DEDICATION

TO PETER, JAKE & ZARA

– THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.

COPYRIGHT

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020

Text Copyright © Suzanne Mulholland 2020

Suzanne Mulholland asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN 978-0-00-837322-1

eBook ISBN: 978-0-00-837323-8

Photography: Danielle Woods

Food styling: Rosie Ramsden

Prop styling: Linda Berlin and Wei Tang

Design & Art Direction: Georgina Hewitt

Editorial Director: Kate Fox

Project Editor: Daniel Hurst

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

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 Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008373221

The Batch Lady

Suzanne Mulholland

CONTENTS

Cover

Dedication

Copyright

Note to Readers

Title Page

Welcome

Introduction

WHAT IS BATCHING?

THE BENEFITS OF BATCHING

THE BATCH METHOD

10 MEALS IN 1 HOUR

THE BATCH LADY LARDER

ESSENTIAL KIT

GET ORGANIZED!

HOW TO USE YOUR FREEZER

USING CUPS

THE RECIPES

POULTRY

CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS & EMMENTAL PARCELS

CHICKEN, CHEESE & HAM PASTRY LATTICES

CHICKEN, TOMATO & CHORIZO PASTA BAG

’NDUJA PASTA BAG

MEXICAN TRAYBAKE

CAJUN PORK STEAKS WITH PEPPERS

THREE WAYS WITH CAJUN PORK STEAKS

THAI GREEN CHICKEN CURRY

THAI RED SWEET POTATO CURRY

CHICKEN & BROCCOLI TIKKA MASALA

CHICKEN, OKRA & PEPPER JALFREZI

10 CHICKEN MEALS IN 1 HOUR

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

WHEN YOU COME TO COOK

MEAT

AMERICAN BREAKFAST HASH

BREAKFAST QUICHE

FARMER’S WIFE’S SAVOURY PLAIT

APPLE & BLACKBERRY PLAIT

BAKED SAUSAGE ZITI

BAKED SPINACH ZITI

PEPPERONI CALZONES

BANANA, MARSHMALLOW & CHOCOLATE CALZONE

MOUSSAKA

LAMB & FETA BURGERS

THREE WAYS WITH LAMB & FETA BURGERS

PULLED PORK

THREE WAYS WITH PULLED PORK

PULLED LAMB

THREE WAYS WITH PULLED LAMB

LAZY LASAGNE

MOZZARELLA STUFFED MEATBALLS

THREE WAYS WITH MOZZARELLA STUFFED MEATBALLS

COTTAGE PIE WITH ROOT VEGETABLES

SHEPHERD’S PIE WITH SWEET POTATO MASH

10 MINCE-BASED MEALS IN 1 HOUR

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

WHEN YOU COME TO COOK

FISH

LUXURY SEAFOOD CHOWDER

EASY-BUT-LUXURY FISH PIE

SALMON FRIED RICE

CHILLI & GINGER SALMON FILLETS

THREE WAYS WITH CHILLI & GINGER SALMON FILLETS

THAI SWEET POTATO FISH CAKES

PANKO FISH GOUJONS

KATSU FISH CURRY

CHICKEN KATSU BURGERS

10 FISH MEALS IN 1 HOUR

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

WHEN YOU COME TO COOK

VEG

VEGGIE BOLOGNESE

CHILLI BEAN BURGERS

BROCCOLI & CAULIFLOWER CHEESE BAKE

LUXURY MACARONI CHEESE BAKE

THREE WAYS WITH MACARONI CHEESE

SPINACH & RICOTTA CANNELLONI

SPINACH & RICOTTA STUFFED CHICKEN

RUMBLEDETHUMPS

CORNED BEEF HASH

THREE WAYS WITH RUMBLEDETHUMPS

OVEN-BAKED MUSHROOM RISOTTO

PANKO RISOTTO CAKES

OVEN-BAKED PEA RISOTTO

PEA & MINT SOUP

10 MEAT-FREE MEALS IN 1 HOUR

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

WHEN YOU COME TO COOK

SIDES & SAUCES

CREAMED CORN

CHILLI GREEN BEANS

EASY ROAST POTATOES

MADE-IN-ADVANCE BAKED POTATOES

POTATO DAUPHINOISE

SPANISH OMELETTE

BASIC TOMATO SAUCE

TOMATO-FREE PASTA SAUCE

THREE WAYS WITH BASIC TOMATO SAUCE

WHITE SAUCE

CHEESE SAUCE

ALFREDO SAUCE

ALFREDO CHICKEN PASTA BAKE

ENCHILADA PASTA SAUCE

BAKED ENCHILADAS

THREE WAYS WITH ENCHILADA PASTA SAUCE

GREEN PESTO

RED PESTO

THREE WAYS WITH PESTO

DESSERTS

VICTORIA SANDWICH

SCONES

CHOCOLATE RAISIN SLICES

PEPPERMINT SLICES

ICE CREAM COOKIES

VANILLA ICE CREAM

FROZEN BISCOFF CHEESECAKE

BISCOFF ICE CREAM

Goodbye

List of Searchable Terms

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

WELCOME

My name is Suzanne Mulholland but you might know me as The Batch Lady.

Can I tell you a secret? I’m not a cook – far from it in fact. My transformation into The Batch Lady was not something I planned, but something that happened out of necessity.

As a busy wife and mother with a large extended family on my doorstep, I often felt like I was stuck in a kind of Groundhog Day – a slave to the kitchen who was forever trying to churn out tasty and nutritious meals night after night when, in truth, I would much rather be spending time with my kids or reading a good book. Add to this the fact that I live on a remote farm in the Scottish Borders with the nearest shop over 30 minutes’ drive away and you’ll start to get an idea of what a slog this could be. The worst thing was that I had always enjoyed cooking, but being chained to the kitchen day after day was starting to make me resent it. Something had to change. I had to get organized!

