooked/mashed
cheese - 1 pound shredded
rice (optional)
flour tortillas - the biggest you can find
Cook meat, beans, and rice. Mix in a giant bowl. Be sure to taste. You probably need more salt. Maybe more chili powder or cumin. Add cheese. Then spoon into a burrito shell. Pretend you’re working at Chipotle and wrap in foil.
These freeze great. My high schooler eats them cold for lunch. I like to slather with butter and bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes.
** when buying canned refried beans, I get non-fat. <<WHAT?!! Julie buys something non-fat?! Yes, yes I do.>> Because most refried beans are made with either industrial oils I’m trying to avoid (canola, soy, vegetable) or hydrogenated lard. I eat lard from a farmer but not hydrogenated from the store.**
We doubled this recipe and used 5lbs beef, 2lbs dry pintos, and 6 cups cooked rice. I used an immersion blender to mash the beans but you could do it with a mixer or hand potato masher. I added butter to give the beans a creamier texture. Bacon fat would have been divine!
Third Night Was Soup Night
We made 3 types of soup from 4 whole chickens. Then realized we have more chicken that could be used in the soup so we made one chicken pot pie filling.
Cheeseburger Soup - sort of like this one. I don’t thicken with flour. Maybe I should write out how I do it in a future letter? By far the crowd favorite.
White Chicken Chili - if you’re a southerner, you probably have your fav. We made a giant pot with 2 lbs of dried white beans.
The third soup is a variation of one I’ve made in Instagram Stories. People usually ask for a recipe — but when it comes to soup, I usually make it with what I have on hand. This is terrible for cooks like my friend I was visiting so I wrote out a general recipe:
Creamy Golden Chicken Soup
cooked chicken: breast, rotisserie, or whole bird you cook
onion, celery, garlic
spices: definitely 2t turmeric, and 2t cumin maybe 1T curry
full-fat coconut milk (equal parts coconut milk and squash/pumpkin)
roasted pureed butternut squash or a can of pumpkin
cauliflower rice
broth as needed for texture & consistency
good quality salt
Saute a chopped giant onion until soft and translucent. Add heaps of garlic and chopped celery. Stir in spices to warm and activate their flavors. Have you added salt yet? Please do.
Stir in coconut milk and squash or pumpkin. Taste. Need more salt? Broth?
Add chicken and cauli rice. When warm through, taste. Need more spices or salt?
Welp, that’s all for today. Sift through and find one recipe to make. We’re all on different culinary journeys. You do you. Baby steps.
Hit reply and tell me if there’s something above you’d like further explanation.
Cheering you on to create connection at the table!
Julie