A supermum who batch cooks up to 40 portions at a time for her family has become an unlikely YouTube presenter thanks to her money-saving freezer meals.
Suzanne Mulholland, 43, can cook 10 different meals in an hour by using similar ingredients and just one spoon to save on washing up.
The meals are then distributed into bags which are flattened to save space in the freezer.
After being inundated with requests from mums at the school gate she started a YouTube channel under the name ‘The Batch Lady’ and now has 60,000 followers.
Mum-of-two Suzanne started her unusual method of cooking to save time as she juggles family life with running the family’s holiday cottage business.
“I do this because I don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking,” she said.
“Working mums and dads want a home-cooked meal but there’s little time to cook during the week.
“So it’s about finding an hour on a Sunday and doing it then.
“You just stack them together on top of each other, all frozen flat. It is really good for when people are very busy.”
Suzanne and her family live on a remote farm near Selkirk on the Scottish Borders which is a 30 minute drive from the nearest supermarket.
So she likes to stockpile food and cook in large batches which provide nutritious meals throughout the week for her children Jake, 12, and Zara, 10.
Her meals mainly use frozen ingredients to keep the cost down.
She said: “I cook meals at the same time which are all quite similar. It is easier to make things that have the same ingredients.
“The recipes are very pared back, so they take less time to make. And it is cheaper and there is less to prepare.
“Using frozen food is much cheaper than buying fresh vegetables.”
She decided to launch a website and YouTube channel after offering a lesson at a charity raffle – and 20 interested mums crammed into her kitchen to watch.
“I knew what I was doing in terms of cooking, but not presenting,” she said.
“I put a video on YouTube, but I didn’t even have an email address 18 months ago.”
Suzanne now has 60,000 followers across her social media channels on YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
Her video titles include ’10 family chicken meals in one hour!’, ‘Moroccan lamb chops in five minutes’ and ‘How to make a one pot roast chicken dinner’.
Despite taking on her extra role as a YouTube presenter, Suzanne reckons her new style of cooking has created more quality time for her family.
She said: “Years ago, mums would be looking after their kids and would cook in the middle of the day.
“Now people come in, and they go straight out again to go to the gym or take their children to clubs.
“I think we do more things with our kids every evening now, because I don’t have to spend time cooking.”
