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First of all, I must thank every one of you who have so kindly sent ‘get well’ messages to me as I undergo my foot reconstruction surgery. I had my operation on Tuesday and everything went well. I really appreciate having a special group of kind folks like you who form part of our ‘newsletter family’. Thank you so much!
Recently I was chatting to a friend and the conversation progressed to discussing batch cooking because of my impending lack of mobility due to my foot op. My friend then asked a very interesting question. Can you reheat meals that have been frozen and are not yet fully thawed out? A useful subject for a Newsletter, I thought, so here goes.
Preparing meals can be an absolute joy or a bit of a chore, depending on our personal fascination with cooking and creating dishes. Decades ago, in my 20s, learning to cook became a real hobby after I faithfully bought every issue of the Cordon Bleu Cookery Course which came out in weekly parts over 72 weeks in 1968! And I still have every copy in their binders and I often refer to them.
However, that was at a time when I was struggling with my food intake – eating too much of it because it was so delicious! It was also at a time when I had a real interest in cookery. Thankfully, when I started presenting cookery programmes on TV many years later, all of that knowledge really paid off.
Back to the present and I am no longer fascinated by food or cooking and now very much eat to fuel my energy levels for my happily busy life. To me, batch cooking is brilliant because I only have to cook once and it provides us with ready meals that have all been cooked with my chosen ingredients, so they are much healthier. When cool, I pack them in appropriate portion sizes to minimise waste and label, date and freeze them. Perfect!
My main batch cooking meals are spaghetti bolognese and chilli con carne, along with some other favourites - fish pie, cottage pie and chicken and potato pie. As Mike and I usually go to the gym on a Thursday morning for our toughest workout of the week, (not me at the moment!), we always have spaghetti bolognese on a Wednesday evening. It sounds pathetic but I love that I don’t even have to make a dinner decision on that day!
I am aware that the word ‘pie’ has appeared in that list of batch-cooked meals but of course they are not pastry pies. They are just lean meat or chicken or fish cooked in gravy or a sauce, topped with mashed potato without butter.
If you are feeding a family, by batch cooking you can sneakily add some vegetables into the mix without the little ones ‘who hate veg’ even being aware! I am reliably informed that this works a treat. My friend adds finely chopped peppers, broccoli, carrots – all sorts – to her bolognese or lasagna, and the children absolutely love those dishes!
My other favourite for batch cooking is soups. In our freezer at the moment there is some green pea and roast garlic, curried butternut squash, carrot and coriander, and broccoli and stilton soup. They are perfect for a quick lunch served with some fresh wholegrain bread.
Now back to the question: can you reheat food while it is still frozen? The quick answer is yes. Personally, I follow the ‘belt and braces’ approach of making sure I reheat whatever it is I’m cooking to a heat greater than the original temperature. It is also very important that it is hot all the way through, particularly in the middle. This is critical when cooking chicken, whether from fresh or when reheating from frozen.
It is safe to reheat frozen food without thawing either in a saucepan or microwave (in the case of a soup or stew) or in the oven or microwave (for example, casseroles and combination meals). But, again, you have to make sure it is very hot when you serve it. Of course, reheating frozen food will take longer than if the food is thawed out first.
When I was a consultant for M&S for their ready meals market, I learned that we weren’t the only folks who ate a regular repertoire of meals. Apparently, the average household has a rotating list of around 14 family favourites.
There are many advantages of batch cooking. Here are just a few:
- Saves time
- Saves money
- Saves waste
- Saves calories because we measure portion sizes
- Saves the temptation of sending out for unhealthy fast food
- Healthier than bought brands
- We are in control of the ingredients
- We can tweak recipes to our own personal taste
- Relieves stress because we always have a meal handy - we can just take one out of the freezer.
So, what’s not to like? Let’s make batch cooking part of our everyday life and it’s great to be able to just relax when it’s mealtime.
