Although cooking in bulk may sound like a lot of work, in the end it really saves you time and money. There are a number of ways that you can accomplish bulk cooking based on your availability and how many people you are cooking for. Cooking in bulk is typically done every-other-week or once a month; however, there are a number of combinations in between that you can try.

Planning Your Menu for Bulk Cooking

How often you cook in bulk will probably depend on the most important tool needed for this type of job -- a decent sized freezer to be able to hold all the meals you cook. If you have a good size freezer or an extra one, cooking once-a-month will probably work.

Determining how much space you have will help you decide on the best schedule for cooking in bulk. The next step is to plan your menu. You can implement some of your favorite recipes into your meals; however, a great tool to rely on is a cookbook that specifically contains recipes for cooking in bulk. You can either purchase one or find bulk cooking recipes online.

When coming up with recipes, think of ways that you can use a dish in more than one way. For instance, if you were to cook up some chicken breasts with your favorite spices, you could use that chicken in several ways. You could use the chicken as filling in a "chicken wrap" with other ingredients such as avocados, cheese and sour cream. That same batch of chicken could also be made into a rice dish, a stew or soup, a casserole and on so. This gives you variety so that you don't feel like you are eating the same things over and over again.

Once you decide on your recipes, you need to figure out which day will be the best for cooking in bulk. This can be something you do on your own or with others. Having a few friends over or designating bulk cooking as a family project is a great way to make the cooking go a little faster and spend some time with loved ones.