Bulk Cooking the Easy Way

Takes less effort: The combination of bulk cooking individual ingredients and doubling recipes periodically takes far less effort—both in cooking and cleanup—than once a month cooking.

Gives more flexibility: Bulk cooking ingredients gives you much more flexibility. Pulling out a bag of cooked chicken or ground beef that can be added to a recipe cuts the preparation time in half (or more) without locking you into the choice of whatever frozen dish you have left in the freezer.

Fits your schedule: Busy moms can easily incorporate these two things into their existing schedules and fill their freezers by working a little bit at a time. We go into further details about this way of cooking in the Add Salt & Serve meal plan primer.

🗂️ Bulk cooking ingredients or a recipe base

A great way to save prep time in the evening is to start with bulk cooked ingredients. When a recipe calls for ground beef, instead of browning one pound of ground beef, buy 5 lbs. and brown all of it, freezing the extra in 4 freezer containers. When you need cooked chicken for a soup or casserole, instead of cooking just enough for that recipe, boil or grill 3-4 extra lbs. for the freezer.

Is there a base to a certain recipe that you make frequently? Consider bulk cooking just the base and finishing off the recipe at mealtime. I make a time-intensive gumbo recipe (I’m bound to secrecy for now) that requires a base of onions, green pepper, celery, and okra sautéed in a browned roux. It takes me about 30 minutes to get the roux to the sweet spot between browned and beyond repair, so I don’t like to make it frequently. When I make a batch, I often double or triple the base for the freezer so that the next time all I have to do is add the liquids, spices, and seafood and simmer.

🍗 Bulk cooking with chicken

I use this flavorful recipe for cooking chicken in bulk. Have grilled chicken for dinner the night you cook it, then chop and freeze the leftovers in dated freezer containers.

Marinated Grilled Chicken (Garlic Soy Marinade)

Bulk cooking chicken saves time on busy nights when you need to get dinner on the table in a hurry, and using grilled marinated chicken adds a depth of flavor not found in baked or sautéed chicken when you add it to recipes.

If you prefer a big day of cooking, try Kim Tilley’s plan for Bulk Cooking with Chicken.

🌮 Bulk cooking with ground beef

A good way to start stocking your freezer is to buy 10 lbs. of ground beef when it goes on sale. Brown 5 lbs., and with the rest make this mixture: 5 lbs. of ground beef, 5 eggs, and Adobo seasoning or salt and pepper. You may add some bread crumbs if you wish. Shape patties for hamburgers (freeze on a cookie sheet individually and then bag once frozen), then take the extra meat and divide it equally between a meatloaf and meatballs for the freezer. Individually freeze the meatballs on a cookie sheet (cooking them first saves time later), then put into dated freezer bags.

This will give you 5 lbs. of cooked beef for casseroles, tacos, enchiladas, soups, and more, as well as homemade patties for hamburgers (2 meals), a meatloaf, and meatballs (2 meals).

If you prefer a big day of cooking, try Kim Tilley’s plan for Bulk Cooking with Hamburger.

🧅 Bulk cooking freezer onions and peppers

The same principle of bulk cooking can be applied to onions and green peppers either individually or together. If your recipe calls for a sautéed onion, instead of sautéing one onion, buy a whole bag of onions, chop them all and freeze in casserole-ingredient-sized portions. When you have these meal-sized portions of meat and vegetables, it is a cinch to throw together a quick meal late in the afternoon.

🥔 Bulk cooking potatoes for the freezer

Many people are surprised that potatoes can be cooked in bulk for the freezer because they assume that potatoes don’t freeze successfully. Wanda Carter, the author of our post on bulk cooking potatoes, has found that they are one of the easiest and most versatile foods in her repertoire. If you would like to try bulk cooking potatoes for the freezer, try Wanda’s Potato Plan.

🌯 Bulk cooking beans for the freezer

I regularly cook a bag of dried beans and freeze the beans in their own juice to use in place of canned beans. Dried beans are easy to cook, are more tender, and are less expensive than canned beans. If you do not have any beans in your freezer and would like to stock up, my instructions for how to cook dried beans are below.

How To Cook Dried Beans for the Freezer

Dried beans cost about 50% less per serving than canned beans—here's how to cook them ahead and freeze them.

