Suzanne Mulholland - The Batch Lady: Cooking on a Budget

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

HarperCollins Publishers

Macken House, 39/40 Mayor Street Upper,

Dublin 1, Ireland, D01 C9W8

First published in Great Britain by HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023

Text Copyright Suzanne Mulholland 2023

Grace Mortimer asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 978-0-00-849405-6

eBook ISBN: 978-0-00-849406-3

Version 2023-01-01

Photographers: Haarala Hamilton (recipe shots) and Ryan Ball (lifestyle shots)

Food styling: Elena Silcock (recipe shots) and Jessica Geddes (lifestyle shots)

Prop styling: Sarah Birks (recipe shots) and Hannah Wilkinson (lifestyle shots)

Design and Art Direction: Georgie Hewitt

Project Editor: Dan Hurst

Senior Editor: Nira Begum

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

The batch is back! Whoop! Another book and this time we are going BIG on saving you some of your hard-earned money.

For anyone new to the world of batching, hello! Im Suzanne Mulholland AKA The Batch Lady and its great to have you on board. Strap yourself in and get ready to be organised and in control of your weekly food and, perhaps most importantly, your food budget.

It has to be said that my recipes have always been designed with economy in mind, so they should never break the bank but, in this book, Ive tightened up those costs further, giving you even more bang for your buck!

When I first started batch cooking it was all about saving time - as a busy working mum, I didnt want to spend every evening dashing home in a panic, wondering what I was going to feed the family. As the years went on, however, I quickly realised that another benefit of batching was that I was saving money, without even thinking about it! Gone were the days of panic buying at the expensive corner shop on my way home, or trolley dashing around the supermarket, throwing in anything that caught my eye and hoping that I had at least a few nights dinners in there before I had to repeat the process a few days later. Sound familiar?

The magic of batch cooking isnt, as many might think, just about cooking things in bulk. The magic is in being organised. By planning and preparing your meals in advance, youre investing in your future, saving yourself time and money and stopping yourself from panic impulse buying or reaching for that expensive takeaway menu.

When you cook your meals in advance, you also portion them in advance, meaning the opportunity to waste food (and the temptation to eat huge double portions just because theyre there) is much lower. Cooking in this way also saves money in other areas, such as your gas and electricity bill, as well as being better for the planet - whenever I have the oven on, Im generally cooking at least two meals, and I might also throw some baked potatoes in for the week ahead, making maximum use of the energy from the oven.

With food prices on the rise, more and more of us are finding that groceries are one of our biggest monthly spends, so why dont we treat them the same as other major purchases? If youre anything like me, you will agonise for ages over buying a new item of clothing or something for the house, asking yourself do I really need it? Is it worth the money? Yet, many of us hand our bank cards over at the supermarket checkout without asking these same questions because we have resigned ourselves to the fact that these foods are a necessity. But, with a little planning and a dose of batching magic, youll be amazed at how you can hack away at those mammoth monthly bills and save yourself tons of precious time in the process.

So, whether youre part of a huge family, a new parent, a student or living alone, I really hope that this book will help take the stress out of the weekly shop and help you to get tasty meals on the table that everyone will love, whilst saving you some much-needed pennies in the process.

Believe in the batch!

There are some key things you can do to help reduce your food shopping bill. Some you may already know, such as not shopping when youre hungry, but others are not so obvious. Use the tips below to get yourself into the right headspace and youll be saving pennies like a pro in no time!

MEAL PLANNING

Supermarkets are laid out with the essential items spread throughout, so you generally need to walk around the whole shop to get everything you need. With the huge range of goods on offer and special deals shouting at you from the end of the aisles, it can be hard to stay focused on what you actually need. The best way to stay on course is to make a solid plan for the weeks meals before you get anywhere near the shops. Meal planning doesnt have to be set in stone and, if you want a bit of flexibility, you can plan for just five nights out of seven to factor in the occasional night out or for those days when life gets in the way and you dont have time to cook a meal.

Some people struggle knowing where to start when making a meal plan. The questions below are a great jumping-off point to get you going.

-What do you already have in the fridge/freezer/ cupboard? Will any of it make a meal?

-What do you have planned for the week ahead - are there any busy nights when youll need something quick and easy from the freezer?

-Got one meal planned? Can you double it up and make an extra meal for another night?

-Which nights during the week do you have more time to cook from scratch or double-up and make an extra meal?

Once you have the answers to all of these questions, youll be well set to make a plan of attack for the week.

CREATE A LIST

Once you have a basic plan you can go ahead and create a shopping list of what you will need to make the plan work. Going to a store armed with a list and the determination to stick to it will help to prevent you from impulse buying.

WHERE TO SHOP

As someone who is all about saving time, I would usually advise you to stick to one shop. However, when you are on a tight budget its good to shop around, so consider splitting your shopping between two supermarkets - one of the large supermarkets that will have everything you need combined with a smaller discount supermarket (such as Lidl or Aldi). The smaller supermarkets might not have all the brands you normally like to shop for (more on that later) but, in general, many of their basics will be cheaper. Also consider using a supermarket that price matches, as often they have done the hard work for you. Using a points card can also help give you discounted prices on some products.