Batch Cooking: The Menu

not pictured: french onion soup & burritos

It is super fun to cook with your best friend.  We emailed back and forth for a few days about what recipes we would use, based on each family's preferences, what we have been eating lately, as well as what we had on hand.

We were able to create seven different recipes, the most diversity we've ever had.  This was possible because of the work we did in advance and we were in the kitchen for 5.5 hours on cooking day, but most of all because my best gal pal is organized and keeps me on track.  Seriously, I could not have done all of this by myself!

The Seven Recipes
1. Taco Soup with chicken - similar to this but of course we tweaked it.
2. Mexican Cheesy Chicken - to be served over rice - the recipe is basically cheese, cream, chicken, tomatoes and peppers.  You can add broth if it gets too thick.
3. Chicken Corn Chowder - similar to this and this; we used potatoes, milk and cream instead of broth, and didn't add cheese.
4. Chicken Pot Pie
5. Pizza Sauce - tomato sauce and paste, lots of fresh thyme, dried basil and fresh minced garlic warmed in a crock pot for several hours.
6. Burritos - chicken, beef and pork - 24 total, 12 for each family.
7. French Onion Soup (a la Julia Child)

We each took home 14 generous meals (with side dishes to make leftovers it will go further to maybe 20 meals).  Plus pizza sauce for 4 nights of pizza; we both make two pizzas once a week.  This is a total of at least 18 nights of no cooking, just thawing what is in the freezer.

-Julie for HB