Karen Wright: Batch cooking to make life easier for hubby while I'm away

I am travelling with my mum and my two daughters; Mum and I are flying from Leeds Bradford airport and my daughters from Birmingham and Gatwick, hopefully we will all synchronise and arrive about the same time.

My husband John will be home alone! This is quite an unusual situation as we normally travel everywhere together. My only concern about leaving him behind is how he will get on in the kitchen. Over the years we have got into our routines and around the food it is me that cooks and he is responsible for the washing up. We have had a conversation about it, and he is not keen on ready prepared meals from the supermarket, nor does he want to visit the fish and chip shop more than perhaps once during the week, so we have come up with a plan.

I have been shopping and bought some ingredients that he should be able to put together to make main meals and I have cooked and frozen some dishes too. I have prepared a tasty goulash, which happens to be a favourite, and topped it with fluffy dumplings, a delicious shepherd's pie and juicy chicken and ham pie. All this freezes well and John can defrost and reheat these as the fancy takes him. In addition to this, I bought a large pack of sausages which I portioned into bags with three sausages in each and popped these in the freezer too. In the fridge there is a pack of gammon steaks, and we always have eggs in the larder, so I am confident that he will not go hungry.

Batch cooking is always a benefit and is very useful in situations like this. When my children were small, and I worked part time I found it beneficial to spend an afternoon each week cooking large quantities of basics like casseroles or a big pack of mince. Getting ahead with food preparation paid dividends later in the week when we were all getting in from work and school at different times and everyone was ravenous as soon as they set door in the door. The Boy Scouts have a motto ‘Be Prepared’ - unfortunately for John he was never a boy scout!