The Benefits of Batch Cooking

There are many benefits of batch cooking, especially when we are tired and feeling sluggish, not having the energy to cook a meal. Whatever stage we are at, we feel overwhelmed with our systems flaring up, especially chronic fatigue.

Batch cooking is a perfect way to make life easier. It has been an excellent method for me to use for as long as I've been battling CKD. I have been tired to the point of not having the capacity to even leave my bed Sometimes I don't even having an appetite, not even evening feel my stomach rumbling anymore. I start to feel sick and remember I haven't eaten (brain fogs are the worse, so it doesn't help when it comes to eating).

Starting batch cooking

I began to learn that it worked for me while I was doing dialysis. I cooked and made meals that suited my appetite during dialysis. I had many phases where I liked one food at a particular time. For example, I had began as an expert on sandwiches, with different pieces of bread or meats or vegetables, and other ingredients.

When I had to go days on dialysis or after my transplant and had an excellent appetite, I started learning other batch cooking methods that had lasting flavor. For example, I'll buy a batch of chicken, seasoning them all differently, with different flavors from lemon and herb, honey and garlic chicken, etc. and freeze them all and use the chicken in what I crave that day. Then, of course, you can cook the chicken and add your flavors on the day you make your meal. I would use different parts of the chicken, it being the breast. I would cook it differently to cook chicken thigh fillets, making recipes for both the oven and air fryer.

I realized batch cooking for an air fryer with chicken thigh fillets with different seasonings was a great way of avoiding extra work for myself when I was tired. I would only add extra things like salad, and I would buy frozen vegetables for a side, making it easier for me when I want a quick meal but am too tired to cook.

Experimenting with different meals

I would batch cook other different kinds of meals: lasagne, homemade soup, Beef dumping stew which I make in a slow cooker, shepherd pies, chicken curry and bolognese sauce. I can use different recipes for slow cookers, Air Fryers and oven cooked.

One thing you got to remember when batch cooking, like for myself, is I froze it after I cooked so that it will last me through the week, whether that was for breakfast, lunch or dinner and even a healthy late-night snack I made. Having home-cooked foods freeze meant that I could also catch my sodium and potassium levels.

I also worked with my distance during my dialysis and early stages of CKD. I would label each meal with what to watch out for, which meant if I was batch cooking for the week, I would have instructions on the food with what each meal contains so that I don't accidentally eat anything I didn't intend to. Batch cooking gave me the freedom of doing something to help at that moment during my CKD journey.