When do you cook? | Imamother

TravelHearter

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 6:58 pm

Hi all! Hope you’re having a great day:)
Right now my shabbos prep is simple enough as my kids are little and sleep for the Friday night meal. We also aren’t really having guests due to COVID. To those people making shabbos for a lot of people, when do you cook? Food obviously tastes better fresh, and the only thing I would freeze is challah/ desert if I need to. Usually my schedule is:
Thurs: once every few weeks I make a big batch of challah to last for a while. In addition, soup, maybe chicken, maybe some sort of kugel, desert.
Fri: fish, chicken if I didn’t do it the day before, some sort of roasted vegetable or veg kugel, carb side (kugel, potatoes etc)
(My menu is challah, fish, soup, chicken, some sort of veg side, some sort of carb side, desert. DH makes the Chulent and other things like salad/deli are bought or done on shabbos)

That’s pretty much the time I have. I can’t imagine fitting in making more dishes! And doing it before thursday means things aren’t fresh (especially for second day of yom tov this year).
What do you? When do you cook?

thunderstorm

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 7:42 pm

I bake and cook all freezable items:

Soups
Challah
Cakes/cookies
Compotes
Ice cream pies
Potatoe kugel
Doughless knishes
Veggie Kugel
Cabbage and bow tie noodles
Roasts and any beef dishes

I make the following items the night day before and on erev yomtov:

Chicken dishes
Fish dishes
Veggie dishes
Salads
Dips

MiracleMama

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 8:12 pm

My daughters bake challah and desserts Thursday afternoon/ evening. I make everything else fresh on Friday. I don't tend to like the sorts of foods that freeze well. Not into kugels and such. But I have all my shopping done Thursday so I get up Friday morning and just cook and still have enough time to relax a bit and go into Shabbos calmly. (If I were working outside the home, I'd have no choice but to get just about everything done Thursday night but B"H that isn't the case now).

ChanieMommy

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 8:17 pm

I cook on Yom-tov, and I take advantage to prepare things you could not leave on a plata... like steaks or lambchops or stir fry...

I do baking and some deserts beforehand, if I want kigel I also prepare it before yom-tov, but I mainly cook fresh on yom-tov... and anyway, also on Shabbat, I make many fresh salads, fruit salads and the like...

ChanieMommy

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 8:20 pm

thunderstorm wrote:

You can freeze potatoe kugel? I didn't know that! I thought it was taboo... maybe I should try...

PinkFridge

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 8:37 pm

Make a list of what you make. And as much as you like fresh, figure out, how early can you really make it? Some things can be made or prepped Wed. And yes, I'm a big freezer fan.

TravelHearter

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 8:41 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

Make a list of what you make. And as much as you like fresh, figure out, how early can you really make it? Some things can be made or prepped Wed. And yes, I'm a big freezer fan.

What can be frozen? How long does food last? I don’t have much expertise with advanced prep. I tried to freeze cooked chicken and DH didn’t like it as much as fresh