Freezer Food/ Batch Cooking

some of my favourties

Chicken Broccoli casserole
Turkey Pot Pies (with or without shell)
Honey Garlic Chicken thighs
Sweet and sour meatballs (for quick spaghetti)

HI there...I do batch cooking all the time, and most things you cook can be frozen, so it really just depends on what you eat. I teach Once A Month Cooking and Grocery Management at the local women's shelter...I did a post on this a few months ago and will see if i can't dig it out for you.

The upshot is figure out what you want to have for meals, see what items can be cooked together, or double batched and start there. Twice the meals with just once the clean up. I prefer an ingredients style batch cooking. I cook 20 pounds of chicken at a time with basic seasonings, then separate it into meal sized portions, season for Italian, Mexican, BBQ, or whatever, and then freeze it. I find it much more versatile.

Vegetable Samosas with Mint Chutney

CHUTNEY:
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon finely chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt

SAMOSAS:
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2/3 cup shredded carrot
2/3 cup frozen green peas, thawed
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup leftover mashed potatoes
8 (14 x 9-inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Cooking spray

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare chutney, combine first 8 ingredients in a food processor; process 1 minute or until smooth. Spoon mixture into a bowl; cover and refrigerate.
3. To prepare samosas, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrot, and cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add peas, mustard seeds, garam masala, and salt; cover and cook 2 minutes. Stir in potatoes; remove from heat.
4. Working with 1 phyllo sheet at a time, cut each sheet lengthwise into 3 (3 x 14-inch) strips, and coat with cooking spray. (Cover remaining phyllo dough to keep from drying.) Spoon 1 tablespoon potato mixture onto 1 end of each strip. Fold 1 corner of phyllo dough over mixture, forming a triangle; keep folding back and forth into a triangle to end of strip. Place triangles, seam sides down, on a baking sheet. Brush triangles with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Bake at 350° for 23 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or at room temperature with chutney.


*Freeze samosas prior to baking; thaw - then bake

I prefer an ingredients style batch cooking. I cook 20 pounds of chicken at a time with basic seasonings, then separate it into meal sized portions, season for Italian, Mexican, BBQ, or whatever, and then freeze it. I find it much more versatile.

I do a variation of this -- I cook large amounts of chicken or pork with only salt and pepper, divide it into meal-sized portions, and freeze. Then I can pull it out of the freezer and turn it into anything I want. Right now, there's a big pork shoulder cooking slowly in the oven for about 5 hours or so. Tonight, I'll turn it into little bags of shredded pork for the freezer that can come out one at a time and turned into barbecue sandwiches, pork fried rice, or whatever.

Similarly, I wait until the big packages of chicken go on sale (today's flyer has thighs at $0.99/lb.) and then bake those. I'll rescue the bones and skin for making stock later on and I might save the fat for later use in a truly evil pleasure. You haven't really had chicken pot pie until you've had it made with chicken fat crust. The little baggies of chicken come out to turn into everything from chicken salad to soup to chicken in a mushroom/marsala gravy, etc.