I have a truth bomb for you….

If you aren’t cooking your own food the majority of the time, your health will suffer.

There is no way around it. Buying processed food or eating out is not healthy and eventually you will face real health issues. Your probability of a long, healthy life gets much smaller.

We live in a society that prioritizes and celebrates convenience, and as that priority has trickled into our food system as it has over the last 6+ decades, our health has suffered.

But real food is paramount for our health. Want better digestion or to minimize your daily bloat? Eat homemade real food. You will be getting way more fiber and probiotic bacteria- just what your gut needs to digest!

The only true way to get real food is to make it yourself. This means prioritizing time in the kitchen.

I can’t tell you how many times clients or people in my life have told me they don’t have time to cook, often asking for my opinion on different meal services, pre-packaged foods, or “healthy” snacks.

The truth is nothing is as healthy as a home-cooked, real food meal. It can’t be replicated in a package.

I so wish that cooking was a staple in our culture, bringing family and friends together, fostering tradition, and being the norm. For me I genuinely look forward to the evenings when I get to grab a cup of tea, put on some music, and make food. It’s the best part of my daily routine.

But I know that isn’t the case for everyone, so batch cooking is my answer.

If you feel “too busy” to cook dinner each night or make breakfast for the family, give batch cooking a try! My routine takes about 90 minutes once a week but leaves us with food for the entire week.

And what I love about batch cooking opposed to meal prepping is that with batch cooking, you leave yourself room to change things up if you don’t want to eat the same thing every day. You are making groups of prepped and ready to eat food that you can mix-and-match, choosing just what you want each day.

If you want to learn exactly how to get batch cooking going in your house, you can grab my Batch Cooking Framework Course for just $47. It has all the tools you need to make batch cooking a staple in your home.

This week I batch cooked specifically with digestion in mind. I’m healing from a procedure I had to go under for (anesthesia is known to slow down digestion and increase bloating) so being intentional about getting a lot of fiber was important.

You can use this batch cooking outline whenever you need a nice boost for digestion or if you know you haven’t been meeting your fiber needs lately (30+ grams a day).

I hope it helps!

Batch Cooking Menu and Routine

Menu

Breakfast: Cauliflower Fried Rice + Veggies

Lunch: Kale Caesar Salad + Shrimp/Chicken/Chickpeas or Beets + Chickpeas + Chicken

Dinner: Lentil Curry + Rice + Cod or Chicken and Rice w/ Beets

Snacks/Prepped Food: Chocolate Chia Pudding, Ready to Eat Fruit, Washed Greens

Routine

1. Make a big batch of rice: My new favorite way is to use my Instant Pot- it makes PERFECT rice!
2. Beets: Preheat the oven to 375. Drizzle unpeeled beets with avocado oil and place them on parchment paper on tin foil. Fold the foil all around the beets so they are in a little pouch. “Seal” the pouch by folding the foil into itself. Place in the oven and roast for 45+ minutes or until the beets are tender. Remove from oven and let sit until cool. Unwrap the beets, carefully peel them (you can probably just do it with your fingers) and slice them however you like to eat them. Keep them in a glass container in the fridge.
3. Kale Caesar Salad: Wash and chop the kale or whatever greens you like. Do extra greens if you think you will want smoothies for breakfast at all. Make the dressing (below). Rinse a couple of cans of chickpeas and place them in a glass container.
4. Lentil Curry: Make this Red LentilCurry.
5. Cauliflower Fried Rice + Veggies: Make the Perfect Batch of Fried Rice using whatever veggies you have on-hand or like. Keep it in the fridge, pulling from it throughout the week.
6. Protein: I usually like to cook my protein right before I eat it. I will be sautéing the shrimp to throw on my salad each day for lunch and cooking the cod for dinner as needed at night. I will blacken some extra chicken mid-week so I can throw that on my salad or have it for dinner with rice and veggies, or even add it to the curry or my fried rice!
7. Fruits: Wash and chop fruits, if necessary.
8. Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding: Whisk together this Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding Recipe.

Meal Options:

Breakfast-

• Fried rice w/ or without an additional protein
• Smoothie with pre-washed fruits, greens, and other foods you have on-hand
• Chocolate Chia Seed pudding

Lunch-

• Caesar Salad w/ or w/out beets, changing protein option as desired
• Beets w/ protein and a cheese you like
• Protein w/ rice and beets

Dinner-

• Any of the above options
• Curry w/ rice and protein
• Cauliflower Fried Rice

Snacks-

• Chia Seed Pudding
• Fruit
• Smoothie

Caesar Dressing

Ingredients:

• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1⁄4 cup tahini
• 1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 heaping tbsp miso paste
• 2 tsp pure maple syrup or honey
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1⁄2 tsp sea salt
• Black pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Mix together in a blender until smooth.

 

I hope this routine helps and that batch cooking, or just daily cooking, becomes a staple in your life. It’s imperative for longevity.

XO,

Kelsey