Batch Cooking For The Freezer: A Babymoon Menu

I’m really bad at OAMC – that’s once a month cooking for us novices – and once something’s made it into the freezer, it’ll stay there for ever and a day. We do prefer our fresh food, but obviously that’s not always convenient.  With our recent sickness the vegetables have been stacking up, and I had to do something with them all – that’s two weeks worth of veggies – so I decided to stock up the freezer with some healthy meals to give us a cooking break when we’ve had our baby and our family have been and gone.

Here are a few items off the menu I cooked in preparation for our babymoon.

A few things to consider:

• We’re not vegetarian
• We’re not vegan
• We’re not free-from anything (dairy, gluten, egg etc)
• This menu is based on seasonal produce

So adapt it as you would any recipe, to make it suit you and your family.

These are links to the original recipes, but I’ll update the links to the adapted versions as I post them over the next few weeks too.

• Traditional English Cottage Pie With Cheese and Leek Topping
  A ground beef recipe with onions, carrots and seasoning, and a topping of potato, leeks and butter, topped with cheese. A luxury meal, tasty and filling and perfect for winter. 
• Baked Butternut Squash and Parmesan Cheese
  Either a side dish or a main, the butternut is topped with Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, nuts and thyme leaves and baked. 
• Mushroom, Herb and Parsnip Pie
  A slightly more complicated recipe to put together than the others, but oh my goodnessit is worth it. The flavours in this are phenomenal. I can’t wait for the babymoon, just for this dish! 
• Pepper & Honey-Roasted Roots
  Quick, simple and easy, these are chopped veggies in a lovely and unusual dressing, which they’re currently in the freezer in, so the flavour should be nicely infused by the time they’re cooked as either a side for two or a main for one.

This is the only recipe I won’t be changing reposting individually, as we didn’t change much (i.e. when I’m cooking home foods I don’t peel vegetables unless they really need it as much of the nutrition is in the skin. I also adapt the ingredients to suit and use what we have available), so in short:

• Carrots, cut in chunks
• Celeriac, cut in chunks
• Parsnips, cut in chunks
• Clear honey, roughly cracked black peppercorns and olive oil, to cover

1. For cooking ahead, mix the vegetables with the honey, peppercorns and olive oil, and freeze.
2. When you’re ready to cook it, let it defrost at room temperature.
3. Heat the oven to 220C / 425F. While you’re doing that, heat oil in a roasting tin on top of the stove, and when it’s hot, fry the vegetables until they begin to brown.
4. Place the tray in the hot oven for 40 – 50 minutes then remove, drizzle a bit more honey and salt over, stir through and serve.
5. Enjoy!