Luckily, organization is something I have been trained for. Literally. I had studied business and time management at university and have always used workarounds to get household chores done in the shortest possible time. With a new determination to apply these skills to mealtimes, I developed a system where I made batch-cooked meals in advance and stored them in the freezer. Soon, I was only cooking one day a week.

As time went on, I streamlined my system even further by pairing meals that had similar core ingredients together. This meant that I could, with careful planning and shopping, make multiple meals for the freezer at the same time. In no time at all, I found that I was able to reclaim time to spend doing the things I loved, with the added bonuses that we were also eating better, saving money and had very little food waste.

Liberated from the kitchen, friends soon began to notice how carefree and organized I was at mealtimes, so I started sharing some of my hacks with them. In no time at all, word had got out and people were asking for more tips and tricks, curious to see if they could use the same techniques in their own homes. I invited twenty curious friends around to my house and gave them a live demonstration of how to cook 10 meals in 1 hour. My guests were blown away by the demo and encouraged me to share a video of the event on YouTube and Facebook. The Batch Lady was born!

Looking back, it’s ironic that something that I started to save myself time has now become my full-time job! Standing in front of that group of friends in my kitchen I would never have believed that my message would resonate with so many people but, just two years later, I have been lucky enough to share my message with thousands of people through my website and social media channels, and now this book!

As our lives get ever busier, it can be harder and harder to find time for the things that really count. I hope that the tips, tricks and recipes in these pages can help you reclaim your time, alleviate your stress and fill the tables and bellies of you and your loved ones with tasty, home-cooked food.

Believe in the batch!

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS BATCHING?

To a lot of people, batching meals can seem complicated at first, but it is actually a far simpler way of cooking. With a little bit of planning, you can save yourself time and money every week, allowing you to spend more of your time on the things you enjoy. Here’s how …

BRINGING TIME MANAGEMENT HOME

On the surface, the phrase ‘time management’ sounds very impersonal and businesslike, and not at all like something that you want to worry about in your lovely, cozy home. In fact, the whole point of introducing this technique at home is to make more time for the fun stuff. Freeing you up to spend more time playing with the kids, more time snuggling up with a glass of wine and a good book, more time spent with friends and family. It’s about giving yourself time to exhale and process, and in today’s relentlessly busy world, that can only be a good thing. In practice, time management is simply looking at the many tasks that take up your time and working out how they can be streamlined to free you up for other stuff. The stuff that matters.

This method can be applied to everything from the way you get dressed in the morning, how you organize your laundry or do the housework to what you are making for dinner in the evening. Streamlining my life like this has saved my sanity and allowed me time to feel like me again – rather than some kind of cooking and cleaning automaton!

I apply this approach to every aspect of my life but the thing that has made the biggest difference, by far, is time managing the food that I cook for my family on a daily basis. Something that used to dominate every evening can now be accomplished in just an hour a week. Cooking in this way has allowed me to reclaim my evenings and my enjoyment of cooking – and it can do the same for you!

HEADSPACE NOT PERFECTIONISM

Batching is not about perfectionism. It’s about headspace.

I get asked by people all the time if I’m a perfectionist, to which I usually respond with a burst of laughter, because I am far from this. Being organized and managing my time is not about everything being perfect, it’s about giving myself a break from constantly thinking about those chores that have to be done day after day. Instead, my week is planned and I feel freer to enjoy the fun things, like spending time with my family and friends.

THE BENEFITS OF BATCHING

Batch cooking isn’t just about saving time in the kitchen – it also saves time on all the related chores like planning, shopping and washing up, too.

How many of us get to three in the afternoon and start to panic about what we’re going to have for dinner that evening? We swing by the supermarket on the way home and browse the shelves for inspiration, torn between the convenience of a pizza or ready meal and the pressure we feel to put something homemade and nutritious on the table.

My way of cooking does away with this stress. With a little planning, you can streamline your shopping so that you can buy all the food for the week in one go. All of the planning is done in advance, so your daily mental load is lightened and you are only buying the food that you really need, meaning that there is no waste, all of which is far better for you, your wallet and the environment!

When it comes to cooking, you can pretty much batch anything – if I’m going to be making a mess in the kitchen, I’d rather make five meals at once and have one big mess to tidy up as opposed to having to clean down the kitchen every night of the week. If the recipes are made using a lot of the same ingredients and techniques, all the better.

The old-fashioned image of batch cooking is often centered around creating a huge vat of one meal, say a large pot of soup or a huge curry that you will be eating for weeks, but, for me, batch cooking is about cooking food that uses similar ingredients to create very different meals. For example, in one batch you can create a Moussaka and some Lamb & Feta Burgers, or even a Potato Dauphinoise and a Spanish Omelette – recipes that use many of the same ingredients, but offer great variety in your weekly meal plan.

THE BATCH METHOD

The recipes in this book are all for fuss-free midweek meals. Nothing fancy or unachievable, just real food for the way real people cook, every day.

When planning the food for this book, I put a post on my social media channels asking for my followers to share their weekly meal planners with me. What quickly became very clear was that people were looking for simple food that tasted great and could be prepared with minimum fuss. With that in mind, I planned the recipes in this book around family favourites that, with a little batching magic, can be on the table in a jiffy.

Each recipe is pared back to its basics – this will save you time and, I promise, I have only cut corners where it doesn’t impact on the final result.

If you are cooking for a special occasion or just want to dress up your dinner a bit, I’ve suggested some ways you can zhuzh (my favourite word!) up some of the recipes, and you’ll see these marked on the pages as you work your way through.

If a meal contains spices, I have erred on the side of caution and opted for delicate rather than ‘blow-your-head-off’ hot, as my meals are designed to be family friendly. If you like more spice, simply adjust the levels to your tastes. As a general rule, it’s good to remember that spice can always be added, but never removed!

WORKING IN PAIRS

All of the recipes in this book are paired-up with another. These are dishes that lend themselves to being prepared together, and throughout the recipe methods you will find tips on how to save time by jumping between the two. Sound complicated? I promise you it’s not! Each of the meals can also be made as a standalone dish, serving 4–6 people, so it’s up to you if you want to batch it with the other meal.

