batch cooking help

hi guys

i would really like to do some batch cooking, so everythink is made and i just have to re-heat after work would make like soo much eaiser

But....

im not the best cook, and im a bit unsure on what i can and cant freeze and if i do freeze items how do i defrost and how long average do i re- heat for?

im sorry for sounding a bit dizzy, but i would really like to give batch cookin a go but really need to over come my fear and reheating frozen pre home made food, i dont want to make myself ill lol

any help or advise much apprichated

Its pretty easy to batch cook once you've done it a few times.

You can freezer more or less anything with a few considerations.

Potatoes go mushy when frozen, unless mashed first in which case they seem fine.
Pasta tastes fine, but the texture is a bit mushy once its defrosted.

defrosting is simple depending on what you want to do/when to eat it for.

Soups I usually heat up straight from the freezer, pre frozen meals like chilli/spag bol/curries I either do one of a few things with them.

1) pull it out the night before and leave it on bottom of fridge
2) pull it out in the morning carry about in a bag if I'll be near a micro
3) if the kitchens cool I'll leave it on the draining part of the sink to defrost overnight

Heating up: I use my micro normally an just make sure its piping hot and hot all the way through.

Start with something simple like maybe a soup (very hard to poison yourself with veggie soup) and/or a spag bol.

Tips from the Freezer - Love Food Hate Waste

good luck

Why not go to your public library and borrow some cookery books?

It won't cost you anything (unless you forget to take them back on time!) and you will probably find one that deals with freezing techniques.

Best sort of book to get is one designed for "Cooking for your freezer". Actually Mary Berry did a jolly good, simple one of these (showing my age now LOL) , & lots of the recipes can be SW tweaked. Full cooking instructions, along with how to freeze, & reheat.

Ditto the suggestion to try the library and look online. There are a wealth of recipes out there and many can be made SW friendly with a minimum of tweaking. Also do a search on here because there have been several threads on batch cooking over the past few months.

Or just ask Mr. Google......

Good luck.