One thing I do often is to cook larger portions and freeze them, this way I save time and money because it's much cheaper to cook more of something than to cook it twice, not to mention the time it takes. You do this as well? With what dishes do you usually do it with?
I don't usually do that. Although it will really save me a lot of time, I think reheated food will contain some chemicals already which are usually not present during the first time you cook. I try to avoid using the microwave as much as possible as I believe that it does degrade some of the nutrients in food. Through the years, I have learned to estimate well how much I need to cook, in a way that it's actually finished in one sitting.
I don't think this is a correct method to save time and money. Food eaten while hot serves the best benefits of it. But the same food if reheated often loses all its nutrients and even accumulates chemicals in it. You will have no benefit of taking the food if it is frozen and taken again and again. I just suggest you to cook small portions of food whenever needed and enjoy its taste and goodness then itself. You can only freeze food for one day and beyond that makes it useless.
Saves money? Makes no sense. If I use 400 grams of spaghetti and a full jar of sauce now to make two meals, or 200gr and half of the sauce jar twice... I really don't see how the first one saves me any money. But yes, it does save you some time and I often do make two portions at the same time. One I eat then and the other one I throw in the fridge for the next day. And margarito, while the food does lose some of the nutrients when being frozen, it's just completely ridiculous to say that it loses all of them...
Well, I agree it's not ideal, but apart from being a time saver, it does save some money on gas for example and water and all the things you need to prepare the meal, except the main ingredients sure because you pay them as well. As for losing the nutrients, what do you mean, the vitamins and such are lost freezing the food?
I don't think it really saves that much money because food is food is food. If I can spend my money on bigger portions of food to freeze/reheat, why would I not just spend my money on proper portion sizes that I can eat warm and fresh? I see what you mean about being a time-saver, which is nice, but it just doesn't work for me.
OK, maybe you guys have a point lol, I am just thinking now that the gas I spend reheating the food is the gas I would also spend cooking a different meal. At least we agree that we can spend some time and you know what they say, time is money!
Oh definitely! I often do what is called "once a month cooking," although I don't do it quite to that extent:Log In I just make up several batches of a given dish and then freeze it immediately so that I can have it ready for later.
OK, something that does share my perspective lol. Jessi, do you think you manage to save some money or it's just a time saver? Wow, is that really your site Jessi? Are you a cooking professional?
No, I never do that. One of the areas in life that I will never save any money on is food. My food has to be as fresh as possible every day. To tell you the truth, I have never frozen any food, apart from berries from my garden that I wanted to save for winter. Occasionally I buy frozen fish but that's about it. I don't know about reheating cooked frozen meals. Does it taste a little soggy?
I am impressed by you answer Dora, you have never frozen meat? Or bread? How do you manage to do that? I agree that eating fresh is healthier, but sometimes home cooked food is way healthier than what we eat in the restaurants. You'd be surprised by the flavor, it's pretty much of the freshly cooked.
