This will be a first in a series of posts about preparing for pregnancy, early pregnancy, miscarriage, and more, but really how it all relates to the way our culture approaches these topics.

I’ll start out by saying I had a miscarriage recently.

That’s really what this first post is all about. I got pregnant faster than I ever thought I would.  We were “trying” (side note: I’d like to come up with a new term for “trying” or TTC since I think it is weirdly success/failure oriented, but that’s for a later post) technically, but with my health history I assumed it would take months, if not longer.  Having rarely had a regular cycle, a history of thyroid imbalance, PCOS, adrenal fatigue and the stress of just having moved to a new place.  Yes, I had been on a great pre-pregnancy diet for about 1 year and had started taking Vitex, an herb known for regulating the cycle, but I had literally just started taking it days before conceiving.  I’d had a few sessions with my naturopath in prep for pregnancy.  I also identified a highly recommended acupuncturist in Northampton that could help if (when) it took several months to conceive.  But, it didn’t and while totally shocked, I was so thankful.

Around the time I found out I was pregnant, I had also been burping up a storm and having all sorts of digestive issues.  All explained by the new pregnancy.  I was starting to feel more fatigued and gained some belly weight too.  All normal!   I was craving cheese like never before and digesting it fine.  I also wanted juicy fruit like pineapple, melon and oranges– not exactly seasonal eating in December in Massachusetts, but I went with it.  Not the worst craving in the world!  I loaded up on some prenatal DVD workouts (more on why I think these are the greatest things ever to come), but was too tired to do them at first. Then, around week 6, I started to have more energy.  I actually started to feel more myself.

Now, with my line of work, history of all sorts of health issues, having worked with so many different alternative practitioners who often encourage tuning into ones own body, I am pretty darn self aware, both physically and emotionally!  When my bloat started to go down, I had more energy and I was able to do a different prenatal DVD workout every day, I thought it was weird.  I shared this concern with Gideon and he told me I was being paranoid.  Also, not unusual for me.  I tend towards worry and anxiety in general.  I tried to let it go.  I’ve heard of women who felt good during their first trimesters, but still it didn’t seem right.

Around this time, Gideon and I met with the midwife practice we’re going to use and they wanted to know how far along I was.  Enter: ridiculous method for charting pregnancy.  If you don’t already know, your pregnancy is timed back to the first day of  your last period.  For those who have totally “normal” 28-day cycles, this adds about 2 weeks on to your pregnancy because you obviously didn’t conceive on the first day of your last period.  Given that the cycle before I got pregnant was 43 days, we knew my cycles were long.  But I knew around when we conceived because I’d been following the Fertility Awareness Method for months already.  Long story short, the midwives thought it would be a good idea to get an early ultrasound to more accurately date the pregnancy.  While I knew when I got pregnant (at least within a few days), I was cool with it because of how anxious I’d been feeling.  If I could see the baby and maybe even detect a flutter, I’d be much more at ease.

So, on January 29th, I went for an early ultrasound AND saw the flutter and got a cute picture of the little one.  Very little- about 0.4 cm.  According to those crazy “your baby is the size of a blueberry” websites, 0.4 cm was smaller than I had recalled, but everyone is different.  All I cared about was seeing the heartbeat.  Then, they gave me my due date: September 23rd.  Now THAT didn’t make any sense.   Going by LMP (last menstrual period), my due date was Sept 8th and going by conception, my due date was between Sept 12 and Sept 15.  But, once again, I thought of it as cookoo machine estimates and disregarded.  I was just so happy to have seen the flutter and even went to check out the birthing center in the hospital just to see what it was like before I left.

Then I went to my initial appt with our midwives and, all in all, had a great pregnancy day!

That evening I started feeling bloated, but chalked it up to not really eating normally that day.  Then I noticed some brown discharge… then more cramping.  Dr. Google and tons of online pregnancy forums told me it is extremely common to have cramping and spotting after an internal ultrasound.

I called the midwife and she suggested I take a bath.  Gideon drew me a bath and lit some candles.  I took deep breaths.  Then I started bleeding more.  And more cramping.  I called the midwife again and she used the word “miscarrying.”   I started crying.  Then, I got mad at Gideon for saying the ultrasound was silly to get in the first place.  Was he implying I caused the miscarriage by getting an ultrasound?  No.  That couldn’t be.

