Busy Mum? Discover the Tricks of Batch Cooking

Ebube Imana

For regular working mums, it may be a daunting task to prepare wholesome meals owing to time constraints and fatigue. Except there’s a cook to help out, the daily stress of work and traffic often creates a knack for routine quick fixes, which do not make for a healthy diet. Batch cooking help mums balance their roles in the kitchen and busy schedules without jeopardising the family’s nutrition.

All it takes is cooking different types of meals, usually in fairly large quantities (depending on your family size, consumption and how many times you want it served) when you have spare time and storing in air tight containers, kept in the refrigerator or freezer for later use.

READ ALSO: 9 Steps To Declutter Your Home (Part One)

Learn the Basics

What I try to do is prepare stew (2 types most times), soup (2 types most times) and a sauce or two for spaghetti and potatoes on weekends for a week or two. These meals are easier to batch cook and can be stored for up to two weeks in the freezer (leaving it for longer may take from that fresh taste we all love), so you may want to try them out too.

Right after cooking, I separate the meals into different bowls according to how I want them consumed (mostly portions for a family serving), leave to cool and store in the freezer. When the need to use any of them arises, it’s just to bring out of the freezer a night before use, put in the fridge. If it still needs to thaw, remove in the morning, re-heat and serve. Thaw the exact amount of food needed only. Once food is thawed, do not refreeze to curb bacteria and prevent food poisoning.

I keep foods like beans, soup, sweet potato in the freezer while foods like rice, plantain, yam, are stored in the fridge as freezing them takes away their fresh taste after reheating. This means such foods should not be cooked in large quantities nor stored in the fridge for too long to prevent staleness. Also, vegetables and fruits have to be consumed as soon as possible. No use storing them for too long to get optimal nutrition.

READ ALSO: Mums Beware: 11 Things You Should Never Put In The Microwave

Note that to store meals planned for the week, you would need a deep freezer and refrigerator with enough capacity to meet your storage needs. Your fridge and freezer should not be overloaded to ensure proper preservation. I prefer to do my batch cooking weekly because of storage space constraints. However, depending on how busy I envisage I’ll be in coming weeks, I could decide to cook major meals for two weeks. It gives me less hassle.

To get started:

.       Decide Ahead and Have a Plan

Depending on your schedule, decide whether to do your shopping and cooking weekly, fortnightly or once a month. Having decided what works best for you, you would need to decide beforehand what meal would be served each day of the week, so you can shop and cook accordingly. To make this happen, a menu plan would be ideal.

• Stock up on Storage Containers

It’s important to have air tight containers (usually freezable); enough to accommodate the number of meals you are preparing. In addition to containers, you may consider using resealable plastic bags. I find this quite useful because they consume less space. However, do make sure to get all the air out of the bag.

READ ALSO: Save Money On Household Expenses Now Using These Sure-fire Tips

• Right Storage for Portion Sizes

Another trick that works for me, especially when storing my sons’ meals for the week, is to use containers that would hold the exact size of meal, so I don’t have to add or take away from it. All I have to do is thaw and reheat. Since my son eats everything we eat, I share his food for the week and put them in different bowls, each for a meal, making sure he has a variety with fruits, vegetable, proteins, carbohydrates included and as balanced as possible.

• Label With Names and Dates

In other to avoid food staying too long in the freezer or mixing up the content of each container, it helps to label and date them. The date on each item also helps you consume foods using the first in, first out rule.

.          Re-heat

Make sure thawed food is evenly heated, especially if not thawed in a fridge. Use only glass, ceramic and plastics containers labelled safe for microwave oven use to re-heat food.

Finally, to complement food items cooked in batch, buy tomatoes, peppers, fish, chicken, and so on, blend into purees and store in a deep freezer. Store fresh ingredients too.

READ ALSO: Married Man Tells Off Men Who Enslave Their Wives In Viral Post | See Photos

When buying items like vegetables though, try to buy the freshest you can find; tomatoes must be hard, pepper (all types) should not be soft either or have blemishes, the leafy vegetables should be green and not withered. You could also fry or boil fish and poultry to preserve in your freezer.

This means you’ll have basic ingredients to cook as you go when you crave fresh meals and you’ve got time to spare.

Note that if running an alternative source of power is not affordable, batch cooking may not work for you. Remember to uphold best cooking and food storage hygiene practices to prevent contamination.