Batch Cooking in August!

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how do you batch cook? There are so many different ways to batch cook -batch prep – food. What is batch cooking? Preparing larger quantities of food than just what you can eat for one meal or in one day. This actually cuts down on the amount of time you spend in the kitchen later in the week. There are multiple ways to accomplish this. Sometimes I do all my batch cooking in one day and sometimes it is over 2 days. How I batch cook looks a little different each week depending on what we have run out of or what we are getting low on in the fridge or freezer. Today I am sharing my batch cooking session from this past Sunday. This was a bigger batch cooking day than I have had for a while. I hope you will get inspired to try batch cooking yourself. Once I figured out how to batch cook it made this way of eating so much easier. If you invest some time incooking over the weekend or what ever day works best, you don’t have to think about cooking or food prep the rest of the week.

I pulled out what produce we had in the fridge and the pantry that needed to be used up. I ended up using everything except the bag of potatoes. I was going to make potato salad but I ran out of time. Maybe in a few days I will have time to make some. I batch prep a lot of ingredients that we can combine later in the week into meals.

I only had three Japanese Sweet Potatoes in the potatoe bin but I still had some cooked JSP’s in the fridge so it workd out perfect. I usually eat one a day. I baked these in the Breville Smart Oven Air at 400 degrees for 1 hour 20 minutes. That allows them to become very sweet and tasty. I had plenty of baked Yukon Gold potatoes in the fridge so no need to bake more. Some weeks I am roasting 3 baking sheets of potatoes but not this week.

Once the potatoes were done baking the Kabocha squash was prepared and put in the Breville. Here is my method for Oven Roasting Kabocha Squash.

Since I had potatoes in the Breville I cooked corn on the cob in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker. It is quick and delicious. As soon as it was done I washed the liner and got ready for the next item.

Watch my Corn on the Cob in the Instant Pot video.

Last week I cooked black beans in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker so this week it was pinto beans. I use 8 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, one pound of organic pinto beans. High Pressure 27 minutes – natural release. It can take longer it just depends on how old the beans are. I don’t pre-soak my beans – I just don’t have the time for that. These will be enjoyed with rice and greens for our Nourish Bowls. Another option is pinto beans with  Cilantro Lime Rice, Tami’s Easy Red Salsa or Salsa Verde and Jalapeno Queso Sauce.- all of these recipes are in my Mexican Fiesta Cooking Webinar. I like to mash some pinto beans with the back of a fork and spread them over a baked Yukon Gold potato with a sprinkle of Jalapeno powder and salsa. Yum!

The Cauliflower Bisque is a variation of Chef AJ’s Broccoli Bisque – recipe is in her new cookbook “The Secrets To Ultimate Weightloss.” I didn’t have the Hannah Yam’s the recipe called for so I used Yukon Gold potatoes and they worked well. We will enjoy this with wild rice that is already cooked and frozen from a previous batch cooking. You can also add soome greens to the bowl when serving it. This cookbook is full of amazing recipes that are delicious yet healthy! Plus if you want to know how to lose weight on a whole food plant based diet this is the book to read. It’s how I lost weight and have kept it off for three years!

I froze half of the soup. We will enjoy it in the weeks to come. I like to freeze part of what I cook so we have a nice variety of things to choose from in the freezer. Always having food prepped makes this way of eating so much easier when life is busy or the unexpected happens.

Once I had things cooking in the Breville Oven and the Instant Pots I moved on to batch prep salads. Tom hasn’t been wanting a lunch salad so I have just been making them for me. This is my lunch nearly every day of the year. If we eat out for lunch then I will have my salad for dinner. I take this batch prepped salad and turn it into a Big Beautiful Chopped Salad.  Chopped salads are insanely delicious! There is something magical that happens when you chop all those veggies into little bits. It becomes more flavorful, easier to eat and you’ll start craving salads! It is my first meal of the day and the “secret” to my success at losing weight and keeping it off! Eat your veggies first – it curbs your appetite, decreases cravings, is super nutrious and low calorie!

This is 2 pounds of Brussels Sprouts – from Costco – already washed and trimmed. They just need to be cut in half. No pre-heating the air fryer – put them in, set the temperature to 400 degrees – cooked until lightly brown – about 15 minutes. Check out my blog post and video all about cooking veggies in the Breville Smart Oven Air.

I made two different batches of hummus. This is my Best Oil Free Hummus that I portioned out into single servings. You can also freeze hummus! Make a couple batches at the same time and freeze some of it. It is great for travel when frozen – it will go through TSA as long as it’s frozen and it will keep your other foods nice and cold. I also made a batch of my friend Sharon McRae’s Pizza Hummus. It really does taste like pizza!

Edited to add the photo of the muffins I made on the same day. Those over ripe bananas in the top photo needed to be used or frozen. I don’t have a recipe written for these. I kind of wing it using Chef AJ’s method of using ripe bananas and oats with some spices – I go by how it looks and tastes. My little granddaughter loves to help make these and she will eat the batter by the spoonful which is perfectly fine because it doesn’t contain any animal products!

I make this Jalapeno Queso Sauce frequently. We use this on tacos, taco salad, tostadas, nachos, over baked potatoes, and as a dip for french fries just to mention a few ideas. Sometimes I make it mild but this week I made it extra spicy! The recipe is in my Mexican Fiesta Cooking Webinar that is available to purchase and it is on sale right now for $9.95 which is $5 off using the discount code nutmeg33 – discount code good through August 15, 2018.

These are my all time favorite refried beans! They are so flavorful and so easy to make. I make these all the time with either black beans or pinto beans. Great for pot lucks and entertaining – it makes a large amount. They can be frozen and reheated – I can’t say enough good things about them – so delicious. The recipe is also in my Mexican Fiesta Cooking Webinar.

Since we can’t get good tasting fresh tomatoes all year around it’s nice to have a simple and easy salsa recipe that uses canned tomatoes. This is a special version that I made for the Mexican Fiesta Cooking Webinar. I have a similar recipe here on the blog for Tami’s Easy Red Salsa. Easy to customize – don’t like cilantro – leave it out – don’t use salt that’s okay too!

This was dinner after batch cooking was complete. I made oil free corn tostadas, topped them with Katy’s Refried Beans, Jalapeno Queso Sauce, Easy Red Salsa, green onions, freshly chopped cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. OMG!

We like a little sweet treat after a spicy meal and this Banana Mango Lime Nice Cream hits the spot! Cool and refreshing. This recipe is also in the Mexican Fiesta Cooking Webinar and I even show you how to make this ahead so you can serve it to a crowd! Use the discount code nutmeg33 to get it for only $9.95 through August 15, 2018.

This is what my fridge looks like after a batch cooking/prep session. I like using clear containers so I can see what is in the containers. I have a mix of plastic and glass containers. Hubby Tom calls this our “fast food!” It really is fast to put a few ingredients together and create a meal. I hope this gives you some ideas on how you might batch cook and batch prep your weekly food. If there is enough interest I would make an on line Batch Cooking Webinar with more details on how to execute this in your kitchen. Leave me a comment and let me know if that is something you are interested in.

Happy Cooking Everyone! Get healthy and stay healthy one meal at a time!

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