This class with Chef Dulce is about MEAL PLANNING and how it can be a game changer to support you to consistently cook and eat for Optimal Health.
You will learn what is the meal plan that Chef Dulce recommends, to start meal planning like a pro!
See chapters below to find what most interest you…
This class is sponsored by Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Broward County FL for the Pregnant ladies participating in the MOMS4WELLNESS club.
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ChefDulceJimenez@gmail.com
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:45 What means to meal plan? Main goal with meal planning
03:06 Why meal planning
08:13 A Game Changer! How your fridge can look with meal planning
09:11 The 3 basic meal planning methods
10:32 Method 1: Ready to cook ingredients
14:25 Method 2: Make ahead meals
16:06 Make ahead Meals ideas with photos
20:42 Method 3: Batch cooking and freezing
23:20 How to choose the best plan for you
23:30 Make the Plan
24:56 Get organized / Prepping Tips
25:58 Getting ingredients / Prepping tips
26:16 Prepping photos for inspiration & closing
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COMPOUND BUTTERS to have them in the freezer for cooking later
perfect for meal planning
#compoundbutter #recipe #homemadebutter #homemade
What is Compound Butter?
Is simply a mixture of butter (conventional or vegan butter) and aromatics supplementary ingredients. Compound butters are easy to make at home and they are great to have for meal planning.
What are they used for?
Primarily, they are used to enhance flavor in various dishes, such as sauces, roasted meat, fish, or vegetables.
How to make compound butter?
Soften the butter of your choice, preferable unsalted, place in a food processor (or mix in a bowl by hand) add the aromatics of your choice. You can make different flavors & aromatics combinations for different preparations.
Fresh garlic, fresh onions, jalapenos, green or red peppers, roasted red peppers, etc.
Fresh soft herbs: such as basil, cilantro, mint, scallions, chives, thyme, oregano, etc.
Ground spices: turmeric, coriander, cumin, cardamon, etc
Once you have whipped the butter with the aromatics or flavors you desire, and they are well incorporated, the softened compound butter is then reformed like a log, by being placed in plastic wrap or parchment paper, and chilled until it is firm enough to be sliced.
These butters can be melted on top of meats and vegetables, used as a spread or used to finish various sauces.
Here are three (3) of my favorite combinations:
Tuscan Compound butter:
Unsalted butter, fresh basil leaves, fresh garlic, parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes. This can be used for pasta, polenta, grilled fish or chicken and to spread in toasted Italian bread and much more.
Chili-Garlic butter:
Unsalted butter, Calabrian chilies, fresh garlic
Spicy Cilantro butter:
Unsalted butter, fresh cilantro leaves, fresh garlic, jalapeno, fresh scallions
Impr so today I’m going to talk about meal planning because I really really think that a healthy pregnancy start in your kitchen my name is Chef D gimenez I am a health coach and a wellness Chef as well as foodie and I love to cook I love
To eat and the best way for me to have more time with my family uh is to meal planning I think that meal planning is a game Cher and remember that this class is a sponsored by Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies and the fla Health Department thank you for
Being here today if you’re watching me on YouTube please remember to like And subscribe and uh come back because every week on Wednesday I have a new class and once a month I have a cooking class of as well but this I’m going to talk about
Meal plany because this is a way to consistently eat for good health with some meal planning strategies and how you can create quick meals and have ready to eat meals without having to cook every day that is definitely something that I want to know and I
Would love to learn when I learn this even though as a chef I was cooking every day and when I start using meal planning strategies it was really a change a game Cher for me and for my own health um so what does it mean to meal
Planning so the definition that I give to meal planning um it has really allowed me to turn around my health I believe it’s so much in it that it’s a big part of my business that’s what I teach that’s what I do for my clients
So meal planning is create a plan it’s a type of plan that you create for the type of diet and food that you intend to consume so you can buy prepare cook and eat it in such a way that will support consistently optim in your case um if
You are pregnant so it’s super important that youal plan to be able to get all the nutrients that you need to sustain a healthy pregnancy so that is the main goal here for you to meal plan is to really really have a a plan that will allow you to eat for help
Your baby grow and develop as issue Okay so again why me planning new planning has so many benefits new planning will help you to save time save money you know you will control what you eat and how much you eat when you buy food outside you don’t
Know what you’re eating it tastes good but you’re spending money and you can spend a lot of money with the same amount that you pay for one plate food you can buy food for the whole week I promise you that that is guaranteed and also the good thing about
Um meal planning is you save money because you are actually cooking you can cook in both and you can freeze the extra food for later and uh you definitely save money by buying in b and you definitely save money by not eating up as much and you’re also saving money
Because your food is not going to waste go to waste because so many people buy food and then they leave it in the fridge and three weeks has gone and when they come back oh I’m going to cook it now it’s already spoiled so so many advantages and definitely one of the
Ones that touch me the most is that you control what you’re eating rest restaurants tends to give you more food and they are they’re putting unfortunately I’m a chef and I know and I have been working restaurants we want the food to be tasty it has a lot of
