Big Batch Cooking (for Blended Diet)
A few folks new to blended diets have commented that making the blends takes too much work each day. They cook everything separately day-by-day. And wow, that is a ton a work, especially if you want to start from scratch with everything. My blends take about 5 minutes total, daily. At this point, we aren't ready to just blend everything we are eating for Little B -- we want to make sure we know roughly how many calories he's eating and that it is nutritionally balanced (basically).
So we end up with batch cooking every couple of weeks. I tend to batch cook grains, beans, and veggies. For grains, I do millet and quinoa in one blend, and then barley and oatmeal in the other. There is nothing magic about those grains, I just tend to go there repeatedly. For beans, I do a mixture of lentils and sprouted mung beans.
My blender is a second-hand blender and it doesn't do a great job of grinding beans and grains in a big blend. To address this, I grind all of my beans and grains in a spice grinder before cooking. I then cook it as a porridge. It isn't pretty to look at, but it is lovely nutritious.
Veggies are a bit more fun, and are all over the map. I try to make three or four different batches -- oranges, greens, reds (beets, yum!), whites. In any case, I steam the veggies lightly and whiz them up in the food processor. I also cook slightly a spice mixture of turmeric, black pepper and ginger (in a little olive oil) and add it to some of the veggie blends. The spice blend is based on a recommendation from the book Anticancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber.
Once the batches are cooked and cooled, I divide them into "serving size" portions, put them in either containers or baggies, and then pop them into the freezer. It isn't very sexy. Oh well, things so rarely are.
To thaw and use, I either plan ahead and pull out the components the day before and thaw in the refrigerator, or if I fail to plan ahead, I just toss them in the microwave.
So we end up with batch cooking every couple of weeks. I tend to batch cook grains, beans, and veggies. For grains, I do millet and quinoa in one blend, and then barley and oatmeal in the other. There is nothing magic about those grains, I just tend to go there repeatedly. For beans, I do a mixture of lentils and sprouted mung beans.
My blender is a second-hand blender and it doesn't do a great job of grinding beans and grains in a big blend. To address this, I grind all of my beans and grains in a spice grinder before cooking. I then cook it as a porridge. It isn't pretty to look at, but it is lovely nutritious.
Veggies are a bit more fun, and are all over the map. I try to make three or four different batches -- oranges, greens, reds (beets, yum!), whites. In any case, I steam the veggies lightly and whiz them up in the food processor. I also cook slightly a spice mixture of turmeric, black pepper and ginger (in a little olive oil) and add it to some of the veggie blends. The spice blend is based on a recommendation from the book Anticancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber.
Once the batches are cooked and cooled, I divide them into "serving size" portions, put them in either containers or baggies, and then pop them into the freezer. It isn't very sexy. Oh well, things so rarely are.
To thaw and use, I either plan ahead and pull out the components the day before and thaw in the refrigerator, or if I fail to plan ahead, I just toss them in the microwave.
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