The cramping lasted all night and the next morning, around 8:30 (less than 24 hours after seeing the heartbeat), I miscarried.  I knew I did.  I couldn’t stand up straight, was doubled over in pain and as soon as “it passed” I could stand up.  I went into the kitchen and told Gideon (while he was making his morning oatmeal) and he assumed that’s what was happening.  He hugged me and kissed me and rubbed my back and told me there would be another baby and we’d get pregnant again.

It was awful and scary and truly unbelievable.  I didn’t believe it was happening until it was over.

A few hours later a midwife from the hospital called to give me the final ultrasound results.  What a wacky order of events, right?  Turns out the heart rate was slower than it should have been and it was smaller than it should have been knowing when I got pregnant.  It explained the size and strange due date they gave me.  Based on what she could see, “the fetus was not developing appropriately.”  Those words provided closure in some weird way.  Although, I honestly believe I’ll never really have “closure” on this topic.

I honestly think my body was preparing for the miscarriage as soon as I started feeling better.  I’ll never know, but that’s what I believe was going on.

So why am I writing about this?

Because, well, I have a lot to say.  For one, we can do a lot to optimize for positive outcomes, but we just dont have control over everything… or hardly anything actually.  I work with clients and run programs every day about preparing for pregnancy and had been following my optimal pre-pregnancy diet for over a year, but still.  Shitty things happen.  An important lesson for us all, I think.  I’ve also started to share my thoughts about the way our culture handles miscarriage and everyone I talk to about this says, “you should write about this!” so I am.  I think it’s really hard for male partners to relate to what’s going on when a woman has a miscarriage and I’d like to write about our journey too.   Then there’s the hormonal shift that goes along with all of this and even when you want to just feel like yourself again, your hormones might not allow it.  I learned a lot about different modalities, alternative therapies, herbs, and so much more that helped me and I’d love to share these.

Ultimately, I think miscarriage and everything that goes along with it is something we should talk about.  And, well, I’m gonna talk and write about it.

There’s a lot to say and I hope you support me writing about this, feel compelled to share your own experiences and/or share these posts with someone who you think might benefit.  I also hope this is therapeutic for me.  I guess we’ll see.  Here goes…

The post Something to talk about appeared first on Deena Barselah.

Okay so, if you don’t know about the Paleo diet by now, you must be living under a rock.  OR in a cave!  Ha!  Get it?  Rocks and caves?  The Paleo Diet (sometimes referred to as the Primal Diet or the Caveman Diet) is an approach to food that goes back to our hunter-gatherer days (Paleolithic period) and claims that eating the way we did for the bulk of our evolutionary history is the healthiest and most supportive way we can eat.  There are many variations on these diets today, but, for the most part, those who follow this type of approach do not eat legumes, grains or refined sugar and source their food well (pasture raised animal foods organically grown vegetables and fruits) and seasonally.

Personally, I take a lot from this way of eating.  I do eat whole grains (more and more, I am going lighter on these and feeling good benefit, though) and occasionally enjoy dairy and legumes.  I find that the more we can do things the way they’ve always been done, the better off we are.

Do you think our ancestors ate marshmallows, potato chips, sesame candies, baked goods filled with almond extract and K for P pound cake?

So much of the food that is labeled “Kosher for Passover” is not real food, but you might get sucked into buying it because it is a legal food during Passover.  Don’t be fooled.  Stick with real food instead.

First, try to make this Passover a Paleo Passover.  This means sticking to the above and avoiding the foods that those on a Paleo diet avoid.  A lot of people confuse the Paleo diet with a heavy meat diet.  That’s actually not the case.  There’s still tons of veggies being consumed, but alongside very well-sourced animal protein foods.   Nuts and seeds are also great.  

