Meal prep for a working week: containers, portions and the freezer
Batch cooking fails for logistical reasons far more often than culinary ones. The food is fine. It is the containers that do not stack, the portions that are wrong, and the frozen block with no label that gets thrown out in March.
Get the sizes right first
Most people buy one size and then fight it. Three sizes cover almost everything:
- 750 ml–1 litre — a full main meal for one adult. This is the workhorse and you want the most of these.
- 400–500 ml — sides, sauces, overnight oats, half portions, children's meals.
- 1.5–2 litres — the batch itself: a stew, a chilli, a pot of soup that gets divided later.
See container sets and food containers.
Glass or plastic — the honest split
Glass for anything tomato-based, oily, or being reheated. It does not stain, does not hold smells, goes from freezer to oven if it is borosilicate, and looks clean after two years. It is heavy and it breaks.
Plastic for carrying, for the gym bag, for the freezer drawer where weight matters and for anything a child handles. Modern polypropylene is perfectly safe; the issue is that it stains, warps in a hot dishwasher over time, and loses its seal. Buy it expecting to replace it, and do not reheat strongly coloured food in it. More detail in glass or plastic food storage.
Stacking is a specification
A UK fridge shelf is about 30 cm high and considerably less deep than an American one. Rectangular containers use a shelf far better than round ones, and a range where the small lid sits flat on the big base stacks two high without sliding. Test the stack in the shop or on the product photo — if the lids are domed, they will not stack, whatever the description says.
Freezing: the three rules
- Cool before freezing. Warm food raises the freezer temperature and makes big ice crystals, which is what turns a stew watery when it thaws.
- Leave headspace. Liquid expands by about a tenth. A brim-full glass container in a freezer is a cracked one.
- Label with the date, not the contents. You will recognise the chilli. You will not remember whether it went in five weeks ago or five months.
Freeze flat where you can — a shallow portion thaws in a fraction of the time of a deep one, which is usually what decides whether it gets eaten on a Tuesday.
Dry goods are a different problem
Rice, pasta, flour and cereal want airtight jars with a gasket, not the bags they came in. Square canisters use a shelf far better than round ones, and clear sides mean you buy what you have run out of rather than a fourth bag of lentils. See food jars and canisters and food storage.
The rotation habit
New batches go to the back, older to the front. It sounds trivial and it is the entire difference between a freezer that feeds you and a freezer that stores food until it is thrown away. Once a month, cook a "freezer week" and buy almost nothing fresh.
Related: small kitchen storage ideas and packed lunches that survive the commute.
