Favorite Recipes to Batch Cook

As my stash in the freezer is dwindling (and the prospect of work hopefully is looming), I'm restocking the freezer.  What are your favorite recipes to batch cook?

I only do:

Beef Borgouignon
Spaghetti Sauce
Chicken Curry
American-style Chili

I'd like to add to my rotation.  Suggestions?

I'm pretty good at adapting recipes to be dairy/soya/gluten free.  But I can't do mexican stuff that has cheese...  I refuse to use the smelly vegan cheeses!   

As my stash in the freezer is dwindling (and the prospect of work hopefully is looming), I'm restocking the freezer.  What are your favorite recipes to batch cook?

I only do:

Beef Borgouignon
Spaghetti Sauce
Chicken Curry
American-style Chili

I'd like to add to my rotation.  Suggestions?

I'm pretty good at adapting recipes to be dairy/soya/gluten free.  But I can't do mexican stuff that has cheese...  I refuse to use the smelly vegan cheeses!   

Pork chops in applesauce gravy (which I was totally offended by until I tried it)?
Beef & vegetable stew (tomato-based flavour)

I used to do a thing my sister called "bland chicken" because she watched me preparing it and thought it would be really bland ( ), but then she started asking for it.  It's just chicken breast chunks and chopped broccoli, drizzled with soy sauce and cooked in parcels in the oven.  I'd usually serve it with rice that was cooked with chicken broth instead of water.  I've never frozen it before, but I have batch cooked it and put it into single-serve bowls in the 'fridge to have for lunches for a few days.  I assume it could be frozen...

I'm trying to remember the sorts of things I would make when I lived alone and had an American-sized 'fridge, but that was so long ago!

EDITED TO ADD:  Ohh... soya is on the no-no list.  Ignore all of that about the bland chicken.  Or try to season it with something other than soy sauce.  Just a bunch of Asian-inspired spices, I guess:  garlic, onion, ginger, chili flakes, etc.

I make the 3 minute beef roast in the Instant Pot.

Whole chicken then shred it to throw in recipes
Boiled eggs
Shredded pork
Shredded beef
Lasagna
Cauliflower casserole
Egg frittata

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(which I was totally offended by until I tried it)

HAHAHAHAHAH!!

HAHAHAHAHAH!!

Okay, but seriously... I always hated pork.  All pork.  Sausage, bacon, pork chops, ham... like, I didn't like it.  And I like apples, but I hated apple sauce.  So the idea of two things that I hate in the same dish was so objectionable to me.  But I was having dinner with an ex's family and I learned too late that it was porkchops in apple sauce gravy (with "cheesy potatoes" and probably something green as a token gesture to balanced nutrition, and "casserole bread").  So I sat down to eat, feeling very anxious, tried a bite, and blurted out, "Oh, it's good!"  The surprise was clearly evident in my voice.  Fortunately, his mom/the cook laughed and wasn't offended by my shock.

Gołąbki stew -- instead of faffing about, burning your fingers, making cabbage rolls, throw in (1) roughly chopped carrots, onions, celery and savoy cabbage; (2) some kind of pork mince or chunks of sausage (I have lately taken to wild boar and apple for this purpose); and (3) a tarragony tomato sauce (or season the sauce as you see fit). I adore gołąbki but also have an inherent dislike for anything that requires more than one pan. This can all go in the slow-cooker and boom. Also, we did the leftovers with a fried egg on top at the weekend, and it was maaaagic.

Any kind of chicken-rice casserole in the slow-cooker or a Dutch oven. We get a weekly veg bag from a field-to-fork farm co-op, and sometimes have 'straggler veg'. Extra carrots, a bit of greens, whatever's kicking about goes in with chopped chicken thighs, whatever seasonings I fancy, maybe a bit of white wine to help free up the starches in the rice (I go for an arborio or carnaroli, for heft). Buncha chicken stock (I make my own basically weekly because I'm a soup fiend), couple hours in the oven, and boom.

Speaking of soup, that's another good option for batch-cooking.

