Lidl Presents Batch From Scratch, A Christmas Special - Cooking For Less

Batch cooking means making meals and snacks in bigger batches and freezing them in meal-size portions for convenient weekday meals. This can save you time and money.

Here are 5 things to remember when you start batch cooking: weigh, measure and chop your ingredients, clean as you go, cool before you freeze, serve your sides fresh, keep your freezer organised.

Your batch cook can last up to 2-3 months in the freezer or 3-5 days in the fridge, depending on what you're cooking. Base sauces freeze the best, make sure they're put into suitable containers before you pop them into the freezer.

Batch-cooking can be a great way to save time and money. Buying ingredients in bulk for your cook is often cheaper and by batch-cooking for the freezer, you'll have more than one meal made in advance. This means your one big shop will go further saving you time and money. Having meals already prepared will also save you cooking from scratch every night and steer you clear from the temptation of expensive takeaways!

You don't need to defrost everything in the fridge before reheating. Simply pop your batch-cooked meal into a pan, the microwave or oven and reheat straight from frozen - easy-peasy!

Store your batch cooking ingredients in cool, dry locations. For dry foods you'll need airtight/sealed containers to keep pests out. We recommend using Mason jars for smaller storage and two or five gallon buckets with gamma-seal lids for larger storage. Also, make sure you label all of your ingredients so you can find what you need for your batch cook easily.

There are many benefits of batch cooking. You'll reduce the time you spend cooking in the week, which means less energy use from appliances and if you're juggling a busy home life with work or other commitments, batch cooking is a great way to keep nutritious food on the table when you don't have the energy to cook.

Yes, you can freeze chicken that has been cooked. Freezing cooked chicken (and cooked food in general) for a future meal is a great way to reduce food waste and saves you preparing meals later on. Just make sure your frozen cooked food is heated through properly before eating.

It's definitely possible to batch cook for a month. Simply plan what you want to cook, invest some time cooking on a free weekend, store your batch-cooked meals properly in the freezer and you'll be able to have delicious time-saving meals for a month.

Batch-cooking can take a little more time at first, particularly when you're learning new recipes and working out what works for your family. It might also seem like you're spending more on your shop because of buying ingedients in bulk. However, once you get organised in the kitchen and settled into your new routine, you'll find it'll save you time and money in the long run.