This week, for meal prep, we try to make it a little easier and incorporate the same ingredients for several different meals. You will see that we have healthy food for everyone, but lower calorie and low carb options that won’t leave anyone feeling left out of the yumminess!
Click here to watch a time lapse with a description of each meal, at the end of the video.
Things you need:
Sea salt, pepper, lemon pepper seasoning, seasoned salt.
Chicken breasts, chicken legs, steak, ground beef.
Jasmine rice, brown rice, riced cauliflower.
Yellow squash, zucchini, baby portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, limes, cilantro.
Flour tortillas, low carb tortillas, EVOO, sesame seed oil, McCormick zesty herb and mesquite season packets, taco seasoning packet, white vinegar, balsalmic vinegar, Saźon Goya packet, a can of black beans, a can of corn
Eggs, bacon, shredded cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese
Optional:
Sour Cream, salsa, avocado, hard or soft taco shells, tortilla chips.
Here are the recipes I prepped, this week:
I started off by grilling steaks and chicken breasts, throwing some chicken legs in the oven, and browning some ground beef.
I preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To season the chicken legs, I use one McCormicks Zesty herb packet and one McCormicks mesquite packet. Prepare each of them by the packages directions. You can either pour this over the chicken legs in a baking dish, cover it, and start baking or you can marinate the chicken legs in this for 2-24 hours. I poured it directly over them, put them in the oven, and cooked them for 30 minutes (or until the juices run clear).
To season the chicken breasts, I used sea salt, black pepper, season salt, smoked paprika, and lemon pepper.
For the steaks, I used sea salt, Montreal steak seasoning, and balsalmic vinegar.
Get the grill really hot and oil it up with EVOO. Cook the steaks to your desired temperature (we like medium and medium well, at my house), and cook the chicken until the internal temperature is 165 degrees.
Stir/chop the ground beef in a hot pan until its browned. Add salt and taco seasoning, following the directions on the seasoning packet.
Meanwhile, I make Jasmine rice and brown rice, according to the package directions. I put 1-2 packets of Saźon Goya in the water with the brown rice, while it cooks. Pop a bag or two of steam-able riced cauliflower in the microwave and cook it according to the package directions.
While everything was cooking, I chopped up yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, and lettuce.
Sauteè the squash, zucchini and mushrooms in a little EVOO and butter until they are ALMOST softened to your liking. Remember, you will be reheating this and the veggies will soften further in the microwave. You don’t want them too mushy.
Shred 1-2 cups of cheddar cheese or Monterey jack. I do a cup of each. Open, rinse, and drain a can of black beans and a can of corn. You can add a little salt to both and some garlic powder to the black beans, if you want.
It’s time to assemble. Chop the steaks and chicken breasts into 1 inch cubes. In the jasmine rice, and 1/2 of the riced cauliflower add salt, pepper, a few tablespoons of soy sauce and a 1/4 tsp of sesame seed oil. In the brown rice, and the other half of the riced cauliflower, add salt, pepper, the juice of an entire lime, and 1/8-1/4 cup of fresh chopped cilantro. (All to taste)
Put desired amount of the jasmine rice, chicken and/or steak, and sauteèd veggies, together to fill containers with hibachi.
Put desired amount of brown rice, chicken and/or steak, black beans, and corn in a container for burrito bowls. You can add salsa, avocado, shredded cheese, or sour cream to this after you reheat it. Eat it with tortillas or tortillas chips.
Assemble low carb hibachi and burrito bowls the same way, but substitute the riced cauliflower for the jasmine rice and brown rice.
Put ground beef, in a container, and add baggies of lettuce, shredded cheese, and tomatoes to the container. Be sure and take those items out, and only reheat the ground beef, when it is time to eat these taco bowls. You can add tortillas chips, salsa, avocado, and hard or soft taco shells to this meal.
Lastly, preheat a griddle and add a little butter to it. Take a tortilla ( I used a few regular tortillas and a few low carb.) and put it on the buttered griddle. add a little shredded cheese, a little chicken and/or steak, some more cheese, another tortilla, and flip it once the cheese starts to melt. Cut them into halves or fourths for quesadillas.
The chicken legs I prepared can be eaten alone, added to some sauteèd veggies, or even mixed with some fries or mashed potatoes, later on in the week.
You will notice in the Youtube video that I also had a cauliflower crusted pizza, and some breakfast items. The pizza was frozen and I tossed it in the oven. To make the breakfast quesadillas, I actually had leftover bacon from breakfast, and I crumbled it up, scrambled some eggs really fast, and assembled the quesadillas, tortilla, cheese, eggs, bacon, more cheese, another tortilla, flip when the cheese is melted.
This took me about 3 hours total. Most weeks, I don’t get to do this much! Most weeks, I don’t get to do anything to meal prep. Some weeks, I will meal prep and the entire schedule changes and I end up having way too much cooked. Whatever the week looks like for you, I hope this gives you some ideas to make life a little easier!
~Alisha
