Batch cooking with baby, let's get organized?
In daily life with a baby, many tips are useful for better managing your time and enjoying family moments more. And there's one trend that's appealing to more and more parents: Batch Cooking! This culinary practice allows you to prepare the week's meals in advance. Are you skeptical about cooking everything at once? Let me explain what Batch Cooking with baby is and how you can get organized!
What is Batch Cooking?
“What are we eating tonight?” This is a question that most households ask themselves daily. For some, cooking is a burden, and even more so when you have one or more young children. Lack of time, tired of being in the kitchen, or simply out of inspiration, preparing daily meals can become a nightmare.
Do you recognize yourself in this description? Then Batch Cooking, or the art of preparing meals in advance, can save you. This Anglo-Saxon culinary practice involves reorganizing your meal preparation method. Instead of preparing everything little by little, you dedicate a 2 to 4-hour slot on the weekend to cook "in bulk" and thus have your meals ready in advance.
This weekly cooking session is part of a slow approach and allows you to regain a certain quality of life during the week. In terms of benefits, you will find:
- time saving;
- mental liberation;
- less stress;
- more time to enjoy family moments;
- etc…
But it is also a way to emphasize healthy eating, homemade food, and pleasure, often forgotten when, in a hurry, you are forced to feed the whole family.
How to organize my baby's meals for the week?
Cooking all your child's meals in advance for the coming week requires a bit of organization. Here are some easy tips to implement to better manage baby's weekly menus.
- Determine the number of meals to prepare: this is the starting point. Decide in advance whether you want to prepare all meals for the week or just for the next 3 days.
- Choose basic ingredients that you can reuse in other recipes. For example, if squash is in season, you can offer it as a soup and 3 days later as a puree. However, make sure to select ingredients that match your child's age.
- Plan meals: it's time to play Tetris! Take a planner or a board and organize meals to ensure nutritional balance and prevent baby from eating zucchini 3 times in a row!
- Make a grocery list in advance.
- Prepare your containers.
- Cook by trying to consolidate cooking (a multi-tiered steamer is very practical for this!).
Batch Cooking with baby: 3 autumn recipe ideas
1/ Butternut Squash Velouté with Coconut Milk and Coriander for 6-8 months
List of ingredients:
- 150g fresh or frozen butternut squash,
- A small handful of chestnuts (about 3)
- A carton of coconut milk (20cl)
- A few sprigs of coriander
Preparation:
- Cut your butternut squash into pieces
- Place it in the pressure cooker
- Remove the chestnut shells
- Sauté them in a pan over high heat without oil
- Once the butternut squash is cooked, blend it with the chestnuts
- Add the coconut milk
- Store and serve on the day with a few sprigs of coriander on the puree.
2/ Broccoli and Quinoa Puree with Salmon for 9-12 months
List of ingredients:
- 100g broccoli
- 40g quinoa
- 20g salmon
Preparation:
- Cut your broccoli into small pieces
- Cut your salmon into small pieces
- Place them in your steamer in separate compartments
- Cook your quinoa by adding 1.5 to 2 times its volume of water
- Blend the broccoli
- Store the different preparations and assemble everything on the day.
3/ Beetroot and Goat Cheese Puree with Sliced Chicken for 12 months and up
List of ingredients:
- 1 small beetroot or about 150g frozen beetroot
- 20g sliced chicken
- A few crumbles of goat cheese
Preparation:
- Peel and cut the beetroot into pieces
- Cut your chicken fillet
- Cook them in separate compartments in a steamer or pressure cooker
- Store everything before blending on the day.
As you can see, practicing Batch Cooking with baby will save you time in your daily life, allow you to enjoy family moments, and introduce you to new experiences like Slow Parenting. But it also requires some organization. Like anything, it's about letting go and accepting an organization that will need to be integrated as a new habit. The benefits will only be better!
See you soon for a new article!
