No one wants to make batch cooking mistakes. After all, the point is to save time and money, so anything that makes the process take longer or cost more is enough to make you wonder why you ever thought batch cooking was a good idea in the first place.

But I’m here to tell you that everyone makes mistakes. And I know this because I’ve made my fair share of them. So today, I’m going to fill you in on some of my biggest faux pas and tell you how you can learn from my mistakes instead of your own!

1. Not picking the simplest recipes

Elaborate meals might be nice on a special occasion, but when it comes to batch cooking, the simpler, the better. Many meals that lend themselves well to batch cooking are naturally on the easier side, but if anyone out there was thinking of trying to batch cook beef wellingtons or French cassoulet, I’d like to gently suggest you look elsewhere. 

Really, there are so many simple recipes with big flavours that can be easily doubled, tripled or quadrupled that it makes no sense to make this needlessly complicated.

2. Trying to batch cook (or even cook at all!) with a baby/toddler 

It may be a godsend for mums with little ones, but doing batch cooking (or any other type of cooking, for that matter) when a baby or toddler is around is just asking for trouble. You need to set aside some quiet time when you can focus on batch cooking uninterrupted, but the reward is that you’ll have that much more time to spend with your kids on the nights you enjoy the fruits of your labour. 

I found that what worked best for me was to do some batch cooking for the following day after my toddler went to bed.

3. Failing to start with a clean, uncluttered kitchen and empty dishwasher and sink

Batch cooking is all about efficiency, but I often used to find myself stopping in the middle of it because the sink was full or the counter was cluttered and I would run out of places to set bowls and trays. One of the batch cooking mistakes that can really slow you down is not starting with an empty dishwasher, sink and countertop. In fact, this is one of the most common cooking mistakes people make even when not batch cooking.

If you take just a few minutes to get these areas under control before you begin, you won’t have to worry about interrupting your rhythm or, even worse, knocking a pot off a crowded counter and waking up your baby with the clang of it crashing to the floor!

4. Trying to have a full batch cooking day 

A lot of the batch cooking advice I’ve read online suggests setting aside a whole day for batch cooking, and I admit I’ve done this on more than one occasion. But I also ended up exhausted at the end of it, not to mention more than a little annoyed at the things I missed out on by devoting a whole day to this. 

Instead, I like to do batch cooking here and there, where it makes sense. If you’re burning yourself out batch cooking or giving up special family events to do it, you’re doing it wrong. Be kind to yourself and don’t let it take over your life.

If you’re interested in batch cooking just once a week, and having several no-cook-days a month – you have to check out our meal planning membership – The Dinner Plan! 😉

5. Not being consistent 

To get the best results out of your batch cooking efforts, you need to be consistent. I have to admit, I wasn’t able to be consistent with this until I found my own way of doing things. There are a lot of ways to tackle batch cooking, and I’ve discovered that doubling or tripling one dinner per week works best for me. 

This connects to my previous point – if you’re trying to spend a whole day on this and you’re getting overwhelmed every time, you won’t have the desire to keep up. Find what works for you. Getting good at meal planning can help a lot in this regard as well. 

I’ve learned all this the hard way, but hopefully you won’t have to! As you batch cook more and more, you’ll start to settle into a good rhythm and everything will fall into place, week after week.