I've always batched cooked and frozen left overs from the days when we had 5 kids at home and soon discovered that this way there was less food waste if we banned fizzy drinks and bread from the dinner table as the kids would fill up on that and leave most of their dinner then be hungry later on that evening.
Batch cooking allows me to freeze meals according to the number of people I'm feeding. Currently Child 2 and 2a are visiting so there are meals for 4 portioned out ready to cook/reheat.
You'll have noticed the frozen plastic bottles of water in the fridge. In Dubai our water is stored in a tank under the ground, it's sandy here and quite often it gets into the tank, making the water undrinkable.
If Peter is cooking, we will portion out our meals and then freeze what is left in individual pots for days when only one of us is eating. It's difficult to only use enough ingredients for 2 and if there is only half a meal left, we'll often reduce our size portions to put more in the tub for a meal next time.We also freeze the tomato puree as we never use a whole tub with each dish.
We only buy fresh veg, fruit and salad as we are going to need for each day.
We usually buy a small carton of milk and if we run out the shop over the road is open from 7am till midnight every day. We also buy boxed wine and keep a jug of cold water in the fridge. In summer the ground heats up and the tap water doesn't run cold.
We portion out enough butter for the week and freeze the rest till needed.
We freeze bread on the day of purchase, we don't eat much and living in a hot climate it goes off quickly. This allows us to have several types of bread on the go at one time also.
Do you think about food waste? Do you batch cook and freeze left overs? Do you have any tips you could share with me on reducing food waste further?
