A lot of January for me is allowing myself to find and set a good routine for 2015. One thing I’ve been needing to do is bulk cook some lunches for work so that I don’t eat out – a drain on the wallet and usually not that great for the waistline either.
This is the first time I’ve bulk cooked in this way – usually I make every bag the same (kind of cooking a double batch & freezing half) but I didn’t want them all the same this time because I have a short attention span and will get bored with eating the same thing. This way definitely takes longer, but not too much longer.
I don’t cook to recipes and rarely measure (other than by sight/feel) so this is highly adaptable to your tastes, budget and desires. I’ve done my best to explain the way I cooked it – but I really do change things every time I cook. I hope this is a useful starter point for you if you want to do some bulk cooking.
Ingredients:
- 500g lean beef strips
- 1 skinless chicken breast
- 7 jumbo eggs (many of mine have been double yolk in this batch & are truly jumbo so I knew I could use less and cut them in half if need be)
- baby corn
- 1 tin corn kernels
- frozen peas
- tinned sliced mushrooms
- 2 carrots
- 1 large broccoli
- 1.5 medium red onions
- half a tin of water chestnuts
- penne pasta
- pad Thai noodles
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- 1 tin of coconut cream
- a little peanut butter (roughly a heaped tablespoon)
Method
- Chop all veggies into desired sizes (I go for bite sized because I often eat as I work, then walk during my actual lunch break)
- Steam broccoli
- Steam carrots
- Lightly pan fry all small veggies individually
- Cook eggs in muffin pan in oven (this is only the second time I’ve done this after seeing it all over Pinterest – I go with 180c for 20min and then play it by ear after that).
- Pan fry beef strips
- Add tin of tomatoes to beef strips, mix, simmer.
- Remove beef and let cool.
- Chop and pan fry chicken breast until lightly browned.
- Add tin of coconut cream and peanut butter. Mix and let thicken.
- Remove chicken.
- Cook penne pasta, drain.
- Cook pad Thai noodles, drain.
You can double up on boiling, steaming, frying as much as you’re able to multitask/pans you have/hotplates you have.
I allow all of my food to cool a fair bit before adding it to the zip lock bags. I find some of them heat up so much they look like they will melt. But I do have a great imagination so just use your own judgement here.
To combine them, I use a rough ratio of 50% veggies, 25% meat, 25% pasta. Keeping all the ingredients in separate bowls after cooking them means you can mix and match so that no two bags are the same. I made 6 beef and 6 chicken meals. There’s 3 beef with pad Thai noodles, 3 beef with penne pasta. Ditto on the chicken. Each has a different mix of veggies – some I went chunky (eg broccoli & carrot) primarily, others I did with peas and corn…you get the drift!
That’s enough for a fortnight of work food for me & a lazy “I don’t wanna cook” dinner for the both of us.
TIP: I put my bags into a bowl (Tupperware marinating dish, actually) as I fill them because it helps them to stay standing up.
Do you bulk cook meals? Any tips to keep them from alway being the same?
You are sheer brilliance. 🙂
Aw, thank you!!
I’m thoroughly impressed. You’ve managed to get very healthy meals out of fresh ingredients and set yourself up for so many meals! Wowsers. I’m going to try your satay chicken method tonight!
I could have prepped more veggies, in highsight. Towards the end, the meals got a bit smaller haha.
I’m in total admiration of your organisation skills and think this is fabulous, but tell me, HOW do you get away with only using roughly a heaped tablespoon of peanut butter?! I’ve just made a satay and have literally had to use half a jar of crunchy peanut butter to achieve any real flavour (despite adding coconut milk, spices and a dash of chilli sauce)!
I usually do add a lot more peanut butter than that, but I’m a cook to taste rather than measuring and it just seemed to work this time. I can’t really explain why. Maybe I had just smelled so much food my senses were sensitive to it haha. I go for 3-4 heaped tablespoons, depending on the type of food.
This is all kinds of awesome. I need to get on this train!
I need to replicate something easy to eat for breakfast; that’s the meal of the day I struggle with, because I usually just roll out of bed and leave within 15mins.
This is GREAT!!! I need to do some bulk cooking soon – thankfully we have a big freezer which helps a bit!! Thanks so much for linking up with our Fabulous Foodie Fridays party! xx
I’d love to buy a bigger one – my fridge is fridge-only and my freezer is bar-fridge sized but it’s not frost free, so it’s a continual pain haha. And it’s very old so the drawers keep snapping and we only have two now 🙂