• Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Prep-Ahead Meals Cookbooks
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Gardening
  • Kid’s Activities
  • Gluten-Free Recipes
  • Budgeting Tips
↑

Premeditated Leftovers™

Prep-Ahead Meals, Cooking Tips, and Frugal Living

  • Cookbooks
    • Prep-Ahead Breakfasts and Lunches
    • Prep-Ahead Meals From Scratch
  • Recipe Index
  • Members Area
    • Member Login
    • Join Us
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Gluten-Free Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Garden
  • DIY
  • Kids
  • Budget

You are here: Home / Recipes and Cooking Tips / How to Create a Meal Plan with Batch Cooking

How to Create a Meal Plan with Batch Cooking

January 6, 2016 by Alea Milham Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.
718 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Are you looking for a way to simplify dinners on busy weeknights? Combine meal planning and prep-ahead with batch cooking to create quick and easy dinners on busy nights.

You don’t have to spend a whole day cooking meals for your freezer to take advantage batch cooking. You can adapt the concept of batch cooking to fit your lifestyle and schedule.

I use batch cooking as a frugal way of creating my own “convenience foods” to simplify dinner preparation on busy weeknights. Cooking basic ingredients, such as chicken, rice, and beans in bulk ahead of time allows me to quickly create dinners with minimal prep time.

How to Incorporate Batch Cooking Into Your Menu Plan

1. Look at your schedule and determine how many people will be home each night and decide how many meals you will need to prepare. Determine how much time you have to cook meals on those nights. I usually schedule six meals and allow one night for a leftover buffet.

2. Take a look in the freezer, refrigerator, and the pantry to see what you have on hand. Do you have chicken thighs or a pork roast that can be used as a base for several meals? Do you have a pound of rice in your pantry? Do you have root vegetables in your crisper?

3. Decide which meals can be made from the ingredients you already have. Also think about which ingredients you can use in multiple meals and start making your batch cooking and meal prep list.

4. After deciding what meals you have most of the ingredients for, start a shopping list for any additional ingredients you will need.

5. Check your grocery store circulars to see if there are some great sales on items that can be used as a foundation for other meals. Can any of those ingredients be used in multiple recipes? Add them to your batch cooking and meal prep list.

6. Decide which meals go on each day based on how much time I have to prepare dinner. Don’t forget to plan to use the items you batch cook in a dinner the night of your batch cooking. I usually make that my most elaborate meal of the week, but some people prefer to make that a super simple supper.

7. If possible, go shopping on a day when you can come home and spend an hour or two doing your batch cooking and prepping vegetables. If that doesn’t work, try shopping one day and do your batch cooking and vegetable prep the next day.

8. Plan your batch cooking based on how you are going to use the ingredients and the time you have available to prep for the weekly meals. Do you need shredded pork? You can use a slow cooker, pressure cooker, or the oven to roast your meat. Do you need thinly sliced meat? You will probably want to roast it, but you could also cook it in the slow cooker. Do you need diced chicken? Just about any cooking method will work, but broiling chicken breasts or thighs is the fastest way to cook chicken.

While you are batch cooking your meats, beans, and rice, you can prep your vegetables and shred cheese. You can also use that time to make homemade spice mixes, salad dressings, and other sauces to use through out the week if you wish.

9. Cut, slice, or shred your meat as necessary. Then store it in usable portions. Double check your recipes to make sure you set enough aside for each recipe. Store your rice and beans in usable portions. If you are going to use the items within 3 day, refrigerate it. If you are going to use it later, freeze it and then add a reminder to your menu plan to move it to the refrigerator the day before you need it. so it can thaw. Don’t forget to label your containers.

Measure the chopped vegetables and the shredded cheese and store it usable portions. Label your containers with the name of the recipe the item will be used in. Then you can just grab it from the fridge and add it to the recipe without having to stop and measure it.

You can apply this meal prep technique to your recipes, but if you are looking for recipes that use batch cooking, check out Prep-Ahead Meals from Scratch. You can use this printable menu plan with shopping list to help you get started.

Are you looking for a way to simplify dinners on busy weeknights? Combine meal planning and prep-ahead with batch cooking to create quick and easy dinners on busy nights.

718 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

About Alea Milham

Alea Milham is the owner of Premeditated Leftovers and the author of Prep-Ahead Meals from Scatch. She shares her tips for saving money and time while reducing waste in her home. Her favorite hobby, gardening, is a frugal source of organic produce for her recipes. She believes it is possible to live fully and eat well while spending less.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Prep-Ahead Breakfasts and Lunches by Alea Milham

Search

Prep-Ahead Meals from Scratch Where to Buy

Recent Articles:

Blueberry Popsicles made with real blueberries

Easy Homemade Blueberry Popsicles Recipe

Mason Jar Strawberry Crisp Recipe

Vanilla Bundt Cake with Mixed Berry Glaze

BROWSE:

  • Blog
  • Cookbooks
  • Recipe Index
  • Members Area

ABOUT:

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure

Welcome. I'm Alea!

On Premeditated Leftovers I share simple recipes made with whole foods, practical shopping tips, time saving techniques, and meal planning strategies. I also share tips for minimizing food waste, so more of the food that is purchased ends up on the table.

While volunteering as a budget counselor, I realized that food is the element of most people’s budgets where they have the greatest control. I set out to develop low-cost recipes from scratch to prove it’s possible to create delicious meals on a limited budget. Eating well while spending less is about more than just creating recipes using inexpensive ingredients; it’s about creatively combining ingredients so you don’t feel deprived and are inspired to stick to your budget.

Copyright ©2022, Premeditated Leftovers™. All Rights Reserved.
Design by Pixel Me Designs
718 shares