So far in my time saving series, I’ve shared how to work faster in the kitchen and the “Pemmican Principle”. Today I wanted to highlight a simpler tip, cook once, eat twice. It’s kind of like the Pemmican Principle in mini form.
The concept is simple. Make twice as much when you are cooking and either freeze the second half or save it for later in the week. It doesn’t take much more work to double a recipe and you get repaid with a double yield.
What this works well with:
- Soups (Just be aware that grainy soups will absorb more liquid and some creamy style soups may not freeze well. For soups with pasta, leave the pasta out of the half of soup to freeze. )
Casseroles (freeze before you cook the second half)
Legume Dishes and Soups
Meatloaf (freeze before you cook), Meatballs (ditto), and Mexican Beef for Mexican night
Those are just a couple of examples of dishes that you can easily double for an extra meal for later.
But you can certainly do this with baking as well. If you are going to make one loaf of bread, why not make four and freeze the other three? Many muffins can be frozen too. If you want that freshly baked flavor, you can also freeze dough and defrost it at a later date. Scones, cookies, and biscuits can also be frozen and defrosted either baked or in the dough stage.
I would love to hear from you! What meals do you like to freeze?
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I love cooking a huge pot of black beans, and freezing them in one-meal portions. Thaw a portion, and I can have quesadillas, beans and rice, huevos rancheros, or refried beans — all with just a little day-of cooking.
I love to have beans in the freezer! Black beans and garbanzos are our favorites. I usually make two loaves of banana or pumpkin bread, large batches of waffles, and mashed potatoes.
I make a lot of stock/broth, soups and sauces for the freezer. I also cook seasoned ground beef and I double meals for the freezer as well.
I saw this tip in a Test Kitchen magazine: for make-ahead, fresh-baked muffins, freeze the dough, unbaked, in the muffin tins, then pop out and put in a plastic bag. When ready to bake, place them back in the tins, and add a minute or 2 to the baking time.
That soup looks delicious! I almost always have a crockpot full of beans cooking…
When I flew back east recently to visit family and friends I made a heaping pot of black bean and sweet potato chilli and portioned it out in the freezer for my husband.
I also love making any kind of vegetable soups; broccoli, asparagus, carrot, etc and it always tastes so much better after it’s been frozen and reheated!
I got tired of buying really lovely, big loaves of fresh bread and having it go stale/bad so I cut up the loaves and put portions in freezer bags to have on hand for soup or open-faced sandwiches.
I don’t know that I’d really call it a time-saver, but more of a “Gee, I’m glad I don’t have to wait 12-24 hours for something to soak so that we can eat breakfast today/dinner tonight” process: I freeze soaked flour for recipes before adding in the remaining ingredients.
For example, I mix up a double batch of soaked pasta dough, and freeze half of it. Soak flour and soured milk (soured w/ either whey/lemon juice/ACV, etc.), and freeze for pancakes, waffles, and Dutch babies. Then, all I have to do is thaw and prepare whatever I need (maybe takes an hour of thawing on the counter, depending on what it is) according to the “after soaking” instructions in the recipe, and it’s still nourishing AND delicious.
I also have a very large crock pot, and use it to cook my chicken, then make chicken broth. It’s big enough that I cook two chickens, and portion into freezer containers. We also cook browned hamburger meat in 5-lb batches, then I split into 7 portions and freeze–super quick addition to pasta sauces, to make chili, etc. Helps stretch the stuff, too!
LOVE to freeze either my whole-grain waffles or buttermilk pancakes, depending on what I’m in the mood for. Both toast VERY well and are sometimes better that way than fresh. Then breakfast is healthy, yet ready in 5 minutes. I don’t consistently freeze anything else. Right now I have cooked mini-meatballs frozen because they make great, fast snacks for my kids.
I really should make more use of my freezer so I don’t always have to cook. I like to cook and I like fresh food a lot, so I don’t always want to freeze things. But those nights when I’m too tired/busy to cook…it sure would help!
I actually will freeze cooked meatloaf & other cooked dishes. The reason for this is that when I buy grassfed ground beef – it’s already frozen. From what I understand about food safety – you should not re-freeze something in a raw state that was already frozen and then defrosted. I have not had problems with this. I made sure the frozen items are well wrapped up and I do consume them within a month or so.
Cook once, eat twice, or three times is a principle I’ve been using for awhile, for example when making lasagna instead of using the 9 x 13 pan, I purchased two 4×4 glass pans with lids, and simply divided the meal into two, freezing one. I do the same with turkey chili freezing half for another meal. This allows for meals to be available for those times when I don’t feel like cooking or have too much happening that day.
I almost always cook 2, 3, or 4 times what a meal needs so that healthy pre-cooked ingredients are ready to assemble for dinner.
Freezing portions of grains/rice allows me to add it to soups cooked in the crockpot all day. Or just reheat for a side to fish.
A crockpot of shredded chicken and salsa made last week turned into burritos, quesadillas, shredded chicken sandwiches and soup.
While washing and cutting veggies for stir fry, I’ll put out two containers for the next day’s lunch salad. I especially like to cook salmon – served hot with grains and veggies at night and made into a cold salad with veggies for the next day’s lunch. It takes almost no extra time in the kitchen to make both dinner and lunch at the same time.
Another offshoot of this principle is to use the leftovers for different meals. For example, I can buy a slightly larger portion (on sale, of course) of meat, poultry or fish than I need to feed seven hungry mouths (we are definitely omnivores). With the leftovers, I can make a stir fry with fresh veggies, garlic and seasonings. With those leftovers I can make a stew or soup by adding previously frozen broth and more veggies and seasonings. If there are not enough leftovers to do this, I make lunch for DH or freeze and label to add more stuff to for future meals.
Potatoes are my youngest son’s favorite food at any meal and one which all seven of us enjoy so I try to cook a big pot of them on the weekend and they become the base of fast food during the week. Chopped, seasoned and fried in coconut oil they make a quick and nourishing breakfast with or without eggs and/or meat and they go nicely in a burrito of any kind. Sliced and layered with a cream sauce, cheese and any leftover meat, fish or vegetables they make a great one pan meal. I make it with fresh poached or leftover cooked salmon as an all-time family favorite. Then, there is always potato salad… Potatoes also have the advantage of being cheap, plentiful, filling and rarely cause digestive problems like beans and grains do sometimes. Maybe it’s the Irish in me but I am a big potato fan!
You boil the potatoes, yes? Are they not rather fragile to be subsequently chopped or sliced and then cooked again? (fried or whatever.)
I like this idea though!
I like to freeze filling for chicken pot pie, homemade pasta, and refried beans. Also garbonzo beans which I can thaw quickly by running warm water over them and use for hummus.
Yes I boil the potatoes. I try to cook them just until tender to avoid having them fall apart too badly BUT… I find that the few potatoes that do cook up a bit soft and end up falling apart contribute something nice in their own way. When you fry potatoes, they end up being the particularly flavorful and crispy bits!
This soup looks delicious! Can you please direct me to the recipe?
Thanks!
Beth in NC
Hey Beth,
Here is the recipe!
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/03/garlicky-white-bean-soup-with-dark-greens.html
I freeze pizza dough and pizza sauce. The dough I just freeze unbaked. My sauce receipe make enough tomato sauce for about five pizzas so I make it and freeze the rest in muffin cups that I later put in a freezer bag. I can assemble a pizza (if I have cheese, veggies and/or meat) in about the time it takes to warm up my oven.
I’m with Beth in NC! This soup looks soooooo delicious! Please tell me you have the recipe! 🙂
Yup! Here it is!
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/03/garlicky-white-bean-soup-with-dark-greens.html