Apprentice Lesson #1 – Cooking in bulk for holidays

Summer holidays are coming folks. 

In previous blogs we have established that cooking is a chore that has to be undertaken by both parents every day.  It is time consuming to cook (it is probably the most time consuming of all household chores actually) and so in order to be successful in eating healthily each and every day, as a team, you have to look ahead and cook some bulk meals together.

Professional chefs do this all the time, with stocks, stews, soups and saucy dishes like curry or meatballs in sauce.  These dishes are great for freezing as they are all wet dishes and will not deteriorate much during freezing.

Have you ever noticed what happens when you take out raw chicken breasts from the freezer to defrost?  Liquid seeps from the meat and lays in a puddle around the plate.

What has happened to your chicken is that the cells in the meat have all burst (water expands when frozen) and now you have dry chicken breasts, that will be even drier once you cook them, as they have no juicy content anymore.

That’s why chefs mostly only freeze wet dishes that are covered in a protective sauce (to avoid freezer burn) and these dishes are cooked to a finished stage before freezing, so there is no loss of flavoursome juices and the dishes are safe to eat.

So with School holidays coming up, Michelle and I have been filling up our freezer with meals for the summer, when we are going down the coast to spend time with family and friends. Minestrone soup, chicken curry, meatballs in sauce, they are already done, and we will make two more dishes this weekend coming and this means that most of the cooking is done for our holiday before we even leave!

But it hasn’t been easy after long days at work, to then get home and serve up dinner as per usual for ourselves and the kids and then spend a couple of hours in the kitchen after dinner cooking, I admit that’s not fun for anyone. But we do it, always have and always will as we want to save our hard-earned money and not spend too much at restaurants and take away shops, plus we prefer to put in the effort now so we know we are going to be eating delicious, healthy food while we are away, it just makes life healthier and easier for when the holidays start.

Check out some of our bulk meals under the Video section of my Facebook page to get some ideas and inspiration for your next Big Cook Up and stay healthy this summer, while having time to relax. 

As always, happy cooking!

Kitchen Dream Team