Happy Monday! Coming at you again with a new weekly meal prep. This weekend was a long one for me (not length-wise, unfortunately) and it went by WAY too quickly. Like I talked about on my About Me page, I will be moving to Washington this summer so I have been trying to get things sorted out as much as I can in the free time that I have. This is going slowly 😦 In addition to that, my boyfriend just bought a project car (1990 Nissan 240SX) that we are building for the next drift event here on April 15th, so a lot of our time has been spent doing that the past few weeks. We did just put the engine in this weekend though, so things are going well! We’re going to aim to get the transmission in tonight…we shall see how that goes.
Anyway, back to food. Because I was really busy this weekend, I didn’t really plan anything special to make, and I didn’t want to spend hours grocery shopping on Sunday like I usually do every week. Especially with my car giving me issues the past couple of days (don’t even get me started on that -_- ). So, I opted for the easiest, most basic ‘meal prep’ meal in the world…chicken and veggies. An advantage to that, too, was that everything I needed was on sale at Sprouts, so I only had to go to one store as opposed the the usual 3 or 4 I normally go to every weekend.
I don’t know about you, but I get tired of food pretty easily (unless we’re talking about pizza–i love you, pizza). If you saw last week’s meal prep post you would have seen that I made Teriyaki chicken. Chicken is something I get tired of eating after a few days, so 2 weeks of chicken for me was just not going to work. Even though the chicken I made last week and this week were completely different, I just knew I would have ended up wasting so much if I made chicken the biggest part of my meal. What I did instead was make a weeks worth of chicken for my boyfriend (he doesn’t care what he eats as long as he has food–bless his soul) and I only saved myself a half of a chicken breast to eat one day or split up among days if I feel like it. Because I didn’t have a ‘main dish’ for myself, I just made a bunch of different types of vegetables to replace the chicken.
Let’s get to it.
I love potatoes. I haven’t made them for a while, so they sounded extra delicious this week. I figured since potatoes are a heavier vegetable, they’d be a good ‘substitute’ for the chicken I wasn’t making myself. While searching through Pinterest a few weeks ago, I stumbled across a blog that talked about soaking potatoes in ice water before you cook them to remove a lot of the starch that they carry. I had no idea? Thanks for the tip though, girl. So that is exactly what I did. Since I prep for 10 meals, I used around 8 lbs of Russet Potatoes to make potato wedges. I washed them all, then cut them into pretty thin wedges. I wanted them to be crispy, so I didn’t want to cut them too thick. Before seasoning, I filled up a big bowl of ice water and let my potatoes soak for 25 minutes. I then drained them and added the seasonings. All i used was olive oil, salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, and some garlic. Make sure not to overlap your potatoes when you lay them on a baking sheet so they cook evenly. I lined mine with foil (and sprayed the foil with cooking spray to prevent sticking) and ended up sprinkling some more Cajun seasoning on top of the potatoes for a little more spice. Cook them at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, flip the potatoes around, then cook for another 30-40 minutes depending on how crunchy you like them. Completely optional, but I topped them off with parmesan cheese and fresh parsley after they were done cooking.
Oh my god, my mouth is watering looking at this picture because these WERE SO GOOD. The perfect amount of crunch and seasoning. Seriously one of my new faves. I promise you that you’ll love these.
On to the next veggie.
Carrots. I love carrots, my boyfriend is very so-so with them. I made them anyway, figuring I would only give him a few. I made a glaze for my carrots with butter, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. I say glaze because I melted the butter then added the spices once melted. These only took a few minutes to prepare, the longest part was waiting for the butter to melt. I poured the glaze over 2 pounds of baby carrots, mixed them up making sure everything was coated nicely, then spread them onto a baking pan (foil lined and sprayed with cooking spray) and they were ready to go in the oven.
Moving on.
Last part of the meal here. The chicken and green beans. I baked them both using the same ingredients and on the same pan so that is why I’m talking about them together. I love shortcuts. As stated in the title, I decided on honey lemon chicken (which I’ve never actually made before). I’m sure you could use any kind of chicken with this sauce, but I went with chicken breast. I used 3 pretty large breasts and 2 pounds of green beans. For the sauce, I mixed honey, soy sauce, salt, pepper, fresh parsley, minced garlic, and freshly squeezed lemon juice. It turned out to be a pretty thin consistency which was good for spreading over the entire baking pan.
My pan wasn’t huge, but I made it work, and it looked really pretty.
I cooked both the chicken pan and the carrots together on 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes. The breasts were pretty thick so they needed a few extra minutes (I took the green beans off the pan at the 30 minute mark). I let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes once cooked and they turned out perfectly moist. The sliced lemons really gave it an extra punch of flavor.
See you next week!
Recipe: Potato wedges
- 8 lbs russet potatoes
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- Salt, pepper, garlic, cajun seasoning to taste
-Wash and slice potatoes into thin wedges
-Soak sliced potatoes in ice water for 20-25 minutes (optional, to remove excess starch)
-Season potatoes with olive oil and spices. Spread evenly on greased baking pan.
-Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cook for 15 minutes. Take out, flip potatoes. Cook for another 30-40 minutes (depending on how crispy you like them).
-Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and fresh parley while still hot (optional)
Recipe: Butter glazed carrots
- 2 lbs baby carrots
- 6 tbs butter, melted
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- Salt, pepper to taste
-Melt butter in saucepan. After completely melted, add minced garlic and let simmer for 3-5 minutes (or until garlic starts to brown)
-Add salt and pepper into butter mixture, pour over carrots and stir
-Spread carrots evenly on greased baking pan
-Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook for 30-35 minutes.
Recipe: Honey lemon chicken/green beans
- 3 chicken breasts
- 2 lbs green beans, washed, ends cut off
- 1/3 c. fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp. soy sauce
- 1/3 c. honey
- 1.5 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/4 c. fresh parsley
- Salt, pepper to taste
- Lemon (optional, for garnish)
-Mix together lemon juice, soy sauce, honey, minced garlic, parsley, salt and pepper
-On a greased baking pan, place chicken breast and green beans
-Pour 3/4 of the sauce mixture over chicken, 1/4 over green beans
-Slice remaining lemon into thin wedges. Place on top of chicken and green beans for added taste
-Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook for 30-35 minutes
Inspirations:
http://diethood.com/garlic-butter-roasted-carrots/
https://cafedelites.com/2017/02/26/one-pan-honey-lemon-chicken-asparagus/
*Prep Your Meals* 