The cost of food is on an upward trajectory, so it’s good to get into the practice of batch cooking enough for two or more meals. We’ve selected five budget suppers that stretch to leftovers you can take for lunch the next day.
Sunday
Sunday dinner:
Foolproof slow roast chicken
Monday lunch:
Honey-mustard chicken pasta
Thai chicken & mushroom broth
Roast chicken soup
DIY stock guide
Monday
Monday dinner:
Sausage & bean casserole
Tuesday lunch:
Ideas for quinoa
New potato recipes
Tuesday
Tuesday dinner:
Spiced vegetable pilaf
Wednesday lunch
Mexican rice & bean salad
Wednesday
Wednesday dinner:
Quick bean & chorizo chilli
Thursday lunch:
Perfect jacket potatoes
Thursday
Keep it light towards the end of the week. This simple pan-fried chicken in sauce uses budget ingredients that can also be used in lunch the next day. Serve the chicken with rice, and make double what you need. With a few added ingredients you have Friday’s lunch – a tuna salad that uses surplus tomatoes and olives from the chicken dinner.
Thursday dinner:
Pan-fried chicken with tomato & olive sauce
Utterly foolproof rice
Friday lunch:
Help-yourself tuna rice salad
Caroline’s tips for storage and transport
Our food editor reveals her top tips for safely serving food up the second time around.
- If you’re planning to keep food for the next day, cool it as quickly as possible and get it into the fridge. Once cooked, you should aim to get it into the fridge within 90 minutes. Avoid the temptation to leave things cooling on the hob overnight.
- Reheat food so that it’s piping hot the whole way through, otherwise you may risk food poisoning.
- Keep food in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Don’t pop it in your bag to take to work and then leave it there until lunchtime.
- If you’ve made a big vat of food, decide what you’ll need and freeze the rest in portions. Don’t wait a few days and then freeze or even worse let it go off and have to throw it away.
- Keep your foods in well-covered and sealed containers to avoid cross-contamination. You don’t want raw food that needs to be cooked dripping onto food that’s ready to eat. Smells can also transfer, so good sealing will avoid your milk tasting of onions!
More about transporting and storing food:
We have lots of recipe ideas for using up leftovers, or share your ideas with us below: