Cooking for my life...

I've been batch cooking today. For those unfamilar with the concept, it's basically where you make up several meals in advance and store or freeze them. When I have been successful at weight loss and eating healthy in the past, batch cooking has been a big part of this. When my eating is dysfunctional I get in a mindset that I don't deserve nice, fresh healthy foods and i get stuck in a rut of eating poorly. Further, it is easy to eat poorly when you are busy and tired if you don't have a back up plan. I have been eaing poorly, not going to the gym, going out every night and drinking lots of booze, so I will be trying hard at health for the next few months to get back on track. Batch cooking is great for saving time and reducing food wastage also.

What I made today:

Roast vegetables:

Method: cut up carrot, potato and pumpkin into chunks. Add to a baking tray lined with baking paper, reducing the need for scrubbing. Season (I often use rosemary from the garden) and spray with a little oil. Roast on a low heat for several hours until tender. Sweet potato and parsnips can also work well.

Seafood stew:

Not the most attractive dish to be honest! Basically i have some 'frozen fresh' hake and prawns so I defrosted these, aded them to a dish with fresh dill, lemon and some red wine. Bake until tender.

Salad provisions ready to go:

It's much easier to eat lots of salads if you have them easily accessible. I chopped up the veggies and the worms got the scraps. The leafy bits of the celery are in the freezer ready for soup! Basically I grab a re-usable container, add bits of the above, mixed lettuce and maybe some tomato or avocado. Great as a meal with some protein (the seafood above or free-range chicken stir fry I also made) and brown rice, roast vegetables or some such. I add some fruit and there's breakfast and/or dinner for the day.

Other batch foods that work well:

-brown rice
-lentils
-marinated tofu
-pasta sauce
-lasagne
-mexican food such as burritos.

And here's some spoils from the kitchen garden :):