When busy mum of two Alyssa Burton began looking for ways to make life easier, she turned to a quick and easy cooking method.
The 43-year-old Adelaide local would struggle to feed her two hungry children, six-year-old Layla and two-year-old Mya, after a long day’s work.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Aussie mum shares her bulk freezing method that saves money and time.
For more Lifestyle related news and videos check out Lifestyle >>
So, she began batch cooking and bulk freezing meals.
“It has made our life at home with two young kids so much easier,” she tells 7Life.
“I work in the city three days at week, and I’m quite often not home by 5.30pm when my kids are ready for their dinner.
“It means my husband can just heat their dinner up in two minutes.
“It’s definitely a win when you have young kids at home who may be tired and grumpy and clingy at the end of the day.”
The idea blossomed from Burton’s childhood, where her “very organised” mum used to serve leftovers.
“I just took what I learnt from her and decided to increase the amount of leftovers I cooked,” Burton explains.
“I’ve always loved cooking in bulk and making sure that I have leftover meals in the freezer for those days I’m busy or can’t be bothered cooking.
“It really ramped up when I first had kids.
“Kids don’t know how to wait for their food, so I always made sure I had a variety of meals in the freezer ready to be heated at anytime.”
How it works
The mum freezes a lot of her “kid friendly” leftovers in silicone muffin trays.
“I’ll freeze them overnight and then pack them into zip lock plastic bags,” she explains.
“I write on the bag, using a permanent marker, the date and contents.
“Once I’ve used all of the contents, I’ll wash it and use it again until it breaks.”
Burton adds that zip lock bags “take up less room in the freezer than air tight containers”.
“The items that I do put into airtight containers, I write on the lid with a chalk marker,” she says, adding that chalk washes off in water.
The mum says her children don’t miss out on healthy and varied meals as they are “all home cooked”.
“The days that I’m not working, I try to cook different meals or include a new vegetable so that we can all eat together, and we can be a role model to the kids to try new things,” she explains.
Like most children, Burton’s kids can at times be fussy eaters – and that’s where her much-loved home-made bolognese sauce comes into play.
“I always make sure that I have bolognese sauce in my freezer, as it’s such a good base for so many family-friendly recipes,” she says.
“It all started out of desperation as I’d had a bad day when my youngest was a baby and I hadn’t made it to the shops.
“I was trying to work out what I could make for dinner with whatever I had at home.
“As there’s always bolognese sauce in my freezer, I decided to cook up some sweet potatoes in the microwave and serve them with the sauce, corn and cheese.
“It got me thinking what other things I could use the bolognese sauce with if I needed to.”
Reaping the benefits
The mum’s frozen meal system means she only needs to cook about three or four times a week.
“The other nights we’ll eat leftovers or heat up bolognese sauce and serve it in a different form,” she says.
Along with many of us, Burton doesn’t like washing up, so with the freezer meals she only has to do one lot of dishes.
“I get to sit back and reap the benefits,” she says.
Despite not being constrained by a budget, the mum says her method of cooking allows her family to cut down on costs, spending $240 a week on food.
“I definitely save money by being organised and shopping around,” she says.
“When I’m getting low on an item, I put it on my shopping list.
“If I don’t need it urgently, I wait until it’s on special before I buy it.”
Burton will buy meat in bulk when it’s on special.
“I divide it up and put it in the freezer if I’m not going to use it straight away,” she explains.
“Then, depending what’s on special, I plan my meals around that.
“I have to prep my meals when my two-year-old is having her day sleep, so they have to be fast and be able to be cooked at a later time of the day.”
She also makes sure her pantry is always stocked with the basic items and, if there are veggies in the fridge that are close to their expiry date, she’ll make a soup or a veggie risotto.
“I’m just getting into making double batches of slow cooker meals to save time,” she continues.
“When I’m preparing my slow cooker … I put half of the (prepared) ingredients into the slow cooker and half into the freezer bags (to use at a later time).
“It allows for a very quick slow-cooker meal another day.”
Mince meat
Burton has more than 14,000 followers on social media, where she shares tips such as the types of foods and drinks she typically freezes.
One example is mince meat, which she buys in bulk because meat “is so expensive right now”, she says in one clip.
She chops a 1.8kg packet of mince in half before popping the two halves in freezer bags.
“Leave a little air hole, roll it out flat and, once it’s flat, pop it in the freezer,” she explains.
“You can stack a few on top of each other if you need to defrost faster than if it was in the packet.”
Spaghetti bolognese
In another video, the mum shares what she does with leftover spaghetti bolognese sauce.
“I put it into muffin tins, so they’re all portion sizes,” she says.
“Pop it in the freezer and, once it’s frozen, put in zip lock bags.”
A third video shows the mum removing the muffin-shaped spaghetti and defrosting it in microwave safe bowls.
She then heats and plates it up, for a super quick and easy meal.
Smoothies
Another product Burton bulk makes and freezes are green or fruit smoothies.
“Sometimes have these for breakfast or lunch, put the lid on and pop them into the freezer,” she says.
“I’ll take it out the night before, if I’m having it for breakfast, if it’s for lunch I’ll take it out in the morning.”
Burton reveals she can make quick and cheap family-favourite meals with her frozen bolognese sauce for just $2.50 per serve.
She swears by her “batch cooking and freezing method” and recommends it to everyone.
“It will make you feel so much more organised and less stressed about what you are going to quickly cook for dinner,” she says.
“We also save a lot of money on take away as we usually always have something in the freezer that we can turn into a family meal.”
For more engaging lifestyle content, visit 7Life on Facebook.
If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your .
To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.