Once you’ve got the hang of batching two recipes together, you can start doubling up and making four full meals at once!

ODD ONES OUT

When pairing recipes, it sometimes makes sense to match a savoury dish with a sweet, or a meat dish with a veggie. If you take my Plait recipes as an example, you’ll see that both recipes use the same technique, which is why they are paired together, but this does mean that you’ll find a sweet recipe in the middle of the meat chapter! To help you identify this, all of the recipes are colour-coded and marked with a symbol in the top corner so that you know exactly what kind of recipe you are looking at. The symbols are:

POULTRY

MEAT

FISH

VEG

SIDES & SAUCES

DESSERTS

TO COOK. TO FREEZE. TO COOK FROM FROZEN

Every dish in this book can be cooked fresh, or made in advance and stored in the freezer until needed. At the bottom of each recipe you will see the headings ‘To Cook’, ‘To Freeze’ and ‘To Cook from Frozen’, so all you need to do is follow the instructions according to how you want to prepare the meal. Simple!

Some meals can be cooked directly from frozen and others need to be defrosted first. Full instructions on the various ways of defrosting meals can be found here, but the simplest way is simply to transfer it from the freezer to the fridge the evening before you want to serve it and leave to defrost slowly overnight.

NO-COOK MEALS

Throughout this book you will see no-cook meals – these are meals that are assembled from entirely uncooked or frozen ingredients and then stored in bags in the freezer until needed. No cooking required! (At least until the day you want to serve them.)

The benefit of these meals is that they take very little time to prepare and freeze. Preparing the food in this way also means that when you take the bag out of the freezer, the food is being cooked for the first time – great for things like fish and chicken that can dry out when reheated.

I often pair a no-cook meal with a cooked meal, as you can easily prepare your no-cook meal while your other recipe is bubbling away on the stove or baking in the oven. For example, while your Luxury Seafood Chowder is simmering away, you can spend 10 minutes assembling a no-cook Easy-but-Luxury Fish Pie to pop straight in the freezer. The two dishes use similar ingredients, so the extra prep is minimal, and you have created two full meals in the same time it would have taken to make just the chowder alone.

THREE WAYS WITH …

Within the recipe chapters you’ll see features titled ‘Three Ways With …’ – these pages show you how, with a little bit of additional prep, one meal can be served in three different ways. There are some recipes that lend themselves particularly well to this treatment, and in each chapter throughout the book you’ll find a few. A great example of this is my recipe for Pulled Pork here. Cooking one large shoulder of pork will yield enough meat for several meals, so it’s nice to have different options for how to serve it. Here you’ll see that one delicious batch of Pulled Pork can be mixed with sweetcorn, spring onions and cheese and used as a delicious topping for baked sweet potatoes, spooned into fluffy brioche buns and served with a topping of apple sauce and crunchy fresh apple or spiced up with jalapenos and used as a delicious filling for quesadillas.

The recipes for sauces in the Sides & Sauces chapter are another example of where this feature is used, as once you’ve made your Basic Tomato Sauce, Pesto or Enchilada Pasta Sauce, it’s useful to have a variety of options on how to use them. In this way you’ll be able to use the recipes in this book time and again and they’ll feel fresh and different every time.

10 MEALS IN 1 HOUR

Are you ready to move to ultimate batcher status? Once you are used to using the paired-up recipes and doubling up on ingredients, the next stage is to move on to making even more meals with similar ingredients all at the same time.

At the end of every recipe chapter you will find a special section on how to cook 10 meals in 1 hour. The only exceptions to this are the Sides & Sauces and Desserts chapters – mainly because I couldn’t be trusted to have 10 desserts at once!

Though it sounds like an impossible task, once you’ve got the hang of cooking this way, you’ll never go back. And I’ll tell you a secret, it’s actually pretty simple! With a little organization, you will be amazed how many family meals you can make in such a short space of time.

The meals in these sections are all made using similar base ingredients, so you probably won’t want to eat them every night in succession, but if you put two in the fridge for the week ahead and the rest in the freezer, you’ll be well stocked with tasty meals that are a ready to go at a moment’s notice – and all with just 1 hour’s investment of your time!

Here’s how it works: In each of the four sections (Poultry, Meat, Fish and Veg), I give you a list of ingredients for each recipe, a full shopping list for the entire batch and one long method to make the five meals, each one scaled up to serve eight people.

This means that at the end of the hour you will have a double portion of each of the five meals ready to be portioned up and frozen for later. That’s a total of 40 individual servings made in 1 hour! Below are some tips to get you started …

SHOPPING FOR INGREDIENTS

Once you have decided which of the 10-meals sections you want to cook from, simply check the shopping list for the entire batch against what you already have in your cupboards.

If I’m planning to cook one of these menus, I will often do an online shop and have it delivered just before I want to start cooking. That way, I can simply arrange everything on my sides ready to go without having to put it all away first then having to dig through my kitchen to extract it all again later.

PREPPING YOUR KITCHEN

Before you embark on one of these mammoth cook-offs, you will want to make sure that your kitchen is clean and that your countertops are clear to arrange your ingredients on. It’s a good idea to make sure your food-waste and recycling bins are empty as well as your dishwasher, if you have one – that way you can tidy as you go. I also fill my sink with hot, soapy water so I can quickly wash my utensils as I use them, ready for reusing. I find it helps to have kitchen cleaner and fresh tea towels on hand so that I can quickly wash down the sides as I hop between prepping meals. This also avoids having a huge mound of washing up to tackle at the end!

Once your kitchen is ready to go, it’s a good idea to lay out all of the equipment that you will need – that way you won’t be scrabbling through the cupboards trying to find a pan or utensil halfway through a recipe. Don’t forget to have a supply of freezer bags and a pen for labelling to hand, too, so that you can bag up your wares ready for freezing at the end of each recipe.

