Create Your Own Convenience Foods with Batch Cooking

It’s February! And since February is American Heart month, now is the perfect time to make some heart-healthy dietary changes. Heart-healthy diets recommend avoiding processed foods (which tend to be high in fat, sugar, and sodium), and to instead focus on fresh, whole foods and lean protein, which includes lean beef.

In fact, there’s significant research indicating that lean beef can be as effective as fish or poultry in managing cholesterol as part of a heart-healthy diet. People can enjoy 4 ½-5 ounces of lean beef daily on a blood-pressure-lowering diet. And half of the fatty acids in beef are monounsaturated – the same heart-healthy fat found in olive oil.

But eating a healthy diet is easier said than done when you’re a busy mom. I mean, tell me if this sounds familiar: You’ve planned something for dinner. But the day gets away from you or something goes sideways and then everyone’s starving before you’ve even begun to cook. So you order a pizza, swing through the drive-through, or settle for cereal.

This post is sponsored by the Washington State Beef Commission.

Now there’s nothing wrong with convenience. We all need to rely on it sometimes. But too much reliance on processed foods that aren’t rich in nutrients can have a detrimental effect on our health. (Not to mention our wallets.)

So what’s the answer to today’s busy lifestyle? Batch cooking! With batch cooking you make larger-than-normal batches of freezable recipes, giving you easy access to healthy meals in a pinch from the convenience of your own freezer. It will help you skip the drive-thru and set your family up for improved heart health and better lifestyle habits!

The Health Benefits of Batch Cooking

Batch cooking allows you to enjoy homemade, minimally processed, nutrient dense food even on busy weeknights. It’s more cost-effective than takeout and far healthier than fast food. Plus, keeping a stash of family-friendly meals in your freezer helps develop lifelong healthy habits for your kids, making them less likely to develop a habit of defaulting to convenience foods in their own life.

Tips for Batch Cooking

1. Keep it simple. Don’t choose complicated meals for batch cooking. Making a double or triple batch of something difficult will be frustrating and overwhelming.

2. Prep everything in advance. Before you start, chop up all your veggies, portion out your seasonings, and read through your recipe so you know exactly what you’ll be doing.

3. Choose recipes with ingredients that will hold up well. Things with crisp, fresh vegetables won’t stay crisp. Noodles will get mushy. Soups and casseroles (without noodles) are great, as are proteins like pot roasts, meatballs, and ground beef. Avoid grilled protein as it has a greater potential to dry out while reheating.

4. Cool the food before freezing. This is a food safety issue. Don’t take your food straight from the stove to the freezer as it may bring down the temperature of your freezer to unsafe levels. Cool food (including soups) in shallow dishes in the refrigerator to bring it down to cool temperatures quickly. Once the food has been properly cooled, it can be placed in the freezer.

5. Choose the right containers for storing and freezing. Glass dishes can go from the freezer to the microwave or the oven. However, tall glass containers may crack if liquids (like soup) are stored in them due to expansion. And if you plan to have single servings of foods available, don’t freeze your whole batch in a one-gallon container that you’ll have to defrost for one individual portion. Think ahead and choose your storage containers wisely!

Batch Cooking Recipe Ideas

Ready to get started? Make sure to include beef in your batch-prepared recipes! Enhanced trimming practices have resulted in today’s beef being leaner than ever before; in fact, 65% of beef muscle cuts sold in stores are considered lean so they’re the perfect for a heart-healthy lifestyle. Here are five satisfying and heart-healthy recipes well-suited for batch cooking and easy reheating.

Greek-Style Beef Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms: Cook a double batch of the ground beef filling and freeze it; when you need a quick meal all you have to do is pop a few fresh mushroom caps in the oven, reheat the filling, and dinner is ready in minutes!

Turkish Beef Burger: No need to grab fast food if you’ve got these in your freezer! Grill up a large batch of burgers and freeze the individual cooked patties between pieces of wax paper. Defrost and reheat for a quick and easy meal!

Chili: Nothing freezes better than chili, and nothing reheats better, either. This is a complete and ready-made meal straight out of the freezer. Make a triple batch!

Beef Pot Roast with Cider Gravy and Maple Sweet Potatoes: Juicy pot roast is perfect for freezing and reheating without drying out. Freeze the mashed sweet potatoes in a separate container but they’ll freeze and thaw well, too!

Beef Confetti Taco Salad: Make a large batch of the filling. When you need a quick meal, reheat and serve it over a salad blend!