With a little planning and prep, batch cooking for families can do wonders for saving time, money, and effort. We’ve rounded up some of our favourite budget recipes to take out the guesswork, made easy with Thermomix® (in fact, Thermomix® does most of the prep and cooking for you!).
Discover more easy tips and tricks on how to save on your weekly grocery shop, with our savings guides and your Thermomix®!
Before you get started, meal plan your week!
Set yourself up for success and less stress by first taking stock of what you have in your fridge and pantry. This will help you plan your recipes and grocery list, whilst saving you money buying only what’s necessary.
Recipe apps with a planning tool come in handy here and Cookidoo® is our personal favourite (of course). Cookidoo® houses over 70,000 recipes for step-by-step cooking with your Thermomix® and what’s more, it comes with in-built drag and drop meal planning and shopping list tools. You can also search recipes by ingredient, so you’ll always find something delicious using what’s on hand.
Best big batch and budget recipes
Homemade yoghurt
Buying individual pots or large tubs from the shops can add up. Save by creating delicious homemade yoghurt instead for just the cost of a bottle of milk. With Thermomix® and a few helpful accessories like our Glass yoghurt jars and Yoghurt jar lids, you can make easy yoghurt for the whole family and bottle it up for an easy, on-the-go breakfast.
Better yet, if you host your very own Thermomix® Cooking Demo, you can earn yourself a 2.2L Round White ThermoServer, which is made to fit in your Varoma, making it the perfect yoghurt-fermenting vessel!
Our Natural yoghurt recipe creates a huge eight portions and costs less than a dollar to make. Plus, it’s a time saver as Thermomix® basically does all the work for you! For a dairy-free option, give our Creamy coconut yoghurt a try – perfect for vegans or those who are lactose intolerant.
Recipe bases, stocks and pastes
Save on store-bought alternatives, often filled with additives, fillers and preservatives, and opt for curry pastes and homemade stock you can easily make from scratch in your Thermomix®. You can make them in bulk and freeze for later to use in all sorts of mid-week dinner recipes, from winter soups and stews to fragrant curries.
Our homemade Vegetable stock paste is a firm plant-based favourite and makes a sizeable jar at only $0.16 a serve. You may also want to try our Chicken stock paste or Meat stock paste for hearty family meals. You can also use up any leftover veg and herbs in your fridge for these recipes, which means you’re minimising food wastage and saving money!
Mid-week curries in your Thermomix® are quick and versatile, and Cookidoo® has a range of curry pastes which can be made in minutes. Give our Thai green curry paste a go and freeze your batch in our Silicone freezer pods or Reusable zip lock pouch for later. You can then pop-out a serve to use in our Thai green curry recipe, which will be on the table in 30 minutes flat (quicker than delivery and much healthier for you and your savings account)!
Family mid-week dinners
We all know that life can get busy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t serve up delicious mid-week dinners that the whole family will love! With our budget-friendly dinner recipes, your Thermomix® can do all the hard work, so you have more time for what matters most.
There are so many big batch recipes available on Cookidoo® to try, and you can use search terms in the Explore section such as ‘soup’, ‘curry’ and ‘slow cooking’ to find hundreds of delicious, cost-effective meals.
These recipes make for great meal prep ideas that can be reheated for school or work lunches throughout the week. Simply cook, and pack in our Silicone Food Containers, or our Snack, Pack and Go Cups, or safely store in the fridge or freezer using our Vacuum Sealer Set.
There you have it! These were just some of our favourite easy batch cooking and budget-friendly recipes to feed the whole family. For more ways to save using Thermomix®, check out our 11 ways to save blog, and be sure to keep up to date with the latest over on Facebook and Instagram.
Keen for seasonal summer recipe ideas for under $5 per serve? Download your free copy of our Summer Savings Guide here.