Batch Cooking 101
What is batch cooking?
As the title suggests, batch cooking is prepping food items in bulk, ahead of time. The majority of items that you will be cooking in advance are your major macros – proteins and carbs. Since these are some of the essential building blocks of the meals you will be making, you will need to make several meals worth so that you have a meal on hand for whenever you get hungry. SharkFit relies heavily on batch cooking.
Is batch cooking necessary?
Technically, no. Some people hate leftovers, or prefer to eat fresh meals. It really all depends on how much time you have to put into daily meal preparation. We strongly recommend it but it’s not a requirement.
Why do we batch cook?
There are a couple reasons why we batch cook:
Convenience – We have found it much easier to have a meal on hand, ready to be consumed. Also, if you don’t have time in the morning to make breakfasts and/or lunch, it’s easy to just grab a few already prepped storage containers and be on your way.
It saves time – Making your meals ahead of time is a sort of like a “one stop shop” of things – you get a few day’s worth of food prepared in roughly the same amount of time it makes to make one meal.
Consistency – Having a premade meal makes it easy to stick to the plan.
Failure Prevention – There is nothing worse than coming home after work and having no food in the fridge, or at least, nothing prepared. This can lead to binge eating or eating something that you might regret later. Having a premade meal or snack ready will help prevent this and keep you on track.
How do you batch cook?
Although our recipes call for specific amounts of carbs or proteins per meal, you are actually to prepare 2 to 3 times the amounts since the meals are used multiple times during the week.
The concept is pretty straight forward. Make your carbs and proteins and while those are cooking, prepare your snacks and when applicable, your breakfasts as well.
You are essentially going to go through the meal calendar and prepare a food for a few days.
Vegetables:
Many of our recipes call for vegetables. We recommend you prepare/chop those ahead of time and store in a separate container until consumption time or add them to your meal(s) when you take it out of the fridge for the day. This prevents them from going soggy.
How often do we batch cook?
We recommend you do a batch cook on Sundays and Wednesdays.
How long does it take to batch cook?
This can vary depending on your cooking skills and batch cooking experience, but you can expect to be in the kitchen between 1 and 3 hours. This might seem like a big time commitment, but remember, you are completely cutting out the time in the kitchen for the next few days.
How do I store my food?
We recommend a good set of storage containers, preferably glass, but if not, consistent shapes and sizes of a durable material. Also consider getting small containers for sauces and dressings.