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Chilli con Carne
Serves 4
Per serving: 340 calories, 7g fat (excluding rice) (545 calories with rice)
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 30 Mins
1 large onion, finely chopped
Rapeseed oil spray
2 heaped teaspoons chilli powder
2 garlic cloves, crushed or a teaspoon of ‘easy garlic’
500g 5% fat lean minced beef
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
1 x 400g can branded red kidney beans in chilli sauce
2 tablespoons tomato purée
Freshly ground black pepper
- Heat a large pan and spray with the rapeseed oil.
- Add the finely chopped onion and the garlic and cook until soft then add the chilli powder to cook out.
- Add the mince and stir well until it changes colour and almost cooked.
- Add the canned chopped tomatoes and the can of chilli beans in their sauce into the pan and mix well.
- Finally add the tomato puree and a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper and stir into the mixture.
At this stage you can place it in a casserole dish and leave in the fridge for a day or two until required. When needed, place the casserole a moderate oven (180°C/350°F/Gas 4) for 30 minutes or simmer in a pan on top of the stove, stirring regularly to ensure it doesn’t burn, and cook for around 15 minutes.
Season to taste and serve with salad or 55g [dry weight] basmati rice (Rice adds 205 calories to the dish.)
Chef's tip: Grated carrot, grated courgette or finely chopped peppers work well added to this recipe to make it even more healthy.
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Don't forget, you can download and print a copy of this recipe if you click on the image above to go to this recipe's page on the website.
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Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.
I have recently returned from the longest holiday I have ever been on. It was almost an entire month and I so enjoyed getting away from the normal daily routine of work and domestic duties. However, towards the end of any holiday I am always very keen to get back to my normal life as I find I miss it enormously. I particularly miss the daily contact with my family and friends... and regularly writing to all of you who read this Newsletter every week. It is always a bit of a challenge if I have to "batch write" a string of articles in advance of a holiday!
My husband and I went on a cruise through the Panama Canal and up the West Coast of America and if you had told me a few years ago that I would be going on cruising holidays I would have made it quite clear it was not for me, and that it would never happen. In my head I thought you needed to be really, really old to go on cruises! However, I have definitely changed my mind now.
Yes, the average age on our cruise was on the high side, and it is without doubt the perfect holiday for those with mobility issues. These modern cruise companies are obviously fully geared up for looking after those with health challenges, and it is good to see that you can still travel the world when you can hardly walk.
You will not be surprised to hear though that I had a strong desire to stand up in the dining room and instruct everyone to cross their arms on their chest, lean forward and 'stand up and sit down' 10 times. I am confident that if some had done this over the entire month they would be less likely to need to use their walker at the end of it! You will be glad to hear that I resisted the temptation.
For me though the biggest draw for cruising is the fact you see so many different places, with fantastic tours offered at every port, giving you a real flavour of the country you are visiting and all your clothes stay in the same wardrobe for the entire time! Over the years I have been on many holidays where we have moved around every day or two, living out of a suitcase. They were fabulous, but I don't want to do that any more. And now I know why people end up cruising.
The Best Bits
Since returning I have been asked which was the best place we visited, and without doubt it was going through the Panama Canal. That may seem odd, as it is just a big (yet fascinating) feat of engineering that you can hardly call 'scenic'. However, it was brought alive by a series of three lectures on board delivered by one of the most inspiring presenters I have ever had the privilege of listening to. Dr. Jay Wolff is 91 years old! It meant that before our journey through the canal we knew the entire history of how and why it was built, including the devastating fact that 25,000 men died in the process.
The most amazing talent that Dr. Jay had was his ability to give an hour's lecture without using any notes, remembering names, dates and places in the most incredible detail. How does a 91-year-old do that? He was an example of good ageing at its best. I observed him closely as he spoke and the thing I clocked most was the fact that he never stopped moving... he just walked from one side of the stage to the other the entire time. That's how he keeps his body fit, and his mind is kept alert by delivering a series of amazing lectures that he must have spent many hours researching. He is now my role model for the future. My poor members who see me every week have got me for a very long time to come!