SETTING OUT YOUR INGREDIENTS

In each 10-meals section, you will find an individual list of ingredients for each of the recipes you will be making, in the order that you will be making them. Make clearly-defined piles of ingredients according to each of these lists, that way you can easily jump back and forth between each recipe without wondering which pile of onions is for which recipe! If you have the space, leave the work surface directly around your stovetop clear to use during the actual cooking, then set the piles of ingredients out so that the pile closest to you is for the first recipe that you will be making, and so on.

BE REALISTIC WITH YOUR TIME

Don’t be disheartened if it takes more than an hour the first time you attempt to make one of these menus. Like anything new, it can take a little practice to get the hang of but, believe me, once you’re in the swing of it, each time will be quicker. Because I have made them so many times, I can now cook some of the menus in just 30 minutes!

A top tip for cooking these menus is to choose a time when the house is quiet and you won’t get distracted. When my kids were small, I would batch when they were at nursery, now they are teenagers and sleep late on Sunday mornings, I now batch for the week ahead then.

FILLING YOUR FREEZER

If you want a variety of dishes in your freezer and prefer not to cook from scratch at all mid week, then I suggest cooking one of these 10-meals sections every few weeks. I make a 10-meal batch every second Sunday, and if I cooked the fish batch last time, then I will do the chicken batch next. That way, I always have variety of different foods in my freezer.

THE BATCH LADY LARDER

You will notice as you go through this book that I use many different ingredients, from ready-made, shop-bought mash to frozen veg and herbs. I’m all about time saving so I want the fastest way to make a meal – if it requires something shop bought, then so be it. I figure that my made-in-advance, home-cooked meal with the odd shop-bought ingredient is much better than me not cooking at all.

EASY CHEATS

‘Cheats’, as I like to call them, are my saving grace. I’m a big believer that experts generally know best. If my dishwasher is broken then I call a plumber – I would never attempt to fix it myself! The same applies if I need to use pastry in a recipe – I leave it to the experts and simply buy the ready-rolled variety. It saves me time and stress. It’s quicker, I know the recipe will work and I won’t waste any ingredients. (Besides, I’m rubbish at pastry!)

That said, I’m a no judgment type of gal. If you want to make your own mash or pastry, then by all means go ahead. If you prefer to chop fresh onions instead of buying frozen, then do. Just remember that it will take longer to make the recipe than it would if you used the ‘cheats’ listed.

PASTES

I tend not to use many jarred sauces, but I do love concentrated pastes as they really pack a punch of flavour, especially curry pastes. When I am feeding my family, it’s really important that the meals I serve taste the same every time that I make them – kids really notice if a recipe is different from the last time – and pastes are brilliant for this. I’m not an expert in Thai or Japanese cuisine, and this is another example of a time that I would rather leave it to the professionals! From a health standpoint, concentrated pastes are generally a lot better to use than large jars of ready-made sauces, which can have lots of hidden sugars.

CHOPPED, FROZEN VEGETABLES

I’m a huge advocate of pre-chopped, frozen vegetables for many reasons. Obviously, they save a lot of time as someone else has done the hard work for you but they are also usually packed and flash frozen within an hour of being picked, so they retain all their healthy nutrients. They are also often cheaper than fresh, which, given the work that has already been done for you, still astounds me. They will keep in the freezer for ages, so you don’t have to worry about using up the veg languishing in the back of the veg drawer and you always have a ready on hand.

The one downside is that they come in plastic packaging, but many fresh vegetables nowadays do too. The good news is that the frozen-food industry has pledged to go plastic-free and is looking to change packaging.

The only two vegetables that I prefer to use fresh are broccoli and mushrooms, as they just don’t freeze well. Otherwise, I’m a freezer fan all the way!

If you prefer to use fresh veg, then go ahead – just be aware that the meals will take longer to prepare because of the extra chopping and peeling involved.

CHOPPED, FROZEN HERBS

Fresh herbs are so lovely, but they’re expensive and have a short shelf-life. Because of this, I always have a ready supply of frozen herbs in my freezer which are cheaper than fresh and keep for as long as you need them. Most supermarkets have a good range of frozen herbs but, if you can’t find them where you live, just substitute them for fresh or dried.

READY-MADE MASH

This is my biggest time-saver of all, and I have to say I’m a huge fan! Ready-made mash isn’t just convenient, it also freezes far better than homemade, which has a tendency to separate and become watery in the freezer. Store-bought, ready-made mash has been made in a large churner, so tends to keep its lovely, fluffy texture once frozen and defrosted.

READY-ROLLED PASTRY

Ready-rolled pastry is a great time saver and, most importantly, it always works! It also freezes really well. If I’m making a chicken pie, for example, I simply freeze the pie filling alongside a roll of puff pastry, then reheat the filling in the oven, with squares of puff pastry alongside. Everyone gets a spoonful of pie filling crowned with a beautifully puffed, golden square of puff pastry. All the joy of a pie without any of the hassle!

READY-ROLLED PIZZA DOUGH

Shop-bought pizzas are expensive and often disappointing. Making your own at home is easy, fun for the kids and you have complete control over the toppings! I use packs of ready-rolled pizza dough, which are great for making pizzas and also my Calzone recipes.

STORECUPBOARD INGREDIENTS

As well as the ‘cheats’ that I always fall back on, I always keep my cupboards stocked with a few essential ingredients that are versatile, store well and are packed with flavour.

DRIED HERBS AND SPICES

Jars of dried Italian seasoning, mixed herbs or oregano are great to have on hand. I use these in a lot of my recipes, so it’s good to get the large jars if possible. I also use a lot of fajita or taco seasoning to add instant spice to any Mexican or Cajun-inspired dishes, such as the Cajun Pork Steaks here. You can buy the seasoning in individual sachets or jars and it’s a good idea to stock up on a few so that you always have a ready supply on hand.

