Have you ever heard of Meal Prep Mondays, meal prep, batch cooking, or bulk cooking? Surprisingly, some of you may not have a clue what I’m referring too, well this is a secret I want to share with all of you today. Today I’m sharing Batch Cooking 101 as a guide. I’ve been batch cooking or doing some form of meal prep for my entire week ever since I was a freshman in college. Back then, my busy schedule of jumping from one class to another, internship, work, and maintaining a social life, primed me for the future of a busy schedule. Undoubtably, batch cooking helped me tremendously and still continues to be a life saver in reaching my health goals and saving time, all while keeping the enjoyment when cooking.

What is batch cooking? Basically, it’s preparing most or all of your meals and snacks for the entire week on 1 day out of the week. Simply make a date with your kitchen for about 1-2 hours, 1 day every week, and have some fun cooking! . I typically do my batch cooking on Sundays after church. I hit up the grocery store to get everything I need and then go to work in the kitchen so that I'll be prepared come Monday morning. No freezing required for any of your batch cooking as you’ll be eating this throughout the week and cycle this every week.

In your entire week (168 hours), 1-2 hours of cooking is NOT much! In fact, it's only about 1% of your entire week. Especially when considering if you’re currently coming home from work every night cooking on the spot which could easily add up to 30-60 minutes/evening, that’s over 7 hours a week! We all can use that extra 5 hours a week we’d save batch cooking to enjoy our time with loved ones, play more, workout, engage in our beloved hobbies, and decompress. On the flip side, what if your case is going through a drive-through, picking up fast food, or dining out because you have nothing prepared to come home to. Again, batch cooking will save not only your health from avoiding all those questionable ingredients (yikes!) put into fast food establishments, but also money spent! Those burgers and fries really start to add up when you think about it!

At first, you may feel a tad overwhelmed with all the foods you want to make for an entire week, so I suggest starting out with 1 meal that you find you’re most pressed for time or poses the most challenge for cooking. For example, most people I coach find it to be dinner or breakfast especially if you’re getting the kids and yourself ready for the day. Therefore, the first step is asking yourself “what meal time is really difficult for me to cook?” or “what time of day am I most in a time crunch to eat something healthy?”. Start with that meal you’ve identified and gradually build upon the days/weeks worth when you’re feeling more comfortable; or jump right in full force! I promise you the more frequently you batch cook and meal prep, the better and more efficient you become at it. Before long, you’ll be a master meal prep machine.

I follow the 21 Day Fix Meal Guide using the color coded meal portion containers. Based on your suggested calorie intake, it outlines how many of each container you'll need for the week and each container represents a different food group. The containers are different sizes to ensure you are getting the proper serving of each food group. It's literally fool proof and has made such a huge difference in my learning to balance my food and understand portion control. If you are interested in these containers, email me at tiffanycward@gmail.com and I'll be happy to share more!

I'm going to outline what I typically get from the grocery store and which container each item will be associated with.

PROTEIN: Red Container

Chicken Breast

Lean Ground Turkey

Fish: Salmon or Tilapia

Frozen Shrimp (I usually only grab shrimp when I want to switch it up)

Eggs

VEGETABLES (Fresh or Frozen): Green Container

You can use whatever vegetables you would like but I typically use:

Fresh Asparagus

Zucchnini

Green Beans

Celery

Baby Spinach

Onions

Bell Peppers

-The vegetables I choose really just depend on my menu plan for the week and what I'd like to make to go with my staples.

FRUITS: Purple Container

Apples

Strawberries

Blueberries

Bananas

Oranges

I sometimes switch my fruits up depending on what I want as snacks. I also tend to blend my fruits with my Shakeology.

CARBS: Yellow Container

Brown Rice

Quinoa

Sweet Potatoes

HEALTHY FATS & CHEESES: Blue Container

Avacado

Hummus

Shredded Cheeses

OIL & SEEDS: Orange Container

Coconut Oil

Balsamic Dressing

Mrs. Dash Seasonings

Cayenne Pepper

Cumin

Chili Powder

Almonds

Cashews

Sunflower Seeds

Also, don't forget to grab some ziplock baggies or meal prep containers. You'll need a lot of these!

Once you've done your shopping and you have everything you need, it's time to get done to business. I spread everything out on the containers in my kitchen and cook everything at once. I typically will start with proteins.

PROTEINS: Depending on what I'm in the mood for for the week, I will prepare my meats in this way. For example, if I want fajitas, I'll cut up the chicken breast and season them and will grill them with the bell peppers and onions. If I'm wanting something spicy, I may do buffalo chicken and will season them with buffalo seasonings and then lay them on a pan to bake. Same goes for all of my other proteins. I'll cook them up for whatever I plan to make with them. Check out the "Recipes" section of the blog for ideas on different meals! Once they're done, I cut up if necessary and measure out the proper portion size in the Red Container and then either dump into ziplock baggies or sectioned meal prep containers.

VEGETABLES: I will typically steam the vegetables in a steamer. Most of the meals I make don't call for them to be made any other way unless I'm making fajitas, stir fry or something similar where the vegetables are grilled. Vegetables are easy, peasy to batch cook! I just set the timer and forget it! I got my steamer as a house warming gift and loved it so much, I went out and bought another one so I can steam multiple things at once. Totally worth it! Once they're done, I measure them in the Green Container and then either dump it into a ziplock baggie or into a sectioned meal prep container if I already know which veggies I'm going to eat with which protein. I also leave some vegetables uncooked to use in salads. I am a HUGE fan of mason jar salads. Check out my post on those here.

FRUITS: I will normally cut up my fruits (depending on the type of fruit and if it's necessary) and measure them out in the Purple Container and then baggie them up so I can just grab the baggies and go in the morning. I eat the veggies as my snacks or add them to my Shakeology.

CARBS: Contrary to popular belief, carbs are very important to your nutrition. BUT there are healthy carbs and unhealthy carbs. Brown Rice, Quinoa, and Sweet Potatoes are all considered healthy carbs (NOT white rice and white potatoes). I normally steam my brown rice and quinoa in the steamer for convenience, but you can also cook them in pots on the stove. I'll place my sweet potatoes on a pan and bake them in the oven until tender then cut into cubes. All of these are measured out in the Yellow Container and then placed into ziplock baggies or meal prep containers.

HEALTHY FATS & CHEESES: I measure out my healthy fats & cheese into the Blue Container and place them in ziplock baggies for easy access.

OILS & SEEDS: These are all either used to cook in (oils), seasonings for the proteins or as toppings/dressings. The seeds/nuts are used to either top salads or as snacks. I'll measure these out in the orange container to either be ziplock bagged or added directly to a prepared meal before eating.

That's about it! Once you get the hang of it, you'll find your groove and know which foods to prepare in which order and can start to experiment with recipes and mixtures so you won't get bored with the same meals over and over. This has been such a lifesaver for me and I hope you find this technique as helpful as I do. If you have additional questions or would like individualized support, please complete this short questionnaire on my Challenge Groups and I'll get back with you ASAP!

If you try this out, please come back and let me know how it went for you!