Hit up good ol’ Google and do a search for Paleo recipes, Paleo cooking videos, Paleo baking, etc… you’ll find tons!  Here are a few of my favorite blogs that have fantastic recipes:

nomnompaleo.com/

http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/

http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-cooking/

http://nourishedkitchen.com/ (search specifically for grain-free)

http://www.simplygrainfree.com/

Next, how about using this Passover as a bit of a cleansing opportunity?  While we just got MORE SNOW on the east coast, I am certainly hoping we are transitioning into spring, which is the absolute best time of year to give your body some extra cleansing attention.  Eating lots of greens, fresh foods, soups, tea, well-sourced animal foods (free of anti-biotics and hormones and pasture raised preferably), quinoa will be great for your body!  Stay away from the sugary foods, avoid tons of matzah, go light on caffeine and enjoy the feeling of giving your body a break from bread and refined foods!

We ask “Why is this night different from all others” and I think it’s a fantastic metaphor for thinking about why this transitional phase is different from others.  The move from winter to spring is the biggest transition we go through. We shed so much from the winter that’s built up, gotten us bogged down and as plants sprout and grow, we are coming out of our shell as well.  Let’s support what our bodies already need and give it an extra boost this Passover.

Wishing you and your family a wonderfully happy, spiritual, enjoyable, real-food-based Passover.

Please share your real-food passover recipes in the comments below.

The post A Paleo/Cleansing/Real Food Passover appeared first on Deena Barselah.

It takes 90 days for sperm to fully mature and for an egg to be viable (the cycle of an egg in preparation for ovulation is around 90 days), so at the very least, spending 3 months with optimal nutrition before trying to conceiving is a great idea.  The food we eat today nourishes sperm and eggs over the next 90 days.  So, if your diet wasn’t so great 90 days ago, it’s a great idea to take some time preparing for pregnancy.  I see 90 days as the least amount of time you’d want to devote.  It’s hard to say what the perfect formula is because it depends on the state of your diet when you begin.  Someone on a standard American diet will need more time than someone who eats primarily whole and real foods, but wants to optimize for preparing for pregnancy.  

Here are my MAJOR TOP 10 REASONS YOU’LL WANT TO TAKE THE TIME TO PREPARE FOR PREGNANCY with optimal diet and lifestyle:

1. Increase your chances of fertility.

Lower the risk of dealing with fertility issues when you try to conceive or increase your chances of fertility if you are already trying.  1 in 7 couples struggles with fertility today and that number is estimated to be 1 in 3 by 2020.  Most of these can be prevented or alleviated with proper diet and lifestyle choices. 

2. Going off the pill can make your body a little cookoo.

Going off the pill comes with a big hormonal swing and, potentially, not feeling well in the process.  Supporting the hormones through diet and lifestyle during this process makes it so much easier.

3. Learn when you are fertile.

Learn about your own cycles and hormone balance early so that you can detect if something is off before it becomes a problem.  Knowledge is empowerment.  So many couples have trouble conceiving because they don’t know when the best time is to have sex.  It’s pretty fundamental, but so common not to know.  You’ll also learn so much more about your body and be able to educate your practitioner!

4. Create a healthy home.

Working on nutrition before conception helps you set the stage for a healthy home long term.  You are planting a seed in more ways than one.  

5. “Just one more piece of broccoli and you can have a cookie.”

Significantly increase your chances of having a baby and child who enjoys healthy and real food.  Eating healthy food before and during pregnancy along with creating a healthy home will make it so much easier to avoid packaged mac & cheese and chicken nuggets or any food marketed to kids, for that matter.  This means everyone eats the same food, which translates to much less time in the kitchen.  But it must start early. 

6. What you eat now could prevent heart disease, diabetes and more for your child.

The Developmental Origins Theory tells us that the diet before conception (goes for men and women) is a major contributing factor to the long-term health of our children.  Reduce the chances of having a baby with an autoimmune disease, asthma, frequent colds and ear infections, food allergies and intolerances and so much more we see today.

7. Builds a partnership.

When both parents to-be do this together, besides the obvious nutritional benefit, it’s a wonderful way to build a foundation for a healthy home and partnership when it comes to food.  Being on a similar page on this topic makes life so much easier.