Keeping Active on Holiday
One thing everybody mentions about cruising is how do you resist all that food? Some ships have a reputation for even offering midnight buffets, so you can graze constantly for the full 24 hours if you want to. I admit to gaining a few pounds despite making every effort to minimise it. I am confident though that I know I will get it off pretty quickly after returning home just by returning to my normal eating habits. The food was exceptional and exceedingly tempting, but I put in place my own restrictive practices:
- I ate a good breakfast, sometimes muesli with berries, nuts and seeds or a couple of poached eggs on toast. But never both on the same day.
- We both often skipped lunch and went to the gym instead. It was very quiet at lunchtime!
- Dinner was usually the most delicious fish, served with vegetables. If you wanted chips you had to order them separately, they didn't just automatically end up on your plate which you would then almost certainly be tempted to eat!
- We were often the first in the restaurant in the evenings as we are now in the habit of eating early.
- If we are sounding a bit smug and too much like a pair of 'goody-goodies' I have to tell you that our sin was that alcohol was consumed on a daily basis! At home it is only ever a very strict 4 out of 7 days.
Keeping Fit on Holiday
To prevent too much weight gain we were pleased to discover the excellent gym facility on board, with state-of-the-art exercise equipment. Proper instruction was sadly lacking, so it was good that I knew how to use it effectively. We both committed to going every other day and we were surprised to find a large number of fellow cruisers were doing the same. It was so busy the first time we went that after that we made sure we only went at lunchtime when it was quiet. How good that it was so well used.
For those who don't like using the gym the very least you could do was walk the Trim Track on the top deck, and I frequently saw people using it at all times of day. It was great to know that 8 times around was a mile.
What Next?
 Thankfully hubby and I are of the same mind as to the benefits of cruising now we are getting on a bit. Every couple of years or so we will do one, possibly to places we have not ventured to before. South America seems to be calling me for our next trip, but maybe we will not go away for quite so long next time. I love my everyday life too much to hanker after long duration holidays.
I hope that you have something planned in the near future and that you are able to experience something that gives you some wonderful lasting memories, as we just have.
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This Week's Fitness Challenge
- When you go for your daily 30+ minute walk have you ever calculated how long your walks are? If you walk at a 'steady ' pace you are likely to be taking 20 minutes to walk one mile (i.e 3 miles an hour). If you up the pace, you may take only 15 minutes to walk the same distance (i.e 4 miles an hour). This week's challenge is to walk a bit faster!
- This week, alternate between doing a Standing Weights Workout on one day and a Floor Weights Workout on the next – they only take around 15 minutes so it's great to do one every day!
- Exercising with a Toning Band is just as effective as using weights and if you are going on holiday a toning band is small, light and easy to fit in your suitcase. Learn some Toning Band Exercises now and you will be well prepared to be able to continue to keep fit whilst you are away.
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Did you know... 
If you think of frozen food you will probably think - Captain Birdseye!
In 1924 Clarence Birdseye invented a commercially viable process for fast-freezing food. Food had been frozen before, but because it took hours rather than minutes, ice crystals would have time to form, expanding and breaking the cell walls of the food being frozen, affecting the taste and leaving it unattractive and unappetising once thawed.
In 1938 Birds Eye first introduced frozen food to the UK bringing us the beefburger in 1950. In 1955 Fish Fingers arrived and since their  introduction, more than 15 billion Fish Fingers have been sold in the UK alone!
In 1967 Captain Birdseye became the Birds Eye advertising mascot. He was played by actor John Hewer and in 1993 Captain Birdseye was voted the most recognised sea captain after Captain Cook in a poll. The actor retired in 1998 but the character was reintroduced with a new TV advertising campaign in 2016.
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And finally...
This is such a beautiful time of the year to feel the warm sun on our backs and enjoy the flowers in our gardens coming back to life. The perfect time to get motivated to get ourselves trim and fit for our holiday whether it is abroad or at home. It is also ideal weather for walking and, as I mentioned last week, walking every day is unbelievably good for us.
Have a great week.
With love and best wishes,
Rosemary Conley CBE DL
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LIVE LONGER | LIVE HEALTHIER | LIVE HAPPIER
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