5 Recipes to Batch Cook for You or Your Neighbours

The world has gone a little crazy since my last blog post and our lives are all being impacted the pandemic. Almost everyone I know, knows someone (or has experienced one of the following themselves) that has either been forced to self isolate post holiday, made redundant, had to cancel a wedding or other celebration or had all their work cancelled. These things have all happened to my nearest and dearest. Perhaps you’r simply getting prepared for a 2 week potential isolation if something happens in your network? With all this going on, I thought a little reminder of yummy things you can batch cook was in order.

I’ll be sharing more recipes in coming weeks with either fun things to distract you from COVID-19 and its impact, aimed at keeping you healthy, or clearing out your pantry goods. To get us started I wanted to share a more community minded post. This one is all about thinking about those you know that might need some help (self isolation makes getting to the shops impossible!) due to the pandemic’s ripple effect. And making sure you have yummy easy meals on hand to heat up if you do fall ill yourself is also a bit of extra comfort!

That said, it could also be a great idea to contact your favourite restaurants and see if they are struggling and if they have delivery options you could use. Getting some food delivered to a freelancer friend that’s facing months without income, or to someone that is stuck in isolation, is the kind of gift we can all get around right now.

At the moment, I’m still teaching as schools are still open and look to potentially be open for the rest of term. This means that I don’t have my normal luxury of going shopping during the day and have had to face the supermarket crowds and it ain’t pretty. Yet, I do have the luxury of a continued income for now and not every casually employed person has that at the moment. I hate queues and busy supermarkets. Usually I’d go to the shops three times a week, in the afternoon or morning, but I’m currently just trying to go as little as possible. This means some batch cooking to make sure I don’t waste any fresh ingredients! However, please don’t bulk buy it leaves the most vulnerable in the community in need and you with wasted food.

Let’s cook away the pandemic blues hey?

A pasta bake is always an excellent thing to freeze as this vegetarian number with pumpkin and thyme will allow you to avoid the rush for meat happening at a lot of supermarkets
This lamb, eggplant and almond curry uses shank, neck, shoulder or leg – all cuts that are suited to long cooking and less popular so easier to find if your butcher or supermarket keeps selling out of stuff!
Sweet Potato, Peanut and Red Lentil Curry Another curry, and this one is vegan. it freezes so well and is great with flat bread or rice (cauliflower rice is great if your supermarket is out of rice!)
Enchiladas, make a double recipe of this chicken and zucchini enchilada recipe or these sweet potato and balck bean vego ones. Don’t add the avocado before freezing!
Osso Bucco Pie, a great thing to deliver to someones door!