Bulk Cooking Club

[Melladh]

Wish I had the freezer space to do this! I only have three drawers, and they're constantly full. But I'm going to listen in for future ideas...

[edelC]

i have been toying with this notion for a long time, I like the idea of freezing casseroles etc in a plastic bag in the container you will cook them in, then you pop them out of the container and leave the bag in the freezer, when you want to use it, everything fits...only trouble with that is that it would only work for one casserole at a time, I like the idea of being super organised and making a months worth of food in one go!

The other thing I have thought about is prepping veggies for the week, like carrot batons etc, peeled and diced onions, and keeping them in the fridge, then if I am just grilling a steak, the veggies are prepped and ready to go, which makes it much more likely that i will use them...but I wonder how much of the vitamin content is lost??

I think the  biggest issue for me is having a system. Anyone got any ideas about how to organise, and rotate food in the freezer? I have a huge chest freezer, but it lives in the shed..and things tend to get lost in the bottom of it...

arrgh, makes me realise I need to defrost and sort it out... *yuk* hate that job!

[Melladh]

Some vitamins are lost when you freeze veggies, but most of all they lose some of their molecular integrity, as they become "frost damaged" or whatever you call it. They'll never be crispy fresh again once frozen, since you've actually killed them. Fresh veggies stay alive in the fridge until they break down. But I don't think you lose any more vitamins by freezing than you do by cooking, which kills a LOT more vitamins than freezing does, so if they're going to be fully cooked anyway, freezing should be fine.

[RhymeswOrange]

I don't do this but I have always had good intentions...does that count.  Maybe with some new tips I'll get off my lazy butt.

One thing that my family likes is fruit smoothies.  Rather than using ice we use frozen fruits so we don't end the cup with watery sips.   Preparing and freezing fruits in season would totally drive the costs down.  Especially when we can get the freshest fruits from our farmer's market trips.

I'll be lurking at least, vicariously enjoying your thrifty organization...

[mama24boyz]

I've been wanting to do this FOREVER, but I never have.  It is such a good idea.  I think I'll follow along and hopefully get some ideas.  OH! And someone said that they make rice for the week? I've never had success at reheating rice, what kind of rice is it? Maybe its because I only use Minute Rice 

[zippecar]

My mom and I do this, yesterday she cooked a huge pork roast and some sides, after lunch we packed up a couple of lunches for work and the rest of the pork roast went in a container to become Daisy Martinez Rice "Casserole" later this week, which will be my contribution to cooking for a couple of days. There is a package of beef ribs in the freezer which will find their way into the oven next weekend.  Since it's still hurricane season, we aren't cooking as much at a time as usual, nobody wants to get stuck with a stuffed full icebox and no electricity for 11 days. trust me on that one.

[MareMare]

Wish I had the freezer space to do this! I only have three drawers, and they're constantly full. But I'm going to listen in for future ideas...

Maybe you can go through the freezer and see if anything needs to be tossed? We have a full sized freezer in the laundry room and I darned near filled our garbage can the other day throwing out nasty old stuff. Or, you could just make stuff for the week that would help out with dinner!

i have been toying with this notion for a long time, I like the idea of freezing casseroles etc in a plastic bag in the container you will cook them in, then you pop them out of the container and leave the bag in the freezer, when you want to use it, everything fits...only trouble with that is that it would only work for one casserole at a time, I like the idea of being super organised and making a months worth of food in one go!

The other thing I have thought about is prepping veggies for the week, like carrot batons etc, peeled and diced onions, and keeping them in the fridge, then if I am just grilling a steak, the veggies are prepped and ready to go, which makes it much more likely that i will use them...but I wonder how much of the vitamin content is lost??

I think the  biggest issue for me is having a system. Anyone got any ideas about how to organise, and rotate food in the freezer? I have a huge chest freezer, but it lives in the shed..and things tend to get lost in the bottom of it...

arrgh, makes me realise I need to defrost and sort it out... *yuk* hate that job!

Just labeling things with the date has helped me out a lot as far as putting them in the freezer. Not sure what a good rotating system might be. We had a chest freezer when I was growing up, definitely remember how hard it was to get at stuff in the bottom!

I don't do this but I have always had good intentions...does that count.  Maybe with some new tips I'll get off my lazy butt.

One thing that my family likes is fruit smoothies.  Rather than using ice we use frozen fruits so we don't end the cup with watery sips.   Preparing and freezing fruits in season would totally drive the costs down.  Especially when we can get the freshest fruits from our farmer's market trips.

I'll be lurking at least, vicariously enjoying your thrifty organization...

Oh, all of our good intentions lol! My best friend and I took a day and sat down with cookbooks last year and listed a bunch of recipes we wanted to make up on a bulk cooking day. Never quite got around to cooking

I've been wanting to do this FOREVER, but I never have.  It is such a good idea.  I think I'll follow along and hopefully get some ideas.  OH! And someone said that they make rice for the week? I've never had success at reheating rice, what kind of rice is it? Maybe its because I only use Minute Rice 

You might want to try regular rice! It reheats very well (I add a few splashes of water or broth when reheating). I think it's cheaper than Minute Rice too!

My mom and I do this, yesterday she cooked a huge pork roast and some sides, after lunch we packed up a couple of lunches for work and the rest of the pork roast went in a container to become Daisy Martinez Rice "Casserole" later this week, which will be my contribution to cooking for a couple of days. There is a package of beef ribs in the freezer which will find their way into the oven next weekend.  Since it's still hurricane season, we aren't cooking as much at a time as usual, nobody wants to get stuck with a stuffed full icebox and no electricity for 11 days. trust me on that one.

Yum on the pork roast! Yeah, a blog I was reading that does this said something about how sad she would be if her power went out! Totally understandable!

[PixieVal]

I've been wanting to do this FOREVER, but I never have.  It is such a good idea.  I think I'll follow along and hopefully get some ideas.  OH! And someone said that they make rice for the week? I've never had success at reheating rice, what kind of rice is it? Maybe its because I only use Minute Rice 

I use regular brown rice. It takes 30-40 min to cook, but I have a rice cooker I throw it into sometime in the afternoon on Sundays usually, then I don't notice so much as when I don't decide I want rice till I'm halfway through cooking a meal!
We don't have too many probs reheating... anymore! lol, there was a lot of trial and error, but with my daughter pretty much being addicted to rice, I had to figure out a way to keep it from getting hard and gross

I always go over on my water that I'm supposed to use to initially cook it, anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup depending on how much rice i'm making
spray I can't believe its not butter(or another butter spray on top) before reheating in microwave
if i'm putting it on a plate with a veggie and chicken, mix it all together on the plate before reheating
sprinkle some water, maybe a TBSP worth on the serving of rice
or reheat in a tupperware container with lid just slightly cracked


I will be doubling(maybe tripling) a recipe up tonight to freeze, I will post a pic and the recipe after I finish up.
I

[Kochopia]

i literally just started doing this this past weekend!

I'm definitely going to keep an eye out and post anything I find that might be helpful to people!

[MareMare]

i literally just started doing this this past weekend!

Awesome! What did you make?

Tonight we're eating leftovers and tonight/tomorrow morning I'm making swiss steak in the crock pot to eat for a couple days. Later this week I'll make pepperoni pizza bites with the cauliflower rice I already made. That's about the extant of my planning this week, it's a rough week (kids back to school, doing daycare + tutoring started again, house still ripped apart from bathroom remodel) so I'm pretty hyped that I was manage to plan that much!