Batch baking for fun and awesomeness

Posted on January 17th, 2011 by Sacha Chua

It takes just a little bit more time to make two pans of lasagna instead of one, and it works out to be slightly cheaper per serving, too. (90 minutes of preparation including making pasta sauce and cleaning up; < $2 dollars per serving for us.) Batch cooking is a great way to save time and money.

What can you do with two pans of lasagna? You can keep half a pan in the fridge, divide up the other half into individual portions, and share the other pan with family or friends. We took the second pan to Morgan and Cathy’s along with the potato-rosemary rolls I baked yesterday, and we had an excellent dinner. =)

Yesterday’s batch of potato-rosemary bread worked out really well. I formed them as individual rolls instead of a loaf. Loaves are more space-efficient, but rolls are easier to share and eat. It was satisfying to see the bread rise properly, especially as my Friday batch of pandesal didn’t rise at all. (I’m switching to a pandesal recipe that calls for proofing the yeast, as the recipe I’ve written down doesn’t have that step.)

I enjoy baking. It’s even more efficient when we’ve got several recipes lined up to use similar oven temperatures, because then the oven can keep on going. This is the first time I’ve done a double batch of lasagna, and I liked the flexibility of sharing or freezing the second pan. I think I’ll do that with future batches, too.

I’m planning to gradually clear the freezer of most of the raw ingredients we’ve stored so that we can make more room for individual portions. We like stocking up on frozen fruit, raw shrimp, and other ingredients when they’re on sale, but there’s something to be said about turning fresh ingredients into convenient frozen meals. Maybe someday we might get a bigger chest freezer. We’re certainly making the most of ours!

Here are some of our freezer favourites.

Oven	Stove
Lasagna Baked beans Roast turkey Roast vegetables Roast chicken Shepherd’s pie Meatballs Turkey pot pie / chicken pot pie Shake-and-bake chicken	Chili Curry Rice and beans Pinakbet Adobo Pasta sauce

Do you cook in batches and freeze individual portions? What are your favourites?

More posts about: cooking // 5 Comments »

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22047

Linditt

Please share your recipes! :D

My mom taught me to batch cook chicken stock and freeze them into ice cubes so I could add them when I stir fry vegetables. I’ll also freeze some into larger containers so I could use them as a soup base for a quick noodle and vegetable meal.

I also batch prepare my dog’s meal. After mixing the minced meat and grinded vegetable, I’ll divide them into individual portion for the rest of the week.
http://baonkobento.wordpress.com Patricia

Ah! I didn’t know I could safely freeze roast chicken. It gives me courage to actually try roasting a whole chicken (I’ll just need to find a roasting pan).

Do you have a good recipe for pinakbet? I love vegetables and I’d like to try out some new recipes.
http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua

Patricia: Or you could cheat and get a pre-cooked whole BBQ chicken (… or four…) from the ready-to-go section of your supermarket (if it has one), then combine that with rice and frozen vegetables for instant lunch portions. =)

We tend to just make pakbet with whatever’s left in the fridge and whatever looks good at the supermarket, but I’ll see if I can rustle up an actual recipe.
http://baonkobento.wordpress.com Patricia

Good idea! Our supermarkets does have a roast chicken section, or there’s always the option of going to Andok’s or any of its clones and buy a whole roast chicken for freezing! Thanks for the tip!

Ahaha, I guess you do pakbet like how I do sopas (I should write about that some time), using it as a way to use up about-to-go-bad-stuff. Thank you in advance for the recipe!
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