Cook once eat twice is similar to freezer cooking, but you don’t freeze the food.
I often do this when I have a busy week and do not have a lot of food prepared ahead in the freezer.
When I say cook once eat twice, I do not necessarily mean you have eat the exact same thing twice. I am talking more about using the leftovers in a different way.
You can eat roast and potatoes one night, and roast beef sandwiches the next night. You can even make this stretch one more night by serving the left over roast with gravy over noodles or rice.
You can easily plan several meals in one week that contain ground meat. It does not take very much time at all to cook up a few pounds of meat at once. Then you can use it in casseroles, pasta dishes, and chili late in the week.
This same concept works with chicken. You can eat chicken and potatoes one night and use the leftover chicken in salads, soups, enchiladas, and many other things.
I often make a double batch of chili during the winter. We will eat it with cornbread the first night and then over potatoes the second night.
You can also use this same concept for breakfast or lunch items. I often cook up several pounds of bacon at one time. I will freeze some of it and use the rest throughout the week. We can use it for breakfast, but I can also use little bits of it here and there in soups and other things. It saves me so much time to have it cooked ahead as opposed to cooking a few pieces here and there.
This same idea can be used in many ways. When you look at your week and plan your menu take a minute to see how you can cook once and eat two or three times.
What is your favorite thing to cook once and eat two or three times.
If you are new to this series please check out my other posts in this series on managing your time in the kitchen.
I’ve kind of gotten away from this in the last few months, but my favorite way to plan menus for the week is to “cook three times and eat six times”, then wing it on the seventh day with either miscellaneous leftovers, a quick meal like sandwiches or frozen burritos or an occasional meal out. We love leftovers here, so I don’t usually try to “transform” a dish into something new the second night. I usually just serve the exact same meal.
I’d really like to get back to planning meals that way. It’s such a time saver, and usually saves money, too.
I like doing a whole chicken (#1)
Then use the chicken leftover for a variety of things…burritos, chicken sandwiches, chicken salad, in a soup, chicken & noodles, etc. (#2)
Then use the bones to make chicken broth for soup. I save the ends & skin from onions, peelings from carrots & ends from celery (the parts you would generally throw away). I have a large gladware container in my freezer that I keep the remnants of the vegetables in. I collect them for several weeks & then I am ready to make chicken broth when I have a whole chicken. Just place the bones & vegetable remnants in a large pot, cover with water, add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a few peppercorns, dried parsley, & thyme & simmer for a couple of hours & strain. It makes a great & very healthy chicken broth. I love making use of every bit of things so there’s no waste 🙂
When I roast chicken for dinner, I usually do 3-4 even though we can not quite eat one. Bone them & make chicken salad, freeze some, enchiladas, chicken chili, or whatever I like that week. I also tend to make triple batches of chili, soups, biscuits. I make freezer biscuits about 5 dozen at a time & we can eat them for 2 weeks (as we don’t have biscuits every morning). This saves me so much time.
The other thing I do is chop veggies all at the same time. If I am using carrots 3 times that week, for instance, I just prepare them all at once.
@FaithofAllCrafts, Great idea!! I’m going to have to try that. What a good time-saver!
@FaithofAllCrafts,
Brenda, how do you make freezer biscuits? Do you partially bake them?
Chicken. I love to roast a chicken and then use the leftovers for various meals during the week. I want to try making my own stock from the bones too, but I haven’t managed that one yet.
Yesterday I roasted a chicken for our dinner and tonight we will have chicken quesadillas and tomorrow for lunch we will have chicken salad. Plus I threw some of the meat into the freezer for a future meal.
Lynn,
I never thought of freezing bacon after I cook it. Is it still crispy after freezing?
Thanks,
Samantha
@Samantha, Freezing bacon works great. We just defrost and microwave for 30 – 45 seconds to heat back up.
It’s weird, I think more about the MESS management benefits — I LOVE to cook and HATE to clean. If I cook the whole 2 pounds of bacon at once I only have to clean ONCE. Making 2 lasagnas and putting one in the freezer means I can eat twice and clean once!