8. You’ll save money.

Reduce your cost long-term.  We know that the money we spend to treat things is always more than the money to prevent.  Fertility treatments, medication for children, ongoing doctors appointments… all of these are expensive and, often, invasive.  Invest now in your and your baby’s health and save your money down the road.

9. Feel better during pregnancy!

Feel better during pregnancy!  An optimal diet leading up to pregnancy has shown to drastically reduce nausea, fatigue and other undesirable feelings during early pregnancy and throughout.  

10. Let’s face it… you probably won’t be craving greens during your 1st trimester.

Even the healthiest women with an extremely optimal diet don’t feel like superwoman during their first trimester.  So much is changing, hormones are moving through your body big time and, at the very least, you’ll be more tired.  You might not be craving the healthiest foods during this time and so setting the stage beforehand is a great idea.  You can feel much better about your food choices if you know you’ve given yourself a great foundation before pregnancy.

My signature program, Healthy You for a Healthy Baby will give you all of the tools and knowledge to prepare you.  Check out the program here —>http://deenabarselah.com/healthyyouforahealthybabysp13/ and register TODAY!

The post Top 10 Reasons to Prepare for Pregnancy appeared first on Deena Barselah.

The post We eat one pound of butter per week appeared first on Deena Barselah.

This is why I embrace the 80/20 rule and recommend it to my clients as well. 80% of the time, I recommend eating whole, real, natural, old, traditional, healthy foods. This should be your mainstay.

You can break this down however you like:

• 80% of your day.
• 80% of your week.
• 80% of the month.

However you work it out, know that you have that flexibility.

This means you can have that cake for dessert, bread at dinner or whatever the thing is that makes you feel like you “transgressed.” Feeling guilty after eating something is pointless. You’ve already had it and beating yourself up about it just makes you stressed out and releases those stress hormones that keep weight on the body.

What if you took from the bread basket and instead of feeling guilty about it, making excuses, and punishing yourself afterwards, you counted it as part of your 20% and moved on? How amazing would that be?

If you are giving your body nourishing, wholesome, real, and balanced food 80% of the time, you are giving yourself an incredible gift. And that 20% is a gift as well… a gift of balance and forgiveness.

None of us are perfect.
Life is a lot easier when we acknowledge that and move on.

Finally, if you think you’re at 60/40 or 70/30 now, that’s fantastic! Strive for 80/20 over time.

What do you think of this strategy?  Does it put you at ease?  Please share your thoughts and your strategies for balance in the comments.

The post Perfect doesn’t work appeared first on Deena Barselah.

Next, are you sleeping well?  Are you getting to sleep at a normal hour, getting restful sleep and waking up feeling okay?   What about your stress levels?   High stress can be exhausting, but coffee will make it much worse for you.

Next, how do you tolerate coffee?  Does coffee dehydrate you?  Do you get major jitters? 

What about your digestion?  Does coffee give you a stomach ache?  Does it stimulate a #2 for you within the hour?  (hint: drinking coffee as a cure for constipation is dangerous bandaid and looking at your digestive health is essential).  Finally, if you have a known digestive disorder, coffee is a NO NO (you already knew that, but a little reminder is good sometimes).

SO, if you don’t need coffee, don’t have any digestive issues, tolerate coffee totally fine, are not addicted to it, but merely enjoy the taste and/or ritual of a daily cup of coffee, here’s a few tips:

1. Look at the source of your coffee.  

Your corner deli is likely not brewing the highest quality coffee.  As with everything that goes into your body, quality is key.  Organically grown beans are better.  Small roasters, a source you know and trust, this is all a good way to go.  

2. Drink coffee the way people do around the world, not the way Americans do.  

Drinking 72 oz of brewed drip coffee out of a styrofoam cup on an empty stomach is not exactly a traditional way of drinking coffee. Yes, coffee is a traditional food and we’ve seen it in cultures around the world for a long time.  Typically, you’ll see family and friends gather around for this ritual.  Whether a latte, cappuccino, Turkish coffee, espresso, etc, these drinks are usually sipped slowly and savored.  Of course, some of our not-so-admirable American ways are spreading the globe, but taking a lesson from tradition is always my favorite way to learn about food.  

