Batch Cooking/Meal Prep
Batch cooking isn’t just for people who have a big family or a party coming up – anyone can benefit from this kitchen time-saver. After all, there's nothing better than having a head-start on dinner during hectic weeknights! The Blue Zones Meal Planner is here to support your batch cooking game plan.
Here's how you can enlist the help of the meal planner to make batch cooking a breeze:
Use Search to find your star ingredient. Just click on the little magnifying glass in the upper righthand corner of the page, and search for the ingredients you plan to cook in bulk. Grains, potatoes, and beans work especially well. Type in the ingredient, “sweet potato” for example, and select a few recipes from the results. On your batch cooking day, prep all the potatoes at once so they’re ready for the week. (Note: when you use the search feature, you're browsing through our entire recipe database, so the results are not personalized.)
Consult your grocery list. When you click on an ingredient in the grocery list, you'll see all the recipes that call for that ingredient in your menu. For example, if you click on "brown rice" you might see that 3 recipes call for it. Simply make all the rice ahead of time in one batch so it's ready to go when you’re ready to whip up those recipes during the week.
Increase serving size. After you’ve added a recipe to a menu, open it and locate the ‘Change’ button. From here, change the serving sizes as needed to have extra for the week or freeze for later. Alternatively, click the ‘Leftovers’ button which automatically doubles the recipe and updates the quantities on your grocery list. Now you can cook once, and eat for days! We love scaling up soup recipes for many days worth of hearty warm-up meals! (Extra tip: if you always want your recipes to be set for multiple servings, just add some more portions to the Serving Sizes section of your Preferences!).
Here are some of the easiest batch cooking and meal prep ingredients, along with a few tips:
- Brown rice and quinoa: These make a nutritious and inexpensive base ingredient to burritos, tacos, soups, stir fry, salads, and just quick meals when topped with veggies and sauce. They also freeze well!
- Potatoes: Sweet or white, potatoes are great either baked, steamed or boiled and will be a welcome addition in your fridge when you are short on time and need a quick bite! Stuff your sweet potatoes with quinoa and veggies, drizzle with a favorite sauce and you have a nutritious meal ready in just a few minutes!
- Cooked fresh veggies: Roasted or sautéed veggies are a must to have on hand when you have a busy week ahead. They pair well with any of the above ingredients to make a quick and easy meal!
- Raw fresh veggies: Washed, chopped, and ready-to-go for a quick snack, veggies dipped in hummus, nut butter, or salsa are a great way to satisfy a craving for crunchy and salty snacks!
As you prioritize your health, batch cooking and meal prep is one of the best tools you can learn to utilize! Although planning can seem like it will take a long time, you can actually get through a week’s worth of it in under 2 hours! Here's an example of the timing for batch cooking that has everything done in in a super streamlined fashion:
- Wash and rinse ingredients; preheat oven; preheat pans/pots for cooking (approx 15 minutes)
- Place whole, unpeeled potatoes and sweet potatoes in oven for roasting (approx 45 minutes until done)
- While potatoes are roasting, cook grains such as rice and quinoa (approx 30 minutes until done)
- While potatoes are roasting and grains are cooking, chop and prep vegetables. On the cooktop, either saute or steam (approx 15 minutes until done). Alternatively, when potatoes are done, roast veggies in the oven (approx 20 minutes until done). If keeping any veggies raw, then package them in the fridge or in small containers to have ready to grab and go!
- Clean up, cool food, package, and refrigerate! If you have children old enough to help, enlist them to help wash, chop, package, and clean up. It’s a great way to get them involved and curious about eating more plants!
Want more help planning for batch cooking? Reach out to our food coaches anytime! We're always here to support you.