By the way, I have a really nasty soya allergy that we only figured out 18 months ago, and although I miss a lot of stuff (I actually love tofu unreservedly), one thing that has sort of saved my life is Maggi Liquid Seasoning. It tastes just about like I remember soya sauce tasting, is totally soy-free in the UK (recipe varies by country, apparently), and works great in stir-fries, soups/stews/sauces, and even as a sushi dipper. I've road-tested it on Mr Seahorse, and he agrees, so it's not just my fading memory of what soya sauce tastes like.

How about fish pie?  Not sure how the bechemel would work but it's super easy and freezes well.

How about fish pie?  Not sure how the bechemel would work but it's super easy and freezes well.

Jimbo makes a good point -- any old shepherd's or cottage pie, including fish pie, freezes well.

Here's a random question :  The French have taught me to make lasagne with bechemel sauce (butter and flour and milk to make a thick white sauce). I seem to remember American lasagne had ricotta cheese that was treated somehow.  Does anyone know how that works?  Which is proper Italian?

Gołąbki stew -- instead of faffing about, burning your fingers, making cabbage rolls, throw in (1) roughly chopped carrots, onions, celery and savoy cabbage; (2) some kind of pork mince or chunks of sausage (I have lately taken to wild boar and apple for this purpose); and (3) a tarragony tomato sauce (or season the sauce as you see fit). I adore gołąbki but also have an inherent dislike for anything that requires more than one pan. This can all go in the slow-cooker and boom. Also, we did the leftovers with a fried egg on top at the weekend, and it was maaaagic.

Any kind of chicken-rice casserole in the slow-cooker or a Dutch oven. We get a weekly veg bag from a field-to-fork farm co-op, and sometimes have 'straggler veg'. Extra carrots, a bit of greens, whatever's kicking about goes in with chopped chicken thighs, whatever seasonings I fancy, maybe a bit of white wine to help free up the starches in the rice (I go for an arborio or carnaroli, for heft). Buncha chicken stock (I make my own basically weekly because I'm a soup fiend), couple hours in the oven, and boom.

Speaking of soup, that's another good option for batch-cooking.

By the way, I have a really nasty soya allergy that we only figured out 18 months ago, and although I miss a lot of stuff (I actually love tofu unreservedly), one thing that has sort of saved my life is Maggi Liquid Seasoning. It tastes just about like I remember soya sauce tasting, is totally soy-free in the UK (recipe varies by country, apparently), and works great in stir-fries, soups/stews/sauces, and even as a sushi dipper. I've road-tested it on Mr Seahorse, and he agrees, so it's not just my fading memory of what soya sauce tastes like.

Thank you for all of this.  I’ll definiy check out that seasoning.

How do you pronounce golabki?  I’m saying Go-lahb-key.   

Jimbo makes a good point -- any old shepherd's or cottage pie, including fish pie, freezes well.

That would be good!

Thank you for all of this.  I’ll definiy check out that seasoning.

How do you pronounce golabki?  I’m saying Go-lahb-key.   

Maggi Liquid Seasoning is available in 1L bottles on Amazon, not that I'm obsessed or anything.

Ooooh this is a fun one! If you want to pronounce it in the manner of my forebears, it's actually go-wahn-key. The ł is a w sound (and a w is a v sound or an f sound, depending on where it falls in a word). And the tail on the ą comes with a sort of nasal-n -- but not full-on N -- intonation. My surname would be pronounced Vahn-seck, if it hadn't been anglicised when my great-grandparents immigrated to America (as WWI was kicking off, and Poland was still the Austro-Hungarian Empire). But we just say it with the 'ah' sound.

Thank you for all of this.  I’ll definiy check out that seasoning.

How do you pronounce golabki?  I’m saying Go-lahb-key.   

My mom used to make lasagna with ricotta cheese...mixed with mozzarella and Parmesan. No sauce, other than tomato-based. She got it from Italian immigrant neighbors who were from the Southern part of Italy. This was in the 1940s, so things may have changed since then, but that's what I think of when I think "Italian" food.

My mom used to make lasagna with ricotta cheese...mixed with mozzarella and Parmesan. No sauce, other than tomato-based. She got it from Italian immigrant neighbors who were from the Southern part of Italy. This was in the 1940s, so things may have changed since then, but that's what I think of when I think "Italian" food.

Usually ricotta with an egg and the Italian style shredded or grated cheeses.

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Oh, yeah. I forgot the egg! She put an egg in with the cheeses, too!