3. Coffee is not breakfast.  

I do not recommend ever having coffee on an empty stomach.  Coffee spikes your blood sugar and what goes up must come down.  You’ll crash soon after and likely crave something sugary or more coffee for energy.  

Trying to conceive?  Pregnant?  

Coffee is a hot topic for this audience.  All of the rules and tips above apply here as well, but I recommend going light on the caffeine, especially early in your pregnancy.  You know how strongly I feel about an optimal pre-pregnancy diet and so it should not differer from your pregnancy diet.  You’ll want to nourish your body the best you can before, during and after pregnancy (if you are breastfeeding).  A rule of thumb here is if you are TTC (trying to conceive) and are used to drinking 1 cup of coffee per day, I think it’s fine to continue that as long as you are never drinking on an empty stomach and, preferably, combining with milk (or nut milk- NO SOY MILK!) for additional fat to slow absorption.  If you can go every other day, that’s even better.  Subbing in green tea for coffee would be excellent.  Black tea also has a lot of caffeine and I recommend grouping that with coffee- no more than 1 cup daily.  If you’re in your first trimester and feeling completely exhausted, this is NOT the time to take on the coffee habit.  Your body needs rest, not coffee.   Do what you can to get through the day with optimal nutrition and hydration and get in bed as early as you can.

The post Is coffee really that bad? appeared first on Deena Barselah.

It comes from a good place.  You are in the zone, getting your work done, taking care of your kids, you’re getting sh*t done, basically.  The issue is that in the process, your blood sugar is dropping, your cortisol (stress hormone that tells your body to hold onto weight) is kicking in, your body is going into stress-mode and all of this taxes the body.

If you feel light-headed, jittery, stomach growling, or like you’ll become violent if you don’t eat within the next 2 minutes, you’ve waited too long.

It’s also quite likely that once you sit down to eat, you’re scarfing down your food as fast as can be and missing out big time on THE HOW of eating.  When, how, what… all of these things matter when it comes to your meal time for optimal nutrition, digestion, absorption and generally feeling good.

This is the most common pattern I see: Eating breakfast within a reasonable period of time after waking, then getting into the zone.  Maybe you decide to exercise during lunch hour, you’re working or you just get caught up in your day-to-day.  Then, suddenly, it’s 2 or 3 in the afternoon and you are RAVENOUS!  You try to find something nutritious, but really, anything will do.  You eat quickly.  Within 10 minutes of eating you likely feel stuffed and then the fatigue sets in.  Not long after, say 1 hour or so, you’re craving something sweet.   This is because your blood sugar crashed, then it spiked, then it crashed again because your body was tired, taxed, stressed and it was all too much for your hormones to handle.  This might be a time when you “need dark chocolate” or something else sweet.

Or this all might happen with dinner for you… same routine, but you’re suddenly starving at 8 or 9pm. Oy.

Here’s my recommendation: As with everything, planning and preparation are essential.  You need to schedule your meals.  You need to have a good option on hand.  If you tend to lose track of time, set a reminder in your phone or some alarm.  Meals must happen.  This is a non-negotiable.  Getting in this routine will feel fantastic for your body.  The body loves routine and eating meals at a similar time every day on regular intervals feels good.

Yes, you want to be ready for food when you sit down to a meal, but you do not want to be ready to bite someone’s head off.

Please share any other strategies you have in the comments below.

The post Are you starving when you sit down to eat? appeared first on Deena Barselah.

Pull back on any refined foods. Sugar, refined flour products and industrial seed oils that you’ll find in most packaged foods all causes inflammation. In an inflamed state, it is much harder for your body to protect itself from getting sick.

Rest. Winter is the time that your body naturally wants to hibernate and look inward. Running around, overcommitting your time and staying up late to “send one last work email” is not what your body needs right now. Try to go to bed 30 minutes earlier than you typically do. Alternatively, even if you don’t go to sleep earlier, getting in bed earlier just to rest and let your body slow down will be a great gift.

Eat warming foods, especially if you’re in a cold climate. Ayurveda teaches us that a cold body in a cold climate eating cold food is primed for getting sick. It’s too difficult on the body and will slow down your metabolism and ability to rid your body of harmful germs. Stick with soups, stews, chili, cooked veggies, tea, and even spicy food to rev up your metabolism and kill those bacteria.

