The Benefits of Batch Cooking: Saving Your Dinner-Time Sanity
I’ve learned a lot from the women who raised me. One of the lessons I’ve taken from them into my years of being a working mom of two littles is the art of batch cooking. I grew up in a family with two working parents. When my brother and I had after school activities, the main reason we had a variety of meals on those week nights when my mom worked night was because we had meals in the freezer, something my mom learned from her mom. I have vivid memories of old butter or ice cream tubs in my grandparents’ freezer with a piece of masking tape on the top identifying the tub contents as red gravy, red beans, stew, or some kind of soup. Even though I didn’t really start cooking until well into adulthood, I quickly became a fan of batch cooking. If it takes more than twenty minutes to cook, you can guarantee that I’m making enough for at least three meals because there are some major benefits to cooking a big batch at once.
It’s cost effective
We all know cooking at home is more affordable than ordering take-out, so cooking your favorite meals in big batches saves a lot of money in the long run. This past weekend, I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce (or red gravy as my grandmother called it) and spent just about $7 to make enough sauce for the next 3 months. My husband is a “Let’s order take out!” kind of person on those really busy, exhausted week nights during the school year, and though I know he gets disappointed that we don’t have sushi on a random Tuesday, he’s happy to enjoy one of his favorite cooked-by-me meals as a backup to his take-out suggestion instead of a classic PB&J backup dinner from my pre-cooking days.
There’s always something available for dinner
We all have those days when we just don’t feel like cooking. There are stretches of the school year when I feel like this every night. While my kids LOVE a bowl-of-cereal dinner night, there’s only so many apple cinnamon cheerios a person can eat in a short stretch of time. Because I cook a lot of meals in big batches, we always have something in the freezer that can be defrosted and ready to eat in less than 20 mins. Batch cooking gives you better variety in your dinner options. When we’re actually on top of life (which is really only a stretch of four weeks in the summer), we make a list of what’s in the freezer and take things out in rotation. This also helps with the “What do you want to eat tonight?” back and forth conversation that no one really wants to have.
We always have food to share with friends and family.
This wasn’t something I learned from my grandmother or my mom but something I’ve realized over the last few years. I’ve had times when a friend is going through something, and I’m able to use a pre-portioned freezer meal that I already know will taste delicious to make a meal for them. I know some will criticize me for not making something “fresh,” but the food in my freezer hasn’t been there very long, and I know that I can rely on something that tastes delicious to share with a friend. This also comes in handy when you have friends or family over semi-last minute or on a busier night because you can have a home cooked meal with them instead of risking everyone being hangry while waiting on pizza delivery.
Food tastes better.
A big reason I love batch cooking is that most foods just taste better the next day. Every favorite recipe I’ve every tried always tastes better as leftovers. Every soup I’ve made (one of my absolute favorites) has better flavors the longer it sits. My favorite chicken enchilada pasta is even more amazing after the second of third time we take it out of the freezer. By some law of science and cooking I don’t understand, making big batches of food and freezing them will always give you delicious dinners with little work or fuss.
I was taught to cook in large batches, so I don’t know any other way. There’s a nostalgia to it for me, but even more than that, cooking this way has made life so much easier for me and my husband in the busiest stretches of our schedules. Batch cooking doesn’t work for everyone, but it is a life saver if you can get the hang of it. If you have a big pot and some kind of storage
