It was a batch cooking day yesterday. I cleared out the fridge and veg basket of sprouting potatoes, forgotten about sweet potatoes, a wrinkly pepper sand 3 bendy carrots. I chopped them all up and roasted them in the oven with oil, salt and garlic powder. When they were done I sloshed some balsamic vinegar over them. Really tasty!!! 😋 I got 4 decent portions from basically leftover veggies that my DIL said she would have just binned!!
To fill up the oven I chucked in some baking potatoes. When they were done I cut them in half, scooped out the flesh and mashed it with butter and cheese to make stuffed baked potatoes. These have been a family favourite for years! They keep well in the fridge for a few days and can be frozen too. Nice on their own for lunch with baked beans or as part of a main meal 😋 Another 4 or 5 generous portions made.
I had defrosted a 1kg bag of chicken breasts overnight. Currently £4.92 with your Nectar card in Sainsbury's. There were 6 good sized breasts. I used 3 to make some fajita spiced strips (using my home made fajita mix) and 3 for a creamy chicken in sauce. I got 5 portions of the fajita one and 4 of the creamy one. That's 55p a portion! Obviously that's just for the meat. Spices, stock powder and a splash of cream were the only other additions probably adding another 10p per portion. If I was a bit meaner with the portion sizes I could reasonably get 10 portions from the 6 breasts. This is all good research for my budget planning for 2024.
I had one portion of the fajita chicken for tea with some of the roast veggies. The rest I portioned up into my new (smaller) freezer tubs. These square tubs hold 400ml, better for smaller portions than my 700ml ones.
I also cooked a gammon joint in the crockpot. It's already sliced up and in the freezer. It felt like a very productive day!
It felt like a very productive day because it was one!! It's good to get ahead and it's especially good to empty out the fridge drawers and shelves of things and turn them into tasty meals isn't it. I too am looking to make 2024 a really good budget year for food, it's nice to plan isn't it.
ReplyDeleteI have my notes and lists all ready to work out my 2024 budgets. Things will get tight!! xxx
DeleteGood for you in getting all that batch cooking done.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Well done, Ali. I love when I have a productive day sorting out food and preparing batches. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI loved it even more when I was trying to work the cost per portion! xxx
DeleteTry adding some chopped,crushed parsley to the potatoes and only add the cheese to the top. I tend to use sour cream in the mix as well as sweet chillie sauce...amazing what you can do with very little...love the blog but don't comment much :)
ReplyDeleteGood tip! I'm getting good at creating something from very little.
DeleteAnd thanks for commenting :-) xxx
That's a super productive day! I really am impressed. We reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally need to clear out our freezer so we can start doing things like this!
ReplyDeleteMy chest freezer is full but very disorganised!!!!! :-) xxx
Delete