How to Batch Cooking (without dying trying)

Javier Colomer 6 min. of reading Well-being habits Leave a comment

Cook and prepare recipes to store and enjoy for the rest of the week: Batch Cooking.

Cook your weekly meals and then forget about them!

Instead of cooking every day, dedicate some time to it one afternoon (for example, on a Sunday) and concentrate all your efforts at once.

Save time and money, eat healthier, and control your weekly diet with a few hours of cooking.

It’s a great strategy that ensures you eat quality, healthier foods without “improvising” and turning to lesser options. And you’ll learn new recipes too!

Index

1 1. Planning and goals
2 2. Food and quantities
3 3. Preparation
4 4. Storage
5 5. What types of recipes are suitable for batch cooking?
6 6. Enjoy the time you devote to batch cooking

1. Planning and goals

Always start with the essentials:

Monitor your diet: it’s easy to keep track of your diet and the calories and macronutrients you need.
Put on your favourite music, grab a paper and pencil (old-fashioned), and set your weekly menu divided into lunches and dinners.
A recipe book or a visit to our blog will be a great help.

Make sure you have all the materials at hand:

Cooking utensils: pans, pots…
Have your pantry full of spices and dressings: like salt, pepper and olive oil…

Don’t forget to put a label on each preparation indicating the recipe and when you should eat it.

If you want go even healthier even more, you can opt for foods that usually take longer to cook, such as chickpeas, and buy them packaged.

2. Food and quantities

Now it’s time to get down to business.

Do your shopping: once you have your weekly menu and a shopping list organised, it’s time to buy all the products you need. This is a good way to save, avoiding buying unnecessary or unhealthy foods.
Select and weigh the ingredients for the entire week: One of the main drawbacks people find when cooking is that they don’t know how to control the quantities or portions. For this reason, the first few times I recommended using a scale that will allows you to measure the portions you’re going to eat.
Clean and prepare the food before cooking: Cut and peel the fruits and vegetables, soak the pulses and properly clean the fish and meats. This will save you a lot of time.

Remember, organisation is key.

At HSN we want to make it easier for you and that is why we have put at your disposal a wide variety of products that you can use in your healthy recipes: Healthy Eating.

3. Preparation

Let the fun begin!

Set aside the raw foods you’ll need for cooking.
Cook your food: Cook as your grandmother did, but in a more creative way. Use several means of cooking: steaming, time in oven or grilling (avoid frying).
You don’t need to be an expert on cooking to eat healthily.
Use the cooking time to prepare salads, sauces and vinaigrettes.
Clean and tidy up every time you prepare a recipe: as we’re going to cook for a week, this will mean we make more mess than usual, so to speed up, as you make your recipes, clean as much as possible so that when you start a new recipe you’ll have everything perfect.
Start over until all the food is cooked.

4. Storage

When you have all your food cooked and the meals ready, it’s time to decide how to store them.

Store your recipes in different containers: using glass or plastic containers suitable for food will suffice.
Choose where you’re going to store each container according to the time of consumption and storage period: Once our menu is made, store it in the fridge to ensure the best conservation. You can also freeze. If you also make stews or casseroles, you’;l probably get several portions.
Before freezing, let it rest: for the recipes that we’re going to freeze, you’ll need to let them rest first.

Don’t put it in the freezer while it’s hot!

A useful option that facilitates batch cooking are foods that are sold in jars, such as cooked chickpeas, for example.

We do not recommend freezing foods such as rice or pasta, as they last longer in the fridge.

5. What types of recipes are suitable for batch cooking?

Virtually any recipe is suitable for batch cooking:

Vegetable Creams and Soups.
Meat and fish.
Pulses.
Cooked eggs
Pasta and cooked rice.
Sauces.

An example of a weekly Batch Cooking menu

	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Rice with lentils and vegetables.	Turkey breast with aubergine cream.
Tuesday	Hake with quinoa and mushrooms.	Protein hummus with vegetables sticks.
Wednesday	Green salad with cooked chickpeas, boiled eggs and pumpkin seeds.	Courgette noodles with salmon.
Thursday	Chicken breast with green beans.	Swordfish skewers.
Friday	Pasta with tomato and mince.	6 delights rice.