If batch cooking seems like a good idea because you prefer to advance the bulk of the cooking work, but you need a more elastic system that fits what you want to eat each day, the Comidista Formula can become your best friend. You will only have to cook something grilled at the last moment, make an omelet, open a can of preserves or prepare a quick salad: the rest will be ready. If batch cooking isn't your thing, you can stick around too: we have plenty of simple, healthy, and tasty recipes that can work on their own, too.
What does it consist of?
With this method you will get 10 complete meals that you can combine as you want, with most of the dishes already ready to eat. Some require a short preparation, which basically consists of cutting and dressing in the case of salads or cooking on the grill or pan in the case of fish, chicken, tortillas, etc. We will also always have ready a spread and vegetable sticks to accompany it for those days when you are a little hungrier, for snacks or to turn it into a breakfast or snack accompanying a toast. Neither breakfast nor snacks are included in this formula, so add seasonal fruit, wholemeal bread, fresh cheese, natural yogurt, avocado, oatmeal flakes or more eggs to take in the morning: the spreads that do enter the menu – as an extra for those days when you are hungrier – can also help you in this daily meal.
How to organize for cooking
Now that the temperature allows it, we will use our best ally again to prepare a lot of food at once: the oven -and its two trays-, which in a short time will help us to have ready the vegetable garnishes, the sweet potatoes, some ingredients of the cream and the loin (which is not exactly a stew but fulfills the same function in our menu). We will also need a couple of pots or casseroles -by preparing all the onion and garlic sauce at once we will save time and space- and a little organization.
The quantities of this formula are designed for four people, if at home you are less you can, depending on what you care or not repeat menu, adapt the quantities or prepare less variety and freeze. Do not be frightened by the amount of some ingredients on the shopping list: three kilos of yellow onion may seem like a lot, but between four people in a week they are quickly ventilated between stir-fries, vegetable creams and roasted side dishes. Try and rectify the seasoning of the dishes while you are cooking and, in addition to having tasty dishes, you will refine the amounts of salt, herbs or spices that your recipes need every time you cook.
Read all the preparation instructions first to be able to fill the dead times with the shorter preparations, such as vinaigrettes, and wait a little for the preparations to temper a little before putting them in the fridge, since by preparing a lot of volume at the same time we can lower their temperature. If it is very hot in your kitchen, it is better that the appliances work than the microorganisms: lower the temperature a couple of degrees to the refrigerator for two or three hours, setting an alarm so that you do not forget to return it to its usual position.
How to organize to eat
If you normally eat out of taper, the simplest thing will be to resort at noon to stews, creams and dishes already prepared, and leave griddles and salads for the night. Salads or cooked vegetables can become a unique dish by adding a hydrate and a protein: below we will see some very simple examples of how to combine them (in case someone does not work the free method).
Many of these dishes can be frozen if they are going to be consumed at the end of the week: both loin and lentils are perfect for this, as are brown rice, chickpeas or roasted peppers. In other cases, such as cauliflower or vegetable cream, which contains potatoes, the texture will change. We can fix it: in the first case, giving it a pan blow over a cheerful fire with a little oil so that it browns on the outside – the air fryer, is perfect for this – and in the second bringing to a boil or giving it a couple of minutes with the mixer so that the potato recovers its original texture. You can also replace the potato with turnip, which in addition to passing through the freezer without any change will result in a lighter cream.
Salmon and turkey – already seasoned with garlic and parsley – can also be frozen just to get home, in this case the night before we will have to do a forecasting exercise and pass to the fridge what we want to have dinner the next day so that it thaws slowly. If we forget, we can always do it with the microwave (adjusting the weight to a minimum and turning it around in the process so that it does not cook somewhere). In the case of prawns -or prawns, whatever we have more at hand-, buying them frozen will considerably cheapen the shopping list, and save us the work of peeling them.
We put legumes in the category of hydrates, although they are also a very good source of protein, due to their high satiating capacity: you can buy them already cooked -refrigerated, in a boat or cooked, if there are in your area- or make them at home. Although the latter may seem very laborious, if you cook a kilo every week you will get about 14 servings, which you can freeze to alternate flavors and textures.
