When you are on a nice even keel with your IBS and you are feeling good BUT you have to leave the comfort of your own home and the safety of your kitchen to go ‘out, out’ what do you do?
The answer is easy. With weekly batch cooking this will become such a simple and straightforward task you will be doing this on autopilot within just a few weeks… Simply mix and match your batch cooked foods. This little lot took me a total of 3 hours to prepare, put away and wash up – having already pre-prepared some items in my previous batch cooking earlier in the week.
Save Time With Batch Cooking Each Week
Batch cooking is the way forward if you have busy weeks coming up with days out, working away, holidays, travel and all the things you never thought you could do when your IBS was bad. For a batch cooking reminder, read this article.
Chose Your Weapons
To make a well balanced, nutrient rich meal with all the macros, you will need a combination of two or three of the following:
Simple carbohydrates = salad, vegetables or fruit. In this instance I have opted for a garden salad, steamed broccoli and zucchini, stir fried peppers and zucchini, roasted peppers with sweet potato (which also counts for starchy carbs content)
Complex carbohydrates = potatoes, rice, oats or other grains you know you are OK with. Overuse of the gluten grains wheat, barley and rye can cause IBS problems so I veer away from these where possible, however quinoa, buckwheat and corn or cornflour products are generally OK. In this instance I have opted for plain basmati rice, paprika potatoes, minty potato salad and then added lemon juice to the rice for lemon rice.
Protein = Peas, beans, seeds, eggs, fish, poultry, meat of your choice. There is quite a selection to choose from. In this instance I opted for a pan fried salmon fillet, a well seasoned air fried chicken breast fillet, sliced, a breadcrumbed chicken fillet, then flaked the salmon for a different lunch meal.
This same principle can go for smoothies also:
Simple carbs = Fruit & veg Complex carbs = oats (or use oat or rice milk) Protein = seeds, cashews (or nut milk)
That way you have a complete macro balanced meal in a smoothie format also. Try to use more veg than fruit as this will ensure they are not too sweet and won’t upset your gut bacteria.
Protein Warning!
General rule of thumb is to limit the protein to be 15% maximum of your meals, filling up on simple and starchy carbs will keep you feeling fuller and help prevent UTIs. Too much protein in the body produced a build up of nitrogen which can only escape via the kidneys and bladder. So beware of having meat with too many meals, even if you are a carnivore. Always mis it up with vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan meals in between.
IBS Free Pack-Ups
Firstly, if you have batch cooked a few foods your may have a fridge filled with containers such as these. Further down I will show you how to conbine these for great meals, snacks and pack ups for you to take out with you. But in all of the pack up photos to come, these were the only ingredients.
In this picture I have clockwise from top left:
- Seasoned sliced chicken breast fillet with garden salad
- Breaded chicken fillet
- Spicy rice with roasted peppers and sweet potato
- Grated carrot
- Lemon rice with stir fried peppers and zucchini
- Flaked salmon fillet with minty new potatoes
- Steamed veggies with paprika potatoes
Take your IBS free food with you…
Food Combining & What Is It All For?
Depending on what your meal plans are for breakfast and dinner, you may not need a fully macro balanced lunch to take out with you on your travels. For example, I eat a pretty standard ‘meat and two veg’ (ooo-er Mrs) meal in the evening therefore I may have a smoothie for brunch and a vegan lunch so I am not over doing the protein in the day. However, if i am off out all day long and I know i will be hungry I will opt for more of a meat and potatoes / rice type of meal with a fresh veggie smoothie to keep me feeling full.
This will come with time but when you are out for the day ask yourself how long for? Are you doing a physicals days work? Or will you be sitting about waiting for a lot of it, i.e. airports etc? What do you need in terms of energy from your food? Is it merely to sustain you so you don’t buy lots of crap food? Or do you need your food to work for you so you can achieve physical bursts of energy? Once you get the hang of it you can make your food work for you in whatever situation you find yourself in, now that you have more IBS freedom than ever before…
Now lets look at some combinations I prepared using the 6 to 7 bowls of food in the main picture…
Simple Chicken Salad x 4 ways:
- Breaded chicken (can be made a couple of days before, the night before, or even that morning – takes 15 – 20 minutes) with paprika potatoes. Again, can be made in advance, or takes about 20 minutes. *** Breaded cod recipe applies the same principles as breaded chicken…
- breaded chicken, paprika potatoes with garden salad *** any salad will do, whatever you have leftovers of
- garden salad with herby seasoned sliced chicken fillet (can be pre-prepared up to 3 days prior to event, or made that morning – takes approx 10 minutes)
- garden salad with herby sliced chicken fillet and minty potatoes (can be pre-prepared or takes approx 15 minutes)
Rice, Rice Baby…! (I know, I apologise…)
- Basmati rice with stir fried vegetables (peppers and zucchini) and flaked pan fried salmon fillet
- Spicy rice and roasted veg
- Air fried seasoned herby sliced chicken fillet with spicy rice and roasted vegetables
- Lemon rice (rice with lemon juice, nothing fancy) with herby chicken fillet and zucchini
- Stir fried veg and rice
- Spicy rice and roasted veg with flaked pan fried salmon fillet
- Pen fried salmon fillet, steamed broccoli and lemon rice
Super Sexy Salmon & Salad!
- Gorgeous garden salad, you can make your own salad dressing (I use lemon juice, black pepper, fresh herbs and drop of olive oil or mayo) or take one with you in a separate smaller pot. The world is your lobster!
- Pan fried salmon fillet, green salad, paprika potatoes
- Flaked pan fried salmon with minty potatoes
- Garden salad with flaked pan fried salmon fillet
Soups and Smoothies
- Carrot soup
- Orange, carrot, ginger and apple smoothie
- Chocolate, orange and oat milk smoothie
- Spinach, banana, oat milk smoothie
Now these meals were created using just a few simple ingredients, some of which i had pre prepared, such as the Roasted veg and spicy rice and the breadcrumbs for he breaded chicken and the carrots were already grated and the soup was already made. However, the rest of this lot of prep and fluffing around literally took me 3 hours plus doing the photos plus washing up to create. This goes to show that anything is possible as it used to take me an hour to make beans on toast!
I hope you feel inspired. There are thousands more combinations you can enjoy for pack up lunches. I eat mine cold as I don’t use microwaves and it tastes just the same. Still made with love and filled with my energy in making it, which comes back to me and my body, keeping me happy and healthy.
Remember that the only person putting food into your mouth each day is you, so you can choose to eat tasty, enjoyable, IBS free foods or you can save yourself a couple of hours each week and go ahead and eat crap, boring and bland food. The choice is entirely yours but we all know where that will eventually lead… Here is something I absolutely live by and this never lets me down :o)