I’ve been batch cooking and meal prepping for the entire week for the last couple of years. It has helped me tremendously and has been a lifesaver in reaching my health goals and saving time and money.
Batch cooking is a bit of a therapeutic time for me. I put on something to watch on my phone and cook, blend, and bake as much as my little heart desires.
My tiny kitchen typically looks like a bit of a disaster while batch cooking with veggies galore on the cutting board, soups on the stove, hummus in the blender, quinoa in the rice cooker, sweet potatoes and homemade granola in the air fryer mini oven, etc. But that’s fun, right?
Below I share some of my favourite ideas that I incorporate into my weekly meal planning, grocery shopping, meal prepping and batch cooking, so keep on reading.
What is batch cooking?
Batch cooking is preparing most or all of your meals and snacks for the entire week on just one day of the week. You make a date with your kitchen for about 1-2 hours one day every week and have some fun cooking! As we have an under-the-counter fridge with a small freezer box, I mainly buy fresh ingredients and then batch-cook 3 to 4 dinners twice a week.
Healthy batch cooking can help you:
- Remove the stress from deciding what to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
- Spend less time in the kitchen throughout the week
- Ensure you have healthy meals sitting in your fridge, freezer or pantry, you won’t resort to restaurant meals or takeout
- Save money, as you’ll cook and eat what you need rather than spend £10 on a latte and muffin when hunger strikes
- Explore new recipes and culinary skills
- Bond with family members and have fun, both when you recruit family members to help and when you later can sit down to a relaxing meal together
- Support your health + wellness goals
So why batch cook?
- Save you time from cooking throughout the week
- Keeps you on track with your health goals. This is especially important for those of you who have a specific health goal that’s high priority: weight loss, muscle gain, fitness/strength goals – this will help keep you on track!
- The mental “burden/obligation” off your mind from thinking “What am I going to make for dinner?” or “I still have to cook”, etc.
- Consistency is key when making and achieving your health and wellness goals. And what’s more consistent than having your meal prepared and planned for you a week in advance?
- It’s a fun way to diversify your food and meal choices throughout the day and week.
5 tips to plan your batch-cooking session:
- Cook multiple dishes that call for the same oven temperature. Unless you have two ovens (lucky!) you won’t be able to cook two dishes at different oven temps. For instance, I like to pick out a vegetable and a fish recipe that calls for the same oven temp
- Think through your tool limitations when planning your session. If you have two recipes that use your skillet, carefully plan how long it will be in use so it is realistic to use it again (especially considering cooling and cleaning time).
- Make sure to order or pick up any essentials before the session. While you don’t need fancy tools or an amazing kitchen to be successful at batch-cooking, a few items will be required, like storage containers to keep the food when it is finished. Give thought to these and have them on hand before you begin.
- Pick out all of your recipes. I’ve added a section with further tips below.
- Make a meal plan for the week. Print out a calendar page or use Google Calendar (like I do) and write down which recipes you plan to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plan your grocery and batch-cooking sessions when you have time to execute them.
6 tips for picking out recipes for a batch-cooking session:
Create a menu plan with recipes, that ensure you’ve got all your bases covered. Peruse food blogs, magazines or social media for inspiration and collect what appeals to you, but remember since you’ll be eating leftovers with healthy batch cooking, you’ll want to pick recipes that will keep well in the fridge or freezer.
- Select one-pot recipes. Minimising recipes that call for many cooking vessels makes things much easier to coordinate, and the cleaning up at the end of the session. I prefer soups/stews for this reason, especially when the sautéing can be done in the same pot at the beginning of the recipe.
- Select recipes that contain complete meals. It makes the best use of your time if you make complete meals instead of a bunch of sides. I always start by planning a soup, stew, or skillet as the core of the routine and then see which sides fit in as opposed to the other way around.
- Select meat recipes that can save time later. By cooking something like a chicken or a pot roast, you end up with a hunk of protein that you can use to make a super quick meal later in the week. Shredded meat can be added to a salad, stir-fry, or vegetable soup.
- Select recipes that are simple and intuitive. This is not the time to try a new complex recipe – think basic and doable. Avoid recipes with lots of steps and a large margin of error.
- Take into account storage capabilities. Something like a broth will last a week in the refrigerator, while fish lasts a day or two. Some recipes freeze well, others need to be eaten fresh. Take this into account when choosing a recipe!
- Focus on nutrient-dense meals and not treats. I don’t include treat recipes in my batch-cooking sessions and choose to focus on the most nourishing to my body.
5 tips to execute your batch-cooking session:
- Start with a clean kitchen, and make sure your countertops are clutter-free. Because you will be going through a lot of volume of food and making a lot of dishes, it is best to start fresh to avoid overwhelm later.
- Chop all of your ingredients before you start cooking. This will make it far easier to follow recipes, especially when you have more than one dish cooking.
- Use a timer. This is not a good time to “wing it,” especially if you have a lot of meals cooking at once.
- Clean as you go. You will be surprised at how much time you have while your food cooks – be prudent and use this time to take mini-cleaning breaks. It will make the job so much easier at the end, and dishes are far easier to clean when they are freshly dirty.
- Pack your meals in portion-size containers. This makes it easy to see how many meals you have ready to go.
Smart Batch Cooking Tips
- Always make a shopping list when you’re going to batch cook to ensure you have all the ingredients you need.
- When shopping, look for the best sources of ingredients, but also consider what’s economical. When fruit is on sale, make pie filling to bake later.
- Cooking in batches allows you to preserve fresh produce at its peak. When basil is plentiful and inexpensive, make batches of pesto and freeze it in cubes to serve with pasta or swirl in soup all year round.
- Have the correct equipment for cooking — and enough containers to store what you make.
- Before you make a batch of something, be sure you have room to store it. Clear a space in your refrigerator, freezer, or pantry.
Cooking in batches might seem daunting, but the exact kind of planning allows you to be spontaneous. Learning the basics of batch cooking gives you options and the comfort of something home-cooked – for yourself or others.
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