Oils maybe sugar some salt and not all the restaurants can afford to have organic and good quality ingredients so you are at the mercy of the ingredients that the restaurants are um using so the first and the most important thing that you could do for your health is cooking
At home and meal planning will help you do that more often uh the other thing is that it definitely lower your stress level because you don’t have to be every day figuring out what to eat or what to cook for your family if you are Mom or three
And you have new planning you can you can make a lasagna on a Sunday divide it in in two or three portions and have have that for the whole week and every time you need something you can grab a piece of lasagna put it in the oven and
Me is done you can just make a a salad or some bread on the side or you can uh make a stew or soup and those days that you’re not feeling well and you’re you’re sick of your stomach now that you’re you’re pregnant you might be not
Feeling you know all the energy that you need to be in the kitchen so you grab a soup and you you have food all the time when you’re hungry some of you are not eating well so if you maybe cook when you’re feeling good and then you always save food for
Later also that’s amazing um you will also feel confident and gain skills because as much as you start looking for recipes and start cooking you’re going to feel more confident I can do this okay I can do that even me as a chef there’s recipes that I see too
Complicated I was like I don’t even know if I can do that and once I try it it’s like oh I can do this you know and then it gives me confident I gain the skills and I keep doing more complicated recipes and stuff at the beginning there
Were so many things when I started changing my diet and when I start including more plans and being more planned forward um there were there were foods that were a little bit intimidating for me and then I gained that confidence when I start cooking for others and do
It more often so that’s something that also will help you it will also help you to establish a better relationship with food when you meal prep you learn more about nutrition how to treat food for what it is food is energy and nutrients you learn to eat only when you’re hungry
Instead of making unwise decisions in a rush because when we’re hungry and we’re tired and and the kids are crying and you need to go to an appointment you will grab one whatever you have in the freezer and if you have a lot of junk food in the house it’s even worse so
That’s another conversation but I prefer not having junk food because I was a junk food eater I was a junk food soda um you know in recovery I am a junk food eater in recovery so I don’t have junk food at home if I have very minimal I put it in
A cabinet on on on on in a cabinet that I have to take stuff out and I also divide it in portions so very careful with that because I know myself so this is how your refrigerator will look when you meal planning my fridge is usually like this sometimes
Meal planning can be as easy as just cleaning your fruits and Portion it and put it in the fridge just roasting some sweet pot potato making some Kino or rice then make maybe you know have some greens already clean but this can be your fridge and believe me this is a
Game changer I love it I love to have my fridge like that it give me peace of mind and you know it’s so so um good to be able to depend on your own food not in you know eating out or calling a restaurant okay so I hope I convince you
So let’s let’s go and dig into the basic methods that I recommend so there are three basic methods that I recommend for meal prepping that will that I will cover here so the method number one is make a head ready to cook ingredients that’s the key here then
Method number two is make a head ready to eat meals and Method number three is batch cooking and freezing ready to eat meals I should have put that in there I will so yeah so one is just prepping ingredients and then you can cook faster second one is having meals already
Complete meals already done and the third one is make big meals and freeze it that is simple as that right let’s go a little bit deeper so method number one is ideal for people that have a little bit of time flexibility that you can cook that if you have a digestive health
Concern I if you’re always you know not feeling well you’re feeling nausea and things like that you should not be eating you know a lot of frozen meals or all meals like you know know it it could perm you if you eat um food that has a
Few days in the fridge or that being frozen so it will also help you as a start point for meal planning uh more maybe this is just to wet your feet to see if you can do this so uh it will help you prepare ingredients to then later
Make a full meal right this is my favorite meal plan and I combine this with make a head meals with the method number two and this is the one I’m currently used at home because we both cook my husband and I cook so if I have ingredients already ready it’s so easy
For him to cook and make a whole meal and also I prefer freshly made meals and my husband too so this is something that I can do because I do have the flexibility so the this is a little bit of photos and and ideas so I I shop my
You know ingredients and I already have in little bags I I open a container with salsa the like the sauce or I already peel my garlic and I season my Meats I always clean my um vegetables and I prepare compound Butters compound butter is mixing butter with automatics for B
Garlic and onions and herbs I prepare all these little things and I freeze many of this I prepare a jar of a chimy churi sauce and then I can freeze some of it so I always have my refrigerator looking like this like my fruits are already clean my vegetables are clean
They’re in clear containers that I can see that is a a meal is a way of meal time so just like that you already have hours of time that you have saved also I mix my spices uh I know certain combinations that I like and I already have the mix
And ready to go okay another example here is you know cooking some vegetables roasting making some carbs like brown rice or making some lentils cooking some garban so or even if you don’t want to cook them from scratch I already open it from the can and clean them and have it in the