🥫 Homemade substitutions in bulk

Adobo Seasoning

Adobo is inexpensive and can be found with the Latino foods at most grocery stores. If you can't find it, you can make your own with this recipe.

Terlingua Chili Mix

There is no need for expensive chili spice packets with this homemade Terlingua chili spice blend. Just mix and store. Chili powder keeps its flavor the best if stored in the refrigerator, so this spice blend is best stored in the refrigerator due to the high chili powder content.

Cream Soup Substitution

If you prefer not to use cream soups in recipes that call for undiluted "cream of" soups, try this substitution instead.

Easy Buttermilk Biscuits

These 3 ingredient buttermilk biscuits from scratch yield consistent, delicious results.

Healthier Biscuit Mix recipe

This bulk biscuit mix can be used in place of store-bought biscuit mix.

Freezer-Friendly Bulk Pie Crust

Our flaky, buttery (and freezer-friendly) pie crust is a delicious basis for pies, quiches, and pot pies. With only 3 ingredients plus water, this bulk pie crust recipe is all natural and contains none of the lard and preservatives found in most commercially prepared crusts.

📝 Bulk cooking planned into free meal plans

Since our easy way of bulk cooking integrates well with the cooking you are already doing—it doesn't take much more time to cook five lbs. of ground beef than one lb., and you certainly don't double your time in the kitchen when you double a recipe add a meal to the freezer—we incorporate it into free weekly meal plans.

Here is an example of how we incorporate this bulk cooking method and the other aspects of the Busy Cook's Pyramid into our meal plans:

Day 1

Hash Brown Potato Soup - Quick and easy recipe using frozen hash browns

Day 2

Poppy Seed Chicken - Cook extra chicken during prep and stock the freezer

Day 3

Black Beans and Rice - Quick and easy recipe

Day 4

Crustless Broccoli Quiche - Double the recipe and stock the freezer

Day 5

Baked Ziti - Double the recipe and stock the freezer

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🥘 Recipes that freeze well

Here are a few of our recipes that freeze well. Give one of these a try or see all of our freezer recipes.

Easy Zucchini Bread

Easy Shepherd’s Pie (Freezer-Friendly)

Zucchini Linguine

Freezer Zucchini Lasagna

Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken

Freezer-Friendly Penne Pasta Bake

📖 Popular bulk cooking cookbooks

Once A Month Cooking by Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson - This easy-to-follow, family-tested cookbook explains how to: plan ahead, spend less time in the supermarket, cut down on prep time, group similar kitchen tasks together to get them all done at once, make kitchen clean-up more manageable, use the freezer, computer, and our head to create a month full of delicious, nutritious meals and actually have enough time to relax and enjoy them.

Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough - Frozen Assets is small in stature, but jam-packed with meal-planning advice. It contains recipe ideas, plus detailed instructions on how to get the maximum value from your food dollar, while also slashing meal preparation times.

Fix, Freeze, Feast: The Delicious, Money-Saving Way to Feed Your Family by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik - Cooks will find 125 delicious, healthful recipes to choose from. Each one includes directions for dividing, preparing, and storing raw ingredients; a second set of simple direction is included for thawing, cooking, and enjoying the food. Designed for the way people cook today, Fix, Freeze, Feast meals are lighter and fresher than traditional bulk-cooking recipes, with a focus on simple stews and stir-fries, quick grilled or broiled main courses, and popular ethnic meals such as Beef Fajitas and Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry. Fix, Freeze, Feast, also includes ready-to-bake cookie doughs, soups, side dishes, smoothies, and snacks.

Make-A-Mix by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward, Madeline Westover - Make-A-Mix is really two cookbooks in one. The cookbook begins with 67 make-ahead shortcut mixes for everything from all-purpose cake mix to meatball mix. These can be made on a weekend-or whenever there’s free time-and used to speed food preparation on busy days. The mixes are a key ingredient in one or more of the 306 recipes that follow. The kitchen-tested recipes run the gamut from breakfast dishes to after-dinner treats. They include hearty dinner entrees, like enchilada casserole, onion pot roast, and shrimp & vegetable stir-fry; international fare like green chili burritos and quick chow mein; soups and other appetizers, like New England clam chowder, and even freezer treats like fruit slush. With the Make-A-Mix method, home cooks can control the amount of sugar, salt, and preservatives in a recipe, and save money on store-bought mixes.

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