— Laurie Wallace

So I batch cook things that take a long time to cook. So for example, here we go, here's a bowl of, um, potatoes and Japanese sweet potatoes. So these, I'll just keep in the fridge. I will quarter them and make them into croutons. I will smash them and put them in the air fryer. I will make a potato salad with them. Uh, they're great snack. They're loaded with vitamin C and potassium. Um, totally delicious. You know, unfortunately in our society, potatoes have gotten a bad wrap over the year, over the years. It's not what you, um, potatoes are good for you. It depends what you mix it with. So tonight for dinner, for example, I'm going to take one of these, uh, Japanese sweet potatoes and I'm going to cut it in half and I'm gonna smash it and put it in the air fryer. And then I'm gonna, I have some kale, uh, that I'm just gonna saute with some raw vegetables and then put a drizzle of some b balsamic glaze over it. And that's going to be dinner. So, uh, I also do a lot of batch cooking with, um, beets because they also take a long time. So I have them at the ready, the beets I can use in a salad. Um, I can just eat them whole because I love them so much and they're really, really good for you, uh, for many, many reasons. So from that, from a vegetable standpoint of view, something that comes out of the ground, uh, a root vegetable or a potato or whatever is gonna be a good thing. I have a rice cooker and I will cook in it, either rice or quinoa. And then sometimes I put it through an identity crisis and I will cook beans in my rice cooker as long as they've been soaked. Well then yes, that works absolutely well. So, beans, grains, potatoes. And last but not least, I also batch cook a bunch of muffins for the week. And these muffins are, uh, made with oatmeal and, um, they take minutes to make. And then I keep them in the freezer, and two of them equals, um, a bowl of oatmeal. I garnish these with some, uh, dried cherries and some pumpkin seeds just for a little added flavor and texture. And, uh, you have them in the freezer and they'll last you a week and they're totally delicious. So, as you know, um, I'm not a baker. Uh, the first time I ever made a plant-based dessert was from the Engine two cookbook. And, uh, there's a wonderful recipe for mighty muffins. So I always call these cousin of mighty muffins because at this stage of the game, after making these for more than 14 years, I just throw everything together. Um, what I used in this as my, um, bulking agent was applesauce. And I think someone has a question a little bit later on. We'll go into that a little bit, uh, more deeply. And, um, I think that about does it grains, potatoes, something to, to bake and, um, I think economy, not, not to get in, how food prices have escalated recently, and I only know this because co with so many cooking classes that I had this spring, I had to buy so much food for each class, and every week the prices would go up. So even though I'm a good bargain shopper, um, if you can bulk batch cook a little bit, you'll be able to contain your food budget and you'll always have something to eat. So, um, I love batch cooking. Wonderful question.