Cooking in Bulk, Simplified

Bulk buying and cooking is a great time and money saver, without a doubt. But some people (like myself!) find the idea of cooking vast amounts of food once or twice a month to be seriously overwhelming. In fact, the whole "once a month cooking" thing has been the primary reason I don't have a deep freeze packed with a month's worth of meals-the very thought of all that cooking makes me cranky and tired.

I have, however, found a simpler way to take advantage of some of the benefits of cooking in bulk. It's so simple I wonder why I didn't think of it sooner. My method of bulk cooking involves doubling any meals that can be frozen. Any kind of casserole, bean dish, rice dishes and many kinds of soups stand up very well in the freezer, and all are also very easy to double when cooking. (Examples of meals easily frozen: chili, bean soups, pizza crusts or even whole pizzas, rice dishes like jambalaya, and vegetable soups)

Rather than trying to make 30 days worth of meals in 2 days, and freezing it all at once, I have taken to doubling anything I can double, and having 3-4 meals in the freezer at one time. My menu for the month is already made up and written down, with our favorite meals included several times for the month. So once a meal is frozen, I add a note to the menu for the next week or the week after, reminding myself that it's already in the freezer, and I won't have to cook that day. By the end of this first full week of March, I will have four meals already frozen, three for next week, and one for the week after. Next week, I will double and freeze two more meals, for the two weeks after that, and so on.

Bulk cooking actually can be even simpler than cooking entire meals. Whenever I bother to soak and cook beans, I always process much larger quantities than I'll need right away, and freeze what I don't need. When I find a good deal on onions or peppers, I buy in bulk, chop them up, and stick them in the freezer (be sure to triple bag the onions or your ice cubes will smell like them!). Bananas can be peeled and frozen for later use in baked goods.

Buying "industrial" sizes of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce and freezing them in smaller portions also saves money. And I always take advantage of great deals on meat, usually pre-cooking and then freezing anything I won't use within the next few days. This works especially well with ground beef, and simplifies future meals that include it.

I don't know if I will ever be relaxed and organized enough to attempt once a month cooking, but if not, I'm glad to have found a way to take advantage of the time and money saving aspects of buying and cooking food in bulk.