If the words “bulk cooking” make you cringe and leaves you running to hide in the bathroom, AKA mommies spot to find her zen before she snaps, then we have a lot in common.
I LOATHE bulk cooking!!!
Why you may ask? For 3 very specific reasons:
1. Time
Well, to be completely honest I have never truly tried traditional, Pinterest style bulk cooking before….. but it seems like a lot of work! Standing in my kitchen cooking for 4-6 hours sounds like a nightmare to me; not to mention where on earth are you mothers who bulk cook finding the time to do this??? Do you have unicorn children who play independently and make their own snacks, clean their own bums, or do you stay up until the wee hours cooking Cinderella-style?
I know, I know…. you have to MAKE the time, blah blah blah!
2. Energy
Ok, so say you make the time the bulk cook, what about the energy it takes to make all 500 million meals in one sitting (I may be exaggerating just a wee bit here)? Is there some sort of magical energy booster I’m missing out on? Other than coffee or a glasses of wine motivating you, how on earth do you have mental clarity at the end of the day to concoct 24 different dishes at the same time? Optimal mental clarity for this momma ranges from a few peak hours from 12:30 pm – 6:30 pm on a good day. On a bad day… we won’t even go there!
3. Money
Since my kids love to throw and stuff food in every crevice of our home and car, and apparently haven’t learned to use their sweet puppy dog eyes to beg grandma and grandpa for money, cash is tight. Kids are expensive and food is getting even more expensive. Budgeting for bulk cooking takes big time planning, but it’s apparently supposed to pay off in the end giving you less excuses to eat out… that is of course if you have enough mental clarity to remember to defrost the food in time to eat it (refer back to point #2).
As you can see, my excuses to loathe bulk cooking are the EXACT reasons most people choose to bulk cook!
So in my true, stubborn fashion I “bulk cook” in my own way… a few recipes at a time.
During the famous nesting period of pregnancy, I spent time “bulk” cooking stews, stroganoff, chilli, lasagna, muffins, and loaves of banana bread. It really was nice to have frozen food waiting in the wings to fill in the gaps in the week when I was too exhausted to cook from scratch. So basically my freezer full of meals lasted us a month! I was exhausted ALL THE TIME!! Can I get an AMEN?!?
Of my very limited bulk cooking career my absolute favourite recipe to make in multiples is lasagna; possibly because my lasagna is amazing, or because it takes a while to prep and cook, and I never have all the ingredients just hanging around the house. When I do get the cooking bug, I typically triple or quadruple this recipe to make sure I have enough tins of lasagna to last us a few months.
Here’s my recipe
(disclaimer… I got this recipe online somewhere many moons ago and for the life of me cannot remember where. If this is your original recipe it’s amazing, and thank-you…. kindly comment and I will gladly give you credit for this masterpiece of a dish!!)
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