Blog: Batch cooking and meal prepping 101

Written by Ethan

Sometimes uni is a hotpot of stress: studying, finances, and future planning... you don’t need to add cooking to the mix!

Meal prepping and batch cooking allow you to be prepared for the week ahead, so what you‘re going to eat is the least of your weekly worries. In an average week, university students spend £12 on takeaways – when you look at that being £50 a month, the numbers start to add up.

My former habits

Normally, I’m one of those students, who thinks in the spur of the moment what I want to eat, dash to Aldi and buy ingredients that won’t be used again and end up in waste alongside the money I spent. Two days a week, I would be in Dixy’s or Mama Mia, paying £6+ for something that I could’ve made myself. I rarely used containers, meaning I was always having to make something new every day, as I was buying smaller short-term ingredients.

New tips I tried

I found some food advice on Save the Student to save both time and money – things I don’t have in abundance! I was therefore committed to improving my week through changing my habits and hopefully forming new ones.

The four main tips I followed for the week were:

1. Meal planning - writing down what I wanted to eat each day, therefore knowing what to buy and what ingredients could be used again.
2. Buying in bulk - this was more so for the meat and fish I brought. Instead of buying small quantities frequently (which costs more in the long run), I could go large and spread it across the week.
3. Batch cooking - rather than making one portion at a time, cooking in a bigger batch meant I had extra for lunch the next day, sharing with my friend, or freezing for another week.
4. Using containers - with the larger amounts I cooked, I needed to store food for my breakfast, lunch and dinner another day, keeping it in the fridge or freezer until needed.

How did it go?

I must admit it was hard to change my habits of cooking in the moment, but on Monday afternoon I put the effort in, sat down and wrote a list.

• Monday: sweet and sour chicken with rice
• Tuesday: chicken tacos
• Wednesday: tuna and rice
• Thursday: fried rice 
• Friday: a friend’s birthday meal - so we’ll call it a cheat day!

Once I had my meal plan, I figured out the overlapping ingredients that could be used and the things I could buy in bulk. With a quick trip to Aldi, I brought chicken breasts for half of my meals and the tuna I wanted in bulk (so that I would have some for future use). Essentials such as rice, pasta and seasonings were things I already had so I was able to save in that sense.

By the time I came to the till, I was expecting to see my usual £50+ Monday food burden, however, to my delight, it was a refreshing £20.30 staring back at me (saving about £30+)!

On Monday evening, I made my sweet and sour chicken, alongside cooking a large portion of rice that stretched the next couple of days. I managed to fill three containers with spare portions, which allowed my friend to have one, and for future me to have lunch at work and breakfast on Wednesday morning. This inevitably saved me time when rushing to work and money by not buying on-campus meals.

Tuesday, I made my tacos and had enough to have seconds (I’d worked up an appetite!) and some for another day. Wednesday, my tuna and rice allowed me and my flatmate to have dinner, and lunch for the next day. Fried rice on the Thursday used up the last of the rice I’d batch-cooked.

My week altogether was more organised, and cooking wasn’t an issue adding to my stress levels. The challenges I faced were breaking the habit of not getting takeout and the repetition of having the same food  for lunch the next day – but it’s not that big an issue.

Pros and cons in a nutshell

Pros of meal planning and batch cooking:

1. Less time cooking
2. More organised use of ingredients = less food waste
3. More organised week altogether so less stressed
4. Save money!!!

Cons of male planning and batch cooking:

1. Possibly repetitive in nature
2. The initial effort to get started at the beginning of the week
3. If you like spending extra money and wasting food, then sure... 

Final thoughts

I don’t really know why I didn’t start meal prepping and batch cooking sooner; it's so much more effective, money-efficient and just easier. I would encourage everyone reading this to try the same tips, because let’s face it – we all like saving money and time!

If you’re ever struggling with the cost of living, the University has plenty of tips and support for you. The Guild of Students also run initiatives like the Community Breakfast and Community Pantry.