Bulk Cooking – Winter Week 1: Fortify Your Grains, When to Buy Rotisserie, Don’t Round Servings

Blueberry Banana Buckwheat Pancakes :www.papillonskyphotography.com

5 Hours in Exchange for 14 Dinner + 6 Breakfast + 10 Snacks & Lunch Prep

I don’t love to cook.  What I do love is prioritizing what I eat during the week to make sure I protect my health, am more productive, more creative, and just happier.  And…I have to be able to do this efficiently; I don’t want this to take hours everyday. 

Eating healthy isn’t all that you should have time for; eating healthy is what should allow you to finally find time to do all those things you want to do – your daily distractions.

This was my motivation for developing the seasonal meal planning kits.  I wanted a guide that took all the thinking out of it for me, too.

I really enjoyed my time in the kitchen yesterday afternoon.  It felt purposeful.  I invested 5 hours in the kitchen at once to save 10. Below are a few of my specific notes for each item in the bulk cooking guide.

Grains: “Fortify” Yourself with Home-made Bone Stock

• Take the advice in the bulk cooking guide and always double or triple the amount of grains you make at one time.  They freeze well and ensure you always have a whole grain ready to go – faster than pasta.
• When following the directions to soak: soak first in water, rinse, and then add new liquid to cook.
• I always cook my grains in broth or stock.  Adds so much more flavor.  And when using your home-made bone broth, you add all those lovely additional nutrients like collagen (needed for healthy joints and skin), calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. That’s using whole foods therapeutically!

Herb Roasted Chicken: Pro’s & Con’s to Substituting with a Rotisserie Chicken

Pro’s of using Rotisserie Chicken:

• Time savings!
• Hormone-free, organic options now available
• Cost for convenience is reasonable
• When buying organic, can still freeze the bones to use for home-made bone broth

Con’s of using Rotisserie Chicken:

• Typically larger chickens when buying raw – could need 2 rotisserie chickens to make the suggested meals; makes the overall cost per pound cheaper to roast your own
• I got 6 meal-size portions of chicken for soup + 4 lunches + 2 dinner servings = 12 meals from 1 home-roasted chicken
• Flavor & freshness – stores could rotate older chickens to use in the deli + can be a little dry from being held on warmers
• Miss out on the gelatinous mixture formed from home-roasted which is a rich source of collagen and adds tremendous flavor to home-made chicken soup

In the end, it depends on what kind of week I’m having.  When I plan, I roast my own.  When I need last minute ideas, I’m thankful for the wider selection of deli rotisserie chickens.

Cheesy Beef Skillet: Don’t Round! 1 lb. is 16 oz.  This Recipe Only Calls for 12 oz.

• A tip that I will repeat often is: don’t round servings – meat, produce, grains or fats! Throwing in ‘that little bit’ left in the bag, or thinking that “there isn’t enough left to do anything with” is the mindset that gets us in trouble.
• If you go to the meat counter and ask for “1 lb. of grass-fed ground beef” for this recipe, you are buying 4 oz extra – an entire meal + 1 snack over in protein and fat! (4P + 4F over)
• These incremental amounts will sabotage three things: 1) your weight, 2) your food budget, and 3) the quality of food you buy.  This is one of the first things I talk with someone about when they tell me that they can’t afford higher quality food.  First, look at (true) serving sizes

I, out of habit, did ask for 1 lb of beef.  So, I saved the extra 4 oz. and made 2, 2oz hamburgers  that I used to make yummy Cheeseburger Salads for dinner tonight.

Recipe: Cheeseburger Salad: 2 portions -  3C, 3F, 3.5P each

The warm rice eliminates the need for a bun.

• 2, 2 oz grass-fed beef patties (4P, 4F)
• 2, 1 oz cheese slices (2 P, 2F)
• 1 1/3 cup cooked long-grain rice (2/3 cup per portion) (4C, 1P)
• 8 cups of Everyday Greens Mix  (4 cups per portion) (or Baby Kales) (2C)
• 4 tablespoon Tomato Basil No-Oil Dressing from Whole Foods  (2 tbsp per portion) (found refrigerated in produce aisle)
• Unlimited diced veggie toppings (whatever you’d put on your burger!) (n/a)

Cook patties, place cheese on top to melt.  Warm up rice – set aside.  Toss greens with dressing.  Top greens with rice, cheeseburger, and veggies.  Enjoy.

Bone Stock

• Even when you don’t have time to make stock, save your organic chicken (or beef) bones in the freezer.  You can easily make a larger batch when you have the bones from 2 or even 3 chickens.
• I typically make stock when I have 3 frozen (making >16 quarts of stock at once). I like to think that it honors the animal when we respect and utilize all the nutrition they have available to offer us – this certainly includes their mineral rich bones.
• Making home-made stock helps justify the cost of buying organic, pastured chicken: I get 6-8 quarts of stock from 1 chicken (that saves over $12 from having to buy prepacked broth – which lacks both in flavor and nutrition)
• I paid $10 ($3.50/lb) for my organic chicken and got a total of 12 meals + 8 quarts of stock

Buckwheat Pancakes

Stacked with Parchment Paper - Ready for Freezer

• You will notice that the batter is thin.  I tested several variations and found this was best for avoiding a too-thick, muffin type pancake like I’ve had with others made from buckwheat.  If you let it sit overnight, that will help it thicken and essentially soak the grains.
• If you do pre-make the batter and use fresh each morning, you will need to give it a good stir before using.  It will thicken and separate as it sits.
• You can also freeze the batter – works great if you want to make a double or triple batch but don’t have time to pre-cook them.  Just be sure to freeze batter in smaller batches to suite your weekly needs
• Rather than using 1 tablespoon of oil at the start of cooking you can use 1/2-1 tsp. of oil per pancake.
• Another method I tested was to simply add the oil to the batter and use olive oil spray on the pan when cooking – worked really well.
• If you like cinnamon: increasing the cinnamon to 1 tablespoon per batch (vs. 1 tsp) will provide about 1/2 tsp per pancake.  1/2 tsp is the amount being studied for blood sugar control.
• Wrapping them for freezer: the recipe indicates to wrap them individually; however, I’ve since started just using a piece of parchment paper to separate them in a freezer bag (pic above). Great for mornings – parchment paper goes straight in microwave (~1 1/2 min if frozen, 30 sec if thawed).
• Recipe Note: The ingredient list states baking soda – which is correct. The instructions state baking powder which is a typo – sorry for any confusion!
  

If I’ve left something out that you questioned as you cooked, please just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer.  More to come Week 2! ~ Teri