Ok guys, this is the #1 thing that has made eating low histamine easier and sustainable long-term: batch cooking + my beautiful freezer! (I guess that’s 2 things 🙂). While it takes more work and time up front, the rewards are great later!

Making everything from scratch every day gets exhausting. Plus most recipes make more than one serving and since histamine levels rise quickly in cooked foods, especially meat, freezing leftovers is a best practice.

As a mom of three kiddos, I am overwhelmed by the amount of snacks and meals I’m asked to make every day. Filling my freezer with low-histamine foods so that I can serve meals and snacks quickly has saved my sanity. Plus, it opens so many doors for snack options since there aren’t many pre-made snacks that qualify as low histamine. I’m going to share my top favorite recipes for batch cooking in this post.

Tips & Tricks

I like to batch cook in 3 ways:

  1. Buy bulk meat and prep it within the next 24-48 hours.
  2. Double/triple any baked goods recipe I make.
  3. Cook extra of a side or meal which was already on the menu.
    1. For example when we’re having rice as a side, I cook 4 cups and freeze the extra.
    2. If we have pancakes for dinner I triple the recipe, cook and freeze the extra.

My most repeated mistakes:

  • I inevitably end up starting multiple baking projects at once, especially ones that use similar ingredients (like zucchini muffins and zucchini carrot apple bread). Then halfway into the project my kitchen has exploded, every dish is dirty, and food is sitting out while my brain chatters on about how “the histamine levels are rising every minute these sit out!!!”. It gets chaotic and overwhelming. And somehow it’s always right before dinner and I end up clocking 4-5 hours straight in the kitchen. This leads to burn out almost every time. Yet I continue to repeat it 😆.
  • I end up talking to people on the phone and completely lose track of how much of the ingredient I’ve added. This has happened SO many times.
  • Please learn from my mistakes!

What helps me get through big cooking projects:

Below are my favorite foods to have in my freezer with a few tips of how I prepare them. I organized them according to histamine level.

I’ll be sharing more tips for batch cooking in another post.

Batch Cooking- Histamine Level: 0 Recipes

Baked Goods

Low histamine vegan zucchini carrot apple bread

  • This recipe makes 2 loaves.
  • When the bread is baked and cooled for at least 30 minutes, slice both loaves. Cut several parchment paper rectangles a little bigger than a slice of bread. Stack the slices of bread with parchment paper in between each slice.
  • Store in 2 medium size containers or in a gallon size bag, although it stores the best in a container because the slices can break easily.
  • To eat, take out a slice of bread and toast it on low for 2-3 cycles (if you have a cheap toaster like ours 😉 ) This bread is best toasted because it’s kind of soft and moist.

Low histamine carrot cake “larabars”

  • Make 2 batches of the recipe and store in the freezer.

Meat

Steak strips

  • Buy 5 lbs of steak (I get petite sirloin because it’s the cheapest cut).
  • Slice steak into skinny strips.
  • Freeze in portion sizes in sandwich or quart size plastic bags, or whatever you like to use.
  • Pull out of freezer for low histamine sheet pan steak fajitas, tacos, rice bowls, etc.

Chicken Breast

Other

Rice

  • Cook 4 cups of rice according to the package.
  • When cooled a bit, freeze in sandwich size plastic baggies.
  • To serve, place frozen rice in a bowl with a cover, and microwave for 2-3 min.

Batch Cooking- Histamine Level: 1 Recipes

Baked Goods

Low histamine pancakes

  • Triple the recipe above.
  • Freeze pancakes with parchment paper between each pancake.
  • Reheat pancakes in microwave, frying pan, or toaster.
  • This is also a #1 staple in my freezer and it goes the fastest because everyone in my family LOVES these pancakes.

Low histamine zucchini muffins

  • A single batch of this recipe makes 24 large muffins + 12 mini muffins.
  • Freeze in gallon size bags.
  • Reheat on the counter or in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

Low histamine blueberry muffins- gf, df

  • Double the recipe.
  • Freeze muffins in gallon size bags.

Meat

Ground hamburger (rated a 1 due to garlic).

  • Buy 5-10 lbs of ground hamburger
  • Place all of the ground hamburger in a large pot on the stove. Cook over med-low heat for 20-30 min, stirring often. Use a spatula to break up the large chunks of meat into small pieces. Season with minced garlic and minced white onion, and salt to taste. (I use about 1-2 Tb of garlic and onion for 8 lbs).
  • Remove from heat when meat is no longer pink or meat temperature reaches 165° F.
  • Drain the grease and freeze hamburger in small bags in the freezer. I like to freeze it in 1c. amounts.
  • I use it in Low histamine tacos or occasionally with spaghetti.

Low histamine turkey meatballs

  • I buy ground turkey from Costco so it comes in 6 lb packages. So I triple my turkey meatball recipe above and make over 100 meatballs in an afternoon.
  • When the meatballs are cooled a bit, freeze in quart size bags.
  • To serve pull out desired amount of meatballs and microwave for 30 sec-1 min.
  • Eat with salad, spaghetti, low histamine sweet and sour meatballs, or just plain because they’re so good! This is a #1 staple for me to have in my freezer. I get so sad when I run out!

Happy Batch Cooking!

Check out the rest of the how to get started series: Low histamine food list, easy resources, and one week menu + shopping list.

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