Refrigerator also making some power bowls like energy bowls that I can dump in my in my Shake in the morning instead of mixing the nuts and the flax seed and the dates and and having to grab all those ingredients I have little balls that already have all those ingredients
In and I just I put my milk my ice my protein powder and one of those protein bowls and I’m saving at least at least a few minutes so every time you go to my kitchen you will see timesaving tricks that will make my life easier in shorten my time in the kitchen
I have like peel Ginger and things uh I I put a label I know what it is and I put dates because some people freeze stuff in the freezer and they they have no idea what they just BR and they we all think that we’re going to remember
But no believe me you’re not going to remember when you see that in the freezers like what is this when did I put this there I have seen really really crazy freezers and refrigerator with a bunch of things that nobody knows what it is so that doesn’t help you you
Really need to label them put what it is and put a date okay so that was method number one method number two is make a head meals uh make aead meals are complete meals prepare and cook in advance so then be reheated at meal time
You can leave it in the fridge and you can some of them you can also freeze these are very convenient grab and go this are you can do a breakfast you can do lunches dinners snacks and power meals after a workout or for your kids you can individually portion them which
Is super easy for each member or El if you’re if you have a few members of the family that are work out or go and work outside the house they can grab their food in the morning put it in a bag and go to work and they have their meal for
The whole day or you can let it in family style and then you serve it at the moment of dinner or you can pick and choose from different things that you have in the fridge so these are very good for individuals with specific Health weight and wellness goals for
Busy family professionals and people that travel and for bodybuilding professionals or to increase body muscle mass for seniors for individuals with immune system compromised and individuals in rision remission of illness that you need to follow a very specific diet so I don’t know why I don’t have photos in here but I’m going
To find photos of that give me a second okay these are some photos I love photos because they give you a better idea than much Waring these are examples of make AE head meals these are complete meals and individually portion these are actually my food that I create for my clients these
Are this plan is not for vegans you can have these with real meat and with whatever you want but these meals that I’m presenting here are vegan oilfree and glutenfree these are black beans with quinoa cabat stuff and chiladas and a spicy Tom tomato and cheesy sauce this
Look like real cheese and meat but it’s not these are roasted winter vegetable Roto with a cashew cream and they’re they’re made with um grilled ptoo mushrooms and in a balsamic reduction they’re like Grill and these are mid Loa with mashed potatoes and steam asparagus and a
Chicky gravy you can make real meatloaf with mashed potatoes and things and these are things that are better not frozen right this is to eat during the week so you can have three meals that you can create in one day or in two days and then um you will have food for the
Entire week for your entire family another example here is when you are working out that’s why it says for for um bodybuilders or for people that are trying to build muscle these are very high protein meals this is for actually one of my clients that he was um building
Muscle and bulking him up so um these are very high in protein this portion of um turkey and Bean and chicken was very high but the wife was less so I even used color different color of containers because they were I was cooking for both
Of them so I made I use a pink container for her and a black container so you can even do that and you know okay the all the pink ones are mine the black ones are my husband or the kids or the way you want to do it so that’s a cool idea
To differentiate what you have in the freezer uh these are also like um Burgers these are beets Burger but you can make real burgers and for example I did already the sauce I cleaned the lettuce I cut the veggies that will go with the vegetables I did some sweet
Potato fries in the oven so these things you can have a a burger night but instead of cooking everything on one day you can make on Saturday you can make the vegetables say Mondays you decide to be a burger night on Saturday you can make the vegetables and Sunday you can
Make the the burgers and you can freeze them and put it in separate them like I put it in the freezer then on Monday you just have to clean the vegetables make a sauce it’s going to be super easier when you make some things in a minut these
Are these are for a whole family and they wanted family style family style means that you put all the containers with the food you don’t make the divisions of the food so they will peek and chew so one day one will eat the the roasted sweet potatoes with cauliflower
And fish and the next day somebody’s going to get the chicken and the asparagus and the rice and and they will combine a mix so I love that that was something that I did for many years for a client and was so easy for them to have meal for the entire family
They could they were able to mix and match dishes okay so this you can also make some salad some breakfast this is like tapioca or chia pudding you can prepare your juices or your smoothies you can prepare your cereals there’s so many things these are soups as well so
There’s so many things you can also cut your vegetables and your fruits and clean them and put it in jars so there’s so many things that you can prepare in advance so you can eat when you need it okay so method number three is batch cooking and freezing this is buying
Prepping and cooking multiple batches of a recipe and Portion it out or leave it family style and freeze them to be eaten in the weeks or month or month to come so this saves a lot of time in the kitchen save money because you can buy