STORECUPBOARD SUNDRIES

The other essentials that pack a lot of bang for their buck and, therefore, crop up a lot in my recipes are Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, tinned tomatoes, passata and condensed soup.

ESSENTIAL KIT

As you work through the recipes in this book, you will see that there are certain tools that are used time and again to speed up the batching process. In truth, there are only a couple of things that are really essential, but it is worth investing if you are going to be adopting this way of cooking.

MEASURING CUPS

Cups are a brilliant time-saver as they save all the time spent painstakingly weighing your ingredients. Instead, you can simply scoop the ingredients into the right-sized cup and pop it straight into your dish. I have listed cup measurements first in all of my recipes (though there are of course gram measurements, too), to try and get you into this way of thinking. It’s important to be aware that 1 cup is a standard measurement, so don’t just grab the mug that you make your morning coffee in! What you really need is a set of large measuring spoons in cup sizes. They are available from my website (details here) and other retailers. For more information on using cups, see here.

FREEZER BAGS

Freezer bags are great space savers, as you can freeze everything flat and thus get more in. They also prevent freezer burn as you can take all the excess air out of the bag before sealing. Lastly, they help food defrost quicker as they are thin and flat, so you don’t end up with a huge block to defrost as you would do using a tub. Most brands are now washable and reusable so no need to feel bad about using too much plastic!

MARKER PENS

Great for writing on your bags and won’t rub off in the freezer, so you never end up with a UFO (Unidentified Frozen Object!) Ensure you label everything as it all looks the same once frozen.

TWO LARGE COOKING POTS

‘Go big or go home’ is a saying that comes to mind. You will need some large pots and, if you’re going to invest in anything for batching, I’d say good, stainless steel pots that can go from your stove top to oven should be at the top of your list!

TWO LARGE BOWLS

Much like the pots, these are good to have, and will be used throughout most of these recipes.

GLASS DISHES WITH PLASTIC LIDS

I cannot recommend these highly enough, they transition from freezer to oven perfectly – just take the lid off and pop it straight in the oven. They also look good so you can put them in the middle of the table and serve your meals straight from the dish. I use these when I am batching fish pies, enchiladas, pasta bakes etc. I recommend Pyrex dishes as the best for freezing.

Finally, the following kitchen items are always good to have on hand: knifes, chopping boards, foil, Tupperware, scissors. If you get into batching and are using freezer bags a lot, then I would also recommend a set of ‘baggy holders’ that help hold your bags open. These are available from my website and other online retailers.

GET ORGANIZED!

Planning what you are going to eat during the week ahead may seem laborious, but it saves time, money and waste, and often means that you eat a greater variety of food and that that food is more healthy. In fact, planning and writing down the meals that you want to make means you are much more likely to actually make those meals. Writing a meal plan can be daunting and many people struggle for inspiration the first few times, so below are some tips to help you get started.

HOW TO MEAL PLAN

There are many different ways to write your meal plan, from physical boards that hang in your kitchen to apps that you can carry with you on your phone. I like to use an old-fashioned board, however, as it helps me to have my list of meals for the week ahead hanging in my kitchen. This also means that the family knows what they will be eating ahead of time, which helps avoid mutterings of dissent if they’re surprised with a meal that’s not their favourite!

When starting to write my meal plan, I look at my diary for the week and work the plan around that. If I know that I’ll be ferrying the kids around to various afterschool activities on Tuesday, then I’ll make sure to plan something quick and easy for then. If I’m in the house all day on Thursday, but tied up with work, I’ll plan something that I can pop in the oven and forget about for a few hours. I like to start by thinking about which proteins we will be eating throughout the week to ensure they are varied. An example week might look like this:

Monday: Meat-free

Tuesday: Beef

Wednesday: Fish

Thursday: Chicken

Friday: Fakeaway

Once I know my schedule and have the basic outline of which proteins we will be eating on each day, I start to think about the specific meals that I will cook. So, following the breakdown that I have outlined above, the weekly menu might look like:

Monday: Spanish Omelette

Tuesday: Shepherd’s Pie

Wednesday: Thai Sweet Potato Fishcakes

Thursday: Spinach & Ricotta Stuffed Chicken

Friday: Calzone

If you are vegetarian, I would suggest taking a similar approach to ensure that you are eating a variety of foods throughout the week. Plan your menu so that you are focusing on one main ingredient, such as potatoes, beans or pulses, on each night, then add in the usual Friday-night curry or fakeaway. A well-balanced weekly vegetarian meal plan might look like this:

Monday: Baked Spinach Ziti

Tuesday: Chilli Bean Burgers

Wednesday: Spanish Omelette

Thursday: Oven-baked Mushroom Risotto

Friday: Thai Red Sweet Potato Curry

PLANNING FIVE DAYS OUT OF SEVEN

You will notice that I only ever plan my meals Monday-Friday. This is because, no matter how well you plan, there are always hiccups along the way and plans inevitably change throughout the week, meaning that food could potentially be wasted. By building in a two-day buffer, you can swap one or two of the meals to the weekend without wasting any food. If everything goes to plan, then then weekends are generally the time when you have a bit more time in the kitchen to cook something from scratch, or might eat out, so this gives you the freedom to still do that.

HOW TO USE YOUR FREEZER

Your freezer is the kitchen equivalent of an on-demand TV. Nowadays, very few people will sit down and watch their favourite show at the time it is airing – we record it or watch it on catch-up at a time that suits us. Used properly, your freezer can do just the same for your food, meaning that you can make your meals ahead of time then pull them out and defrost them later at a time that suits you.

NOTES ON FOOD SAFETY

Your freezer should not be the place where old leftovers go to live until you finally throw them out. You want to make sure than you are using what you freeze and constantly refreshing your freezer with fresh, in-date food.

When you batch cook it’s important to maintain good kitchen hygiene at all times to help reduce the transfer of bacteria. This is simple to do, just make sure that your surfaces are cleaned with antibacterial spray before you start and always be aware of what you are touching, ensuring that you wash your hands thoroughly between touching raw and cooked foods.

