3 Reasons Why I Love Batch Cooking (And so should you)

I never used to like leftovers. It started in childhood and carried on through to my early years of living on my own. I preferred a fresh meal that I had just created from scratch.

Then I had children and from a time saving standpoint, it became much more appealing to cook up extra food for a future meal.

And then I started eating real food…

Just to give you an idea, I recently made all this food in only two hours:

• Brussels Sprout Slaw
• Cauliflower Rice
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus
• Wayner Bread
• Hamburgers
• Primal Poppers
• Cooked one spaghetti squash

• Sweet Potato Soufflé
• Sunflower Sesame Crackers
• Baba Ghanoush
• Mayonnaise
• Cut up loads of veggies, fruit, and cheese
• Ten pre-made salads
• Made school lunches for two kids

This four hour time investment will ensure that my family can eat real food for the remainder of the week, despite our busy schedules.Besides the fact that it’s an incredibly efficient use of time to make more than one thing at a time in the kitchen, here are the top three things I love most about batch cooking.1. Fewer dishes
I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. I virtually never give my pots, pans or food processor a thorough cleaning in the middle of batch cooking. Ever. A quick rinse before moving onto the next dish is a-okay by me.

If doing a bunch of dishes stands between you and eating real food, then get ready to fall in love with batch cooking. Make tons of food and only have one clean up to do? Now that’s a good return on investment.

2. Less time
Think about it: If you haul all the ingredients out of the fridge to make your lunch time salad, how much extra time does it take to make a second, third or forth salad for another meal later on in the week? I always make at least four (and up to ten!) salads at once. Especially since I learned the ingenious trick of making salads upside down — dressing first, then veggies and protein, then nuts and seeds, and finally spinach. That way you don’t have to bring a separate container for the dressing, yet it doesn’t make the salad soggy. Just shake it all up prior to eating and enjoy.

3. Energy efficiency
It’s quite inefficient to run your oven to cook just one thing. Especially when you consider that it takes at least ten minutes just to preheat! If you’re going to invest the time getting your oven hot, why not make it work for you?Cook the Wayner bread, asparagus, spaghetti squash, soufflé, crackers and eggplant while the oven is on. I’ve gotten into the great habit of asking, “What else can I cook?” There is always something, even if it just gets another meal started.So there you have it, batch cooking can save on dishes, time and electricity. What’s not to love about that?