Batch Cooking – Get To Know The Advantages!

Don’t you have time to cook during the week? Then this article could help you: Plan and cook your weekly meals on the weekend using the batch cooking method. Read on and find out more!

Batch Cooking is an English concept that became fashionable and has been on social media for some time. It literally means “to cook in a pile”. In other words, cook on Sunday to have your meals ready for the whole week. Do you want to know more about it?

This method allows you to plan and organize your meals for the week in no time. This way, not only can you prepare healthy dishes, but you also save time that you would normally have spent preparing the dishes during the week. Have we piqued your interest?

How do I design my batch cooking menu?

In the following we will let you in on the secrets of batch cooking, which has grown in popularity in recent years.

planning

We recommend that you have a weekly meal plan so that you can organize your meals. This way you know what you are going to cook, what you have in the fridge and if you need to buy anything. This will also help you stick to your grocery list and not buy more than you need. In addition, this also keeps you from buying finished products!

Healthy batch cooking

This meal plan should not only save time when cooking, but also be healthy. It is advisable to create your meal plan with the “Harvard Dish” as a reference. This dish was created by nutritionists at the Harvard School of Public Health using the following guidelines:

• Most of your meals should consist of vegetables and fruits and occupy half the plate. When you prepare meals with these ingredients, you get high quality vitamins and antioxidants. Studies have shown that antioxidants are fundamental in preventing complex diseases.

• Also choose whole grains. These should make up a quarter of your plate.
• You should also opt for high-quality proteins that should fill the other quarter of your plate. These nutrients ensure proper muscle function. Healthy protein consumption and regular exercise reduce the risk of developing diseases in lean tissue, according to a study published in the journal Nutrition Research .
• Use fat derived from healthy vegetable oils, such as extra virgin olive oil.

In short, remember that your dishes must contain vegetables, protein, and whole grains. Also, don’t forget to pay attention to the amount and distribution of the ingredients.

Ready-cooked dishes

This is one of the basics of batch cooking : having everything ready so that when you come home you only have to open the refrigerator and take out our delicious food. Or if you have to eat in the office or at work, your tuppers bowl is ready with healthy and healthy foods.

• As we already know, the basis of our menu must be vegetables and fruits. To save time, we can cut them in advance. For example, we can cut fruits like melon and watermelon and then put them in the refrigerator to enjoy in the morning or as a summer snack.
• For vegetables, for example, you can make purees and broths that you can freeze and then reuse. Or make soups like gazpacho that you can eat right away at home after a long day at work.

• Other things that you can pre-cook are pasta, rice, quinoa, couscous, eggs, potatoes, etc. There is no need to cook large amounts here as we usually eat them as a side dish.

Batch Cooking: Take advantage of kitchen appliances

To have everything ready in one afternoon, you need to make good use of the time in the kitchen. And in order to do this successfully , all the utensils and equipment you need must be ready.

While using a vegetable chopping device, you can cook on the stove or take full advantage of the oven by roasting the chicken on one baking sheet and the vegetables on another. If you have enough space in your oven, you might even add bread!

Cooling and freezing

It is important to know where each food needs to be stored so that it will last throughout the week. There are certain types of food that due to their structure cannot be frozen; for example salads, pasta, potatoes and eggs. Therefore, foods containing these foods should be kept refrigerated in the refrigerator.

On the other hand, freezing stews, vegetables and broths to make them last longer is very useful. To preserve food, it is advisable to use airtight glass, such as mason jars, as they will last longer in them than in a plastic container.

Example of a batch cooking weekly schedule

Finally, we would like to give you an example of a menu plan from Monday to Friday so that you can start batch cooking yourself. This is just an example, of course, and you can vary the menu to suit your taste as long as you stick to the concept of healthy eating.

Having lunch

• Monday: salmon, cooked in foil, with vegetables and baked potatoes
• Tuesday: pasta salad with chicken fillet
• Wednesday: Spinach with chickpeas and a hard-boiled egg
• Thursday: Boiled potatoes with vegetables and squid.
• Friday: Steamed vegetables with quinoa and turkey strips

dinner

• Monday: spinach salad with mozzarrella cheese and nuts
• Tuesday: A bowl of gazpacho with potato omelette

• Wednesday: A beefburger sandwich with vegetables
• Thursday: Vegetable ratatouille with egg and rye crackers
• Friday: Carrot and cucumber sticks with chickpea hummus

Build batch cooking into your routine!

Do you lack the time to cook healthily? Then try the batch cooking method presented here to prepare dishes for the whole week that will help you take care of both your body and your health.