If you are sick or coming down with something, stay home. Please please please– stay home. Your health is more important that your work and everyone around you at work will appreciate your staying home rather than getting them sick. One obvious reason for outbreaks like this is people spreading illness once already sick.

Finally, a short list of foods and herbs to add to your diet ASAP:

Garlic: The garlic loses most of its goodness when cooked, so try crushing raw garlic into a bowl of soup once it’s already heated or even cutting a clove of garlic into pieces and taking it like a pill.

Ginger: You can use ginger in tea or in your cooking. Grating some ginger into a cup of hot water with lemon and raw honey is delicious and this whole combo works well for your immunity.

Lemon water every morning. Get your body going, get your digestion going, and get hydrated. A sluggish digestive system is primed for getting sick.

Greens and more greens! If you’re juicing or making a smoothie, be sure to get plenty of other warming foods into your day. Remember, juices and smoothies are both very cooling and, while filled with amazing nutrients, can derail what you’re trying to do if you’re too cold. Steam, saute, add to soup– just make sure to get those greens in. Organic is best.

A rainbow of colors: Try to eat fruits and veggies in a rainbow of colors as each color represents different anti-oxidants and diversifying your intake is a great way to keep healthy. Examples: Orange= carrots, sweet potatoes, squashes. Greens= kale, chard, bok choy, broccoli, collard greens, brussels sprouts. Yellow: spaghetti squash. Red: tomatoes (canned this time of year). White: onions, garlic, cauliflower.

Probiotics: Make sure you’re getting these good, healthy bacteria into your system. More good bacteria and less bad bacteria will help protect against illness as well. A few ways to get these friendly bacteria: make lacto-fermented foods like sauerkraut or buy it, drink kombucha, or taking a supplement.

Bone broth. Yep, there it is again. Chicken soup is the best medicine and wonderful for prevention as well. It’s also a fantastic way to stay hydrated.

Cold & Flu teas: I do like some of the teas you’ll find at Whole Foods or your health food store. Gypsy Cold Care is one of my favorites, but really any of the immunity ones are a great addition to your day.

Elderberry: Its flowers, berries, leaves and bark were traditionally used for treating colds, flu, pneumonia, sore throat and many other ailments. Black Elderberry has strong immune-stimulating properties and it is one of the most powerful anti-viral remedies out there.

Coconut oil: Anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-microbial goodness. Cook with it, add to smoothies or take it by the spoonful.

And WASH YOUR HANDS often.

What are your methods for staying healthy this season?  Please share in the comments below.

The post Staying healthy during a flu outbreak appeared first on Deena Barselah.

I made this last week and it was heavenly.  Rich, filling, sweet, and such a gorgeous color.  The pic above doesn’t do it justice.

This recipe provides a great framework for creating delicious, easy and nourishing soups with a variety of veggies.  You could easily sub winter or summer squashes, carrots, cauliflower, sweet potato and a combination of these.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Tablespoons butter, ghee, coconut oil or olive oil.  Any of these will do and will all impart a slightly different and delicious flavor.
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 3 medium or 2 large beets, cubed.  The pieces don’t have to be uniform.
• 8 cups stock.  I recommend beef stock or chicken stock.  I made this with homemade, gelatinous, marrow-filled beef bone broth so it was really rich and I actually did have stock, half water.  For a standard stock, I’d recommend doing all stock.  You can always use water as a base, but it won’t be nearly as rich or flavorful.
• 1 tablespoon vinegar.  You can use apple cider vinegar, ume plum vingar, wine vinegar, etc. Vinegar adds more layers of flavor to a soup.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon fresh or 1 tablespoon dried thyme, optional
• nuts or seeds of your choice to top, optional

This soup couldn’t be easier…

The post RECIPE: Pureed Beet Soup appeared first on Deena Barselah.

I love cooking, I work from home with a flexible schedule, I don’t yet have kids and still, I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen every day.  I imagine you, likely with a greater restriction on your time than I, do not want to spend hours in the kitchen every day either.