THE DISHES
3 stews (for 2 servings per person, 6 in total, one already with hydrate incorporated)
- Baked pork loin with apple and onion
- Stewed lentils with chicken and carrot
- Prawns with cherry tomatoes and corn
3 cooked or sautéed vegetable preparations (5 servings in total)
- Roasted pepper with walnut vinaigrette and honey
- Roasted pumpkin and onion with tahini and lemon (by 2)
- Cauliflower with curry (by 2)
4 sources of hydrates (for 2 servings per person, 8 in total)
- Beans with red onion vinaigrette
- Brown rice
- Roasted sweet potatoes
- Chickpeas sautéed with parsley
4 vegetable creams or quick salads to prepare at the moment (5 servings in total)
- Arugula, pear, gorgonzola and walnut salad
- Tomato salad with cucumber, peach and feta
- Cream of spinach, potato, leek and yogurt (by 2)
- Grated carrot with yogurt, paprika and cumin sauce
4 fast protein sources (4 servings in total)
- Omelette
- Salmon with lime, soy and chili
- Turkey breast with garlic and parsley
- Sardines -or mackerel, or melva, or bonito- canned
1 spreadable (and its crudités)
- Hummus with walnut pesto
Preparation
Three examples for a daily menuMenu 1
Food (in taper): Stewed lentils with chicken and carrot + roasted pumpkin and onion with tahini and lemon
Dinner (at home): Salmon with lime, soy and chili on a base of roasted sweet potatoes + tomato salad with cucumber, peach and feta
Menu 2
Food (in taper and hungry): Cream of spinach, potato, leek and yogurt + baked pork loin with apple and onion with brown rice
Dinner (at home, but in a hurry): Prawns with cherry tomatoes and corn based on brown rice + hummus with walnut pesto + crudités
Menu 3
Food (in taper): Prawns with cherry tomatoes and corn + chickpeas sautéed with parsley + cauliflower with curry
Dinner (at home and hungry): Cream of spinach, potato, leek and yogurt + baked pork loin with apple and onion with roasted sweet potato
The shopping list
Fruit and vegetables
3 heads of garlic, 1 bunch of fresh parsley, 2 medium cauliflowers (about 800 g each), 3 lemons, 4 medium or 3 large peppers for roasting (about 800 g in total) + 2 for the crudités, 8 sweet potatoes or 4 large (1.3 kgs approximately), 15 yellow onions (3 kilos in total), 3 apples, fresh basil (what can be frozen crushed with oil), 5 cucumbers, 8 carrots + between 8 and 10 for lentils and salad (depending on size), 2 red onions, 600 g cherry tomatoes, 1 pumpkin of about 1.5 kg, 2 large leeks, 3 medium potatoes (about 400 grams), 1 kg of spinach (can be frozen), 2 pears (3 if small), 120 g of arugula, Three medium tomatoes for salad (about 600 grams in total), 1 peach -or nectarine-, 1 sweet onion (or spring onion), 1 lime.
Poultry
700 g sliced turkey breast, 8 chicken thighs (bone-in and skinless), 8 eggs.
Fish
4 slices of salmon of 200 grams or supreme of 175, 800 g of shrimp tails (both can be frozen).
Meat
A piece of spine tape of approximately 1.2 kg (better if it is two colors).
Dairy
100 g of mature cheese, 8 natural yogurts, 120 g of gorgonzola, 200 g of feta cheese.
In addition
Curry, olive oil, salt, white wine, 1.6 kg cooked chickpeas, 200 g walnuts, vinegar to taste, 800 g cooked white beans, thyme, rosemary, 400 g cooked corn (drained weight, can be frozen or canned), 600 g of green lentil or raw sardine, 150 g of fried tomato, honey, 500 g brown rice, 1.2 l broth (optional), tahini or sesame, 60 g olives to taste, cumin, soy sauce, chili (optional).
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