Always do a quick clear up of utensils, pots and pans as you finish each recipe, making sure to also spray and wipe clean your surfaces – this is not only important from a hygiene point of view, it will also make the end clean down much quicker!

When working with chicken, do not rinse it first. Washing chicken in your home can easily spread bacteria. Simply use the chicken straight from the packet.

TIPS ON FREEZING

Always leave food to cool to room temperature before packaging to freeze. Wrapping your food in clingfilm and foil, or storing in freezer bags, reduces the chance of freezer burn.

If you are using glass dishes or plastic tubs, try to fill them to the top, leaving a small space for expansion – using a dish that is too big will leave the food exposed to air, causing freezer burn.

When packaging anything for the freezer, it is vital that it is labelled with the recipe name, the date and whether the food is raw or cooked. I also add cooking instructions to my labels so that I can refer to the label after defrosting my food.

It is important to freeze meals fast, as food starts to deteriorate the second it is made. As soon as a meal has cooled, package it up and transfer to the freezer. If you are freezing flat in freezer bags, try not to pile up lots of unfrozen meals on top of each other as this will prevent air from circulating and they will take longer to freeze. You can pile them up once they’re frozen.

If you are scaling a recipe up, freeze the food in multiple batches. This means that you can remove the meals from the freezer a portion at a time. Large batches take much longer to defrost and can result in food wastage.

TIPS ON DEFROSTING

Many meals in this book can be cooked from frozen – just check the bottom of each recipe for instructions, though in general it will take 50 per cent longer than cooking from defrosted.

As a rule, I don’t cook chicken from frozen. From a safety standpoint, raw chicken should not be cooked from frozen at all. Chicken that has been frozen cooked can, in theory, be safely cooked from frozen, but I still prefer to defrost it first and make sure it’s piping hot before serving, and advise you to do the same.

There are three main ways to defrost food:

IN THE FRIDGE

Current guidelines recommend defrosting food in the fridge overnight. It is best to put thawing food in a dish to catch any water run-off. Defrosting in your fridge can take a long time, especially if you have frozen something in a large container. With this in mind, I like to combine this way with the water method, below.

IN COLD WATER

Make sure that the container your frozen food is stored in is watertight, then place it in a basin of cold water (never use hot!) Doing this speeds up the defrosting process. And makes for a very quick defrost if you have frozen meals flat in freezer bags.

IN THE MICROWAVE

Most microwaves have specific defrosting programmes, so just follow the manufacturers’ instructions for your specific brand, remembering to stir your food a few times as it defrosts.

TAKING THINGS OUT OF THE FREEZER

I get so many messages from people asking how I remember to remove meals from the freezer. The secret is to make it a regular part of your daily routine. I set a reminder alarm on my phone that goes off at 6pm (the time that I serve dinner every evening) – I’m in the kitchen anyway, so I simply grab the next night’s meal out of the freezer when the alarm goes off.

STORING MEALS IN THE FRIDGE

Once cooked, most meals will last for 3–4 days in the fridge, so, if batching at the weekend, you can keep the meals for the first half of the week in the fridge, then freeze the remainder.

If you have defrosted a meal you should eat it within 24 hours of it being fully defrosted

SMALL FREEZER STORAGE

You can still batch cook even with a small freezer! If you’re challenged for space, I suggest freezing meals flat in bags, you may have to fold the bag over slightly to get it to fit into the drawer space, but you can store a lot of bags in this way. In a three-drawer freezer, I keep one drawer for frozen veg and herbs (and ice cream!), then the other two drawers are free to fill with batched meals.

USING CUPS

Throughout this book you will see that the measurements for ingredients are listed in cups first. I use cups for one reason only – they make cooking faster! They can also be used for stirring and even serving up a meal. I have also included gram and millimetre measurements in my ingredients lists, but for reference volume equivalents for cups are listed, right:

 1 cup/240ml/16 tablespoons

 ¾ cup/180ml/12 tablespoons

 ⅔ cup/160ml/11 tablespoons

 ½ cup/120ml/8 tablespoons

 ⅓ cup/80ml/5½ tablespoons

 ¼ cup/60ml/4 tablespoons

PORTIONING MEALS WITH CUPS

Doubling or tripling a recipe is a great way of working when you are batch cooking, and is something I recommend, but, when faced with an enormous vat of food, it can be difficult to gauge how many people it will actually serve.

Using measuring cups to portion out meals can help with this. The general rule is that one level cup of scoopable food (Bolognese/curry/stew etc.) will feed one adult, whereas half a cup should be enough to feed a child under 10 years old.

FROZEN VERSUS FRESH

As I covered earlier in the introduction, I am a big fan of ‘cheat’ ingredients to save on time. My most commonly used are frozen onions, garlic, sliced peppers and spinach. If you would rather use fresh, simply use the chart below to work out how much of each ingredient you will need.

Frozen Ingredient | Amount | Fresh Equivalent
Frozen, chopped onions | 1 cup | 1 onion, finely chopped
Frozen, chopped red onions | 1 cup | 1 red onion, finely chopped
Frozen, chopped garlic | 1 tsp | 1 clove, crushed
Frozen, sliced peppers | 1 cup | 1 pepper, sliced
Frozen, chopped spinach | 2 cubes | ½ bag fresh spinach
Frozen, sliced carrots | 1 cup | 2 carrots, sliced

THE RECIPES

POULTRY

Versatile, quick to cook and liked by everyone, chicken is a mainstay ingredient of any busy family cook. In my house, it keeps even the fussiest of appetites happy and is the protein that I cook more than any other. In this chapter you will find lots of simple, delicious recipes for meals made with chicken that can be prepared ahead of time and pulled out of the freezer as needed.

As with all the recipes in this book, each meal is paired with another, so you can easily batch two dishes at once – making one for now and one for later. At the end of the chapter you’ll find a plan for cooking ten delicious chicken recipes in one hour, making it possible to make two weeks’ worth of delicious chicken-based dinners in just 60 minutes!

CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS & EMMENTAL PARCELS

P

These delicious parcels are perfect for those days when you want the comfort of a pie, but don’t have the time or energy to make one. They can be assembled quickly in advance and then cooked directly from frozen. If you’re vegetarian or trying to cut down on meat, these are just as delicious made with mushroom soup instead of chicken.

PREP: 15 MINUTES

COOK: 25 MINUTES

SERVES 4

2 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry

1 × 295g can condensed cream of chicken soup

½ cup (50g) grated Emmental cheese

8 asparagus spears, cut into 2.5cm (1in) pieces

1 cup (155g) frozen peas

1 egg, beaten, to cook

If you are also making the Chicken Lattices, it is best to make the Chicken, Asparagus & Parcels first to avoid any cross contamination from the raw chicken.

01 Unroll the pastry sheets and cut each in half, leaving you with four roughly square pieces. If the pieces aren’t quite square, trim the longer sides to even them up. Set aside.

02 Put the soup, Emmental cheese, asparagus and peas in a bowl and stir to combine. Now scoop a quarter of the mixture (about ½ cup) into the centre of each of the squares of pastry.

03 Bring up opposite corners of the squares of pastry and press them together to seal in the centre. Now work your way down the seams to seal the pastry and completely enclose the filling.

TO COOK: Transfer the parcels to a lined baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash. Cook in an oven preheated to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 20–25 minutes, until crisp and golden. Serve with vegetables of your choice alongside.

TO FREEZE: Carefully wrap each of the parcels in clingfilm, then transfer to a labelled plastic bag and freeze flat for up to 3 months.

TO COOK FROM FROZEN: These can be cooked from frozen. Place on a lined baking sheet and brush with beaten egg. Cook in an oven preheated to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 30–35 minutes, until golden. Serve with vegetables alongside.

CHICKEN, CHEESE & HAM PASTRY LATTICES

P

This is one of those recipes that looks much harder than it actually is, all thanks to a bit of pastry wizardry! These are great to have stocked in the freezer, so I usually double the quantity and make eight lattices at once – it only takes a moment to make the extra ones as all the ingredients are already laid out.

PREP: 20 MINUTES

COOK: 35 MINUTES

SERVES 4

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

4 × 1cm- (½in-) thick slices cheddar cheese

4 slices ham

1 egg, beaten, to cook

01 Unroll the pastry sheet and cut into quarters, leaving you with four roughly square pieces. If the pieces aren’t quite square, trim the longer sides to even up the pieces.

02 Using a lattice cutter, roll over the pieces of pastry, or alternatively use a sharp knife to cut 2cm (1in) slits in staggered rows 1cm (½in) apart. Gently pull the pastry apart so that the lattice shape opens up.

03 Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and evenly space the chicken breasts on it. Place a slice of ham on each piece of chicken, then top each with a slice of cheddar cheese. Finally, top each stack with a piece of the latticed pastry, opening it up so that the top and sides of each chicken breast are enclosed.

Zhuzh it up!

Substitute the ham for slices of prosciutto and change the cheese to slices of mozzarella for a more luxurious result.

TO SERVE: Brush the top of each pastry lattice with beaten egg, then transfer to an oven preheated to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 for 30–35 minutes, until golden, juicy and tender. Serve hot with vegetables of your choice alongside.

TO FREEZE: Transfer the uncooked lattices to a labelled freezer bag and freeze flat for up to 3 months.

TO COOK FROM FROZEN: Remove the chicken lattices from the freezer and allow to defrost completely, then brush with beaten egg and cook as described, left.

CHICKEN, TOMATO & CHORIZO PASTA BAG

P

Pull this bag out of the freezer in the morning and you can have a hearty evening meal on the table in the evening in the time it takes to cook a pan of pasta. Make this alongside the ’Nduja pasta bag and you’ll have two tasty, sustaining meals ready to go in next to no time.

PREP: 10 MINUTES

COOK: 15 MINUTES

SERVES 4

splash of olive oil

1 cup (115g) chopped, frozen onions

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 5mm (¼in) slices

¼ cup (115g) bacon lardons

¼ cup (120g) frozen, diced chorizo

½ cup (120ml) Red Pesto (see here) or 100g store-bought, sundried tomato pesto

70g sundried tomatoes in oil, drained

3¾ cups (300g) penne pasta, to serve

01 Heat a splash of olive oil in a large pan over a medium-high heat, then add the onions and chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes.

Clear away the chopping boards and knives from prepping the raw chicken and clean the kitchen worktops, then make this and the ’Nduja Pasta Bag alongside each other on the hob. The stages are very similar, so it is very easy to make both dishes at the same time.

02 Once the chicken has browned, add the bacon lardons and chorizo and stir through, then cook, stirring occasionally, until browned. Stir through the pesto and sundried tomatoes, then remove the pan from the heat.

TO COOK: If you are making this to serve now, simply cook the pasta in boiling water according to packet instructions, until tender. Stir the pasta through the chicken and pesto mixture, then divide between serving bowls and serve warm.

TO FREEZE: Set the chicken and pesto mixture aside until cooled to room temperature, then transfer to a labelled freezer bag and freeze flat for up to 3 months.

TO COOK FROM FROZEN: Remove the bag from the freezer and leave to completely defrost in the fridge. Once defrosted, transfer to a pan and cook until piping hot. Cook the pasta in a separate pan, then combine as described in the To Cook section, left.

’NDUJA PASTA BAG

M

’Nduja is a spicy paste made with pork and chilli from Calabria in Italy. You will find it beside the jars of pesto in the supermarket.

PREP: 10 MINUTES

COOK: 15 MINUTES

SERVES 4

splash of olive oil

2 cups (230g) frozen, chopped onions

1 tsp frozen, chopped garlic

4–5 tbsp ’nduja spread

1½ cups (300g) cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 smoked sausage, sliced

4 cups (400g) rigatoni pasta, to serve

4 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

01 Heat a splash of olive oil in a large pan over a medium-high heat, then add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3–4 minutes.