Ingredients in bulk and cook them uh it requires specific technique need and equipment is good if you buy like a um a machine that will take all the air from the containers or plastic containers or or plastic bags also it will be you need to know some recipes are not you are not
Good to freeze for example you can freeze soups and stool lasagna caseros but you don’t want to you don’t want to freeze like a grilled chicken chicken breast with paragus that’s not going to be good so there’s some um you know skills that you should know and some
Recipes are not good for that also you should pack your stuff very well because when you freeze the food it could get um oxygen inside then you get that like icy inside that’s not good that’s really not good so and you should be eating it no
More than three to four months okay so this is a method that I don’t like but it’s good for certain things like if I do a lasagna I usually build two big lasagnas and put one in the freezer that is great I love that or soups I always
Have some soups in my refrigerator so I do use this one but it’s not my daytoday way of eating okay so this is good for people who don’t know how to cook or can cook every week this is good for BC large families with children because some really parents cannot not good their
Families that travel some of them are constantly on their run they have to take the kids to to piano classes and dance lesson and baseball and this and that and they’re super busy so this is great for that however this is not ideal for people that are in remission of
Illnesses or they have weak immune system or for those of a specific health and weight loss this is not ideal for plantbased diets if you’re vegetables are not great when you freeze them and then you have to reheat them so those are the three methods that I
Recommend and I hope you pick one of them and use them it’s very easy the first the first thing you have to do is pick which plan you you want to do for your family based on your schedule and your life goals and your lifestyle goals and your your cooking skills and what
You need then you just have to make the plan very simple set aside a few minutes get organized decide what meals you want to eat grab some recipes write a small menu it doesn’t have to be a specific or fancy menu you can say okay this week I’m going to c
Three vegetables two meat one egg one dressing one salad one card or two whatever and then you decide okay I’m I’m going to have I’m going to have chicken and turkey and then you make your grocery list you go to the supermarket when you come home you see
Some them and you prepare everything that’s one day right and the next day you can do some prepping so every day you go to the kitchen but less time maybe an hour and you always have food and when you’re preparing like you’re never eating the food that you cook on
That day so you always going to have food the day before so that gives you time not to rush it when everybody is from work or from school they know that they have food and then that night you do some prepping for the next day and so on so
You always have to go to the kitchen for a little time unless you’re one of those people that love to do everything in one day and you can also do that okay keep it simple make it easy for you and have fun maybe this is something that you can do with a whole
Family and the step four is really getting organized and prepping prepping and prepping so organize your area that you have space pre rub your your dishwasher so you can when you’re doing prepping you’re putting dirty dishes in there make some space in your fridge grab
Everything out what is it that I have in the fridge sometimes you just have to do that let me see what I can do with what I have instead of start buying more stuff so have all your your utensils everything that you need prepare and
What I do is once a month I buy St stuff foods and a pantry items and once a month and then once a week I buy those things that are perishable like if you want to buy in bulk the oils and the stocks and the and the proteins that you
Can freeze and also the grains those things you can buy in bul and then once a week it’s less time you just have to buy the fruits and vegetables in the closest uh Supermarket that you have so it’s less time also buying groceries and this is some more photos
Of things I will look I love to prepare things in my fridge this is a a freezer um whiteboard that I have in my refrigerator we always know what we have in the freezer what we have in the fridge you have control of your kitchen you have control of your fridge you have
Control of your freezer you know what you have that is very convenient and it’s easier for you I have always garlic I have some sopito we call it soito and many uh culture have different names for that it’s a mixture of garlic and onion and herbs and maybe some uh
Olives um I make mine with one water I don’t put any salt or any oil some some culture put some oils and salt and pepper also I love to make compound butter compound butter is that I mix some aromatics and garlics and then I I put butter and then I freeze it like
This in my freezer and I can just have a piece of chicken breast I grill it and then I put a little bit of that but and let it melt and it gives a lot of flavor you can also use it for uh for roasted vegetables and it’s something that you
Have it in the fridge and it will last and you can use it every day and this is also a way of prepping you know putting this um how to organize your kitchen buying containers that you can put things this is plastic and I would
Recommend you to buy glass I used to do it in plastic before for my clients but not anymore I prefer to use glass containers which are better for you so this is the class for today I hope you enjoyed it and that you get um inspired
That you find some motivation to cook at home and uh again if you’re looking and you’re watching this video and class on YouTube please remember if you learn even at one thing give a thumbs up like it subscribe that will help me a lot and
I hope to see you once again in one of my classes have a wonderful day guys or morning or evening and anytime you’re watching me thank you for being here one more time