When I cook in batches, I prepare enough food to eat anywhere between 3-10 times, depending on the food and optimal storage.  Yes, you will devote the time upfront, but let’s face it, prepping and clean-up are the 2 things that take the most time anyway when cooking.

Let’s break this down…

Prepping:  This does take more time upfront, but definitely not the multiplier of how much you’re making.  What I mean is that prepping 5 sweet potatoes does not take 5 times as long as prepping 1.  You are already in the kitchen with the tools out, in a rhythm and banging it out.

Cleanup: No matter how much you made, you will likely need to clean up the same amount of tools whether it be a peeler, cutting board, knife, vegetable scrubber, pot, pan, etc.  If you are roasting 1 sweet potato or 5, you’ll still need to clean up all of the same tools.

Yes, there’s more time in prep, but basically the same amount of time in clean-up.  Batch cooking is also a great money-saver because you’re much less likely to throw away ingredients that went bad because you forgot to use them.  If you’re cooking a large amount of soup, there’s always room for more ingredients in there.

Tips:

1. Plan ahead.  You’ll need to have a chunk of time (at least 1 hour) and all of your ingredients on hand.
2. Make an event of it.  When I do my cooking sessions, I turn on music, shoulder dance while I chop and have a blast with it.  Im often wearing my onion goggles too.  Really, it’s quite the site to see.  Sometimes I listen to a pod-cast on a nutrition topic or catch up on the phone with a friend.
3. Use your entire kitchen.  You’ve already devoted the time, so get the most out of it.  No reason why you can’t use every burner on your stove-top as well as your oven and your counter space all at one time.

Now, not everything is a batch-cooking rockstar.  Here’s what I cook in batches:

• Steel-cut oats.  Aside from actual oat groats, which you may find at your health food store or even farmer’s market, steel-cut oats are closest to the whole at as you’ll likely get.  These take a long time to cook, though, and doing this every morning is just not going to happen.  Instant oatmeal packets are just not an option for real nutrition and to feel satisfied for more than 10 minutes.  I recommend cooking at least 2 cups of dried oats at a time.  Store in an airtight glass container like these.
• All whole grains.  Rice, quinoa, buckwheat (aka kasha), etc– all of these should be made in batches and stored in your fridge for 5-7 days. 
• Soup.  All soup should be cooked in large quantities.  Soup is mostly liquid and adding more ingredients shouldn’t take that much time.  I cook at least 2 soups/week during the winter.  All soups will store well in the fridge.  I store in glass jars(in the fridge) or various sized Pyrex containers (in the freezer).   Pureed soups and legume or bean-based soups also freeze very well.  I dont think brothy soups with veggies store in the freezer as well.  Make a big pot of soup, store some in the fridge and some in the freezer and go shopping in your freezer weeks or months later. 

Squash soup for the freezer

• Stews and chili.  Again, all it takes is a little more broth and other ingredients.  If your stew is on the more liquidy side, it won’t freeze very well.  Chili freezes perfectly and is such a treat on a cold night when you haven’t prepared anything for dinner.
• Roasted or steamed veggies.  When I cook veggies, I always do a bunch at a time.  Roasted veggies warm up quickly and easily in a pan or in the toaster and will keep their caramelized texture this way.  Steamed veggies can also be warmed up in a pot or pan, but I recommend going light on reheating since steaming actually keeps almost all the nutrients intact, so you wanna hold onto those.  I often eat steamed veggies right out of the fridge. 

What might a cooking session look like?

• Rice cooking in one pot or rice cooker
• Quinoa cooking in another pot or rice cooker
• Chili going in your dutch oven on the stove-top
• Veggies roasting in the oven
• Other veggies in your steamer
• You at the counter cutting up veggies for snacks throughout the week

The possibilities are endless!

There are many different foods you can do in batches, but these are just some to get you started.  If you’ve cooked a soup, some veggies and whole grains during one of your batch sessions, getting a nutritious, homemade and satisfying dinner together can take 10 minutes.  Seriously.  10 minutes!

What do you cook in batches?  

Please share in the comments below.

The post Batch Cooking appeared first on Deena Barselah.