02 Add the ‘nduja to the pan and stir until the onions are coated, then add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

TO COOK: If you are making this to serve now, stir in the smoked sausage and keep warm while you cook the pasta. Stir the cooked pasta through the ‘nduja and sausage mixture, then divide between serving bowls, scatter with Parmesan and serve warm.

TO FREEZE: Set the mixture aside until cooled to room temperature, then stir through the smoked sausage and transfer to a labelled freezer bag. Freeze flat for up to 3 months.

TO COOK FROM FROZEN: Remove the bag from the freezer and leave to completely defrost in the fridge. Once defrosted, transfer to a pan and cook until piping hot. Cook the pasta in a separate pan, then combine as described in the To Cook section, left.

MEXICAN TRAYBAKE

P

This tasty recipe requires no cooking on the day that you assemble it for the freezer. It can then simply be defrosted and popped in the oven on the day that you want to serve it. What could be simpler?

PREP: 5 MINUTES

COOK: 25 MINUTES

SERVES 4

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 5mm (¼in) slices

1 × 30g pack taco or fajita seasoning

1 × 300gjar tomato salsa

2 cups (280g) frozen sweetcorn

1 × 400g can chopped tomatoes, drained through a sieve

1 cup (175g) frozen, sliced peppers (optional)

1 cup (90g) grated cheddar cheese

3 handfuls tortilla chips, crushed

TO COOK: Put the chicken in the base of a large baking dish, scatter over the taco or fajita seasoning and give the mixture a stir to coat the chicken in the spices. Add the salsa, sweetcorn, chopped tomatoes and peppers to the dish and stir again to combine. Scatter over the cheese, followed by the crushed tortilla chips. Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 for 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese topping is golden and bubbling.

TO FREEZE: Put the chicken in a large, labelled freezer bag and scatter over the taco or fajita seasoning, rubbing the sides of the bag to coat the chicken in the spices. Add the salsa, sweetcorn, chopped tomatoes and peppers to the bag and give everything a shake to combine. Freeze flat for up to 3 months.

TO COOK FROM FROZEN: Remove the bag from the freezer and allow to defrost fully in the fridge. Once defrosted, tip the mixture into a large baking dish, scatter over the cheese and crushed tortillas and cook as described in the To Cook section, above.

CAJUN PORK STEAKS WITH PEPPERS

M

This is such an easy recipe that I always double up and store two batches in the freezer for a no-fuss midweek meal. If you don’t like pork steaks, simply substitute for chicken or beef. This is great served with Made-in-Advance Baked Potatoes (see here), some ready-made mash or a packet of microwavable Mexican rice.

PREP: 5 MINUTES

COOK: 30 MINUTES

SERVES 4

2 tbsp plus 2 tsp smoky Cajun rub (available in the spice aisle)

2 tbsp olive oil

4 pork loin steaks

2 cups (350g) frozen, sliced peppers

1 × 400g can chopped tomatoes

01 Put 2 tbsp of the smoky Cajun rub in a bowl with the olive oil and combine to form a paste. Pour the oil and spice paste over the pork steaks and use your hands to ensure they are well coated. Set aside.

02 In the same bowl that the spice paste was made in, combine the remaining smoky Cajun rub and the chopped tomatoes.

TO COOK: Lay the spice-coated pork steaks in a large baking dish and top with the sliced peppers, then pour over the spiced tomato mixture. Transfer to an oven preheated to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and cook for 25–30 minutes, until the pork is tender. Serve hot.

TO FREEZE: Put the spice-coated pork steaks in a large, labelled freezer bag, followed by the peppers and spiced tomato mixture. Give the bag a shake to combine the flavours, then freeze flat for up to 3 months.

TO COOK FROM FROZEN: Remove the bag from the freezer and allow to defrost in the fridge. Once defrosted, tip the mixture into a baking dish and cook as described in the To Cook section, left.

THREE WAYS WITH CAJUN PORK STEAKS

Now that you’ve prepared your Cajun Pork Steaks, what are you going to do with them? Below are three simple ideas for different ways of serving them that will keep mealtimes feeling fresh and different every time!

CAJUN PORK STEAKS WITH MASHED POTATOES

1 × quantity Cajun Pork Steaks with Peppers

1 × 400g pack ready-made mashed potatoes

2 cups (300g) frozen, mixed vegetables, to serve

01 Prepare the pork steaks as described here.

02 When the pork steaks have almost finished cooking, heat the mashed potato and frozen, mixed vegetables in the microwave according to packet instructions.

03 Serve the pork steaks with the mashed potatoes and cooked veg alongside.

CAJUN PORK PANINIS WITH CORN ON THE COB

1 × quantity Cajun Pork Steaks with Peppers

4 panini rolls, sliced open

4 corn on the cob

2–3 large tomatoes, sliced

sliced gherkins, to taste (optional)

01 Prepare the pork steaks as described here.

02 When the pork steaks have almost finished cooking, put the corn in a pan of boiling water and cook for 5–10 minutes, until tender.

03 Slice the cooked pork into bite-sized pieces and spoon into the panini rolls, then top with a few of the cooked peppers, a couple of slices of tomato and some gherkins, if using. Serve hot with the corn on the cob on the side.

CAJUN PORK STEAKS WITH NOODLES

1 × quantity Cajun Pork Steaks with Peppers

2–3 nests dried noodles

mixed salad leaves, to serve

your choice of salad dressing

01 Prepare the pork steaks as described here.

02 When the pork steaks have almost finished cooking, cook the noodles in boiling water according to packet instructions.

03 Drain the cooked noodles and divide between four serving bowls, then top each with a Cajun pork steak and a spoonful of cooked peppers, plus any juices from the pan. Serve hot with a bowl of dressed salad leaves alongside.

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