Meal Prep-Shredded Chicken Rice Bowl

I was craving some Mexican food last week so I decided that I am going to go that route for my meal prep this week.  Since I skipped out on meat last week, I definitely wanted to incorporate some in this week’s meal.

I love Mexican food.  If I could eat carne asada or ground beef burritos every week, I totally would.  I actually never really eat beef anymore, maybe once every few weeks in a dinner meal, but never more than that.  I would have gone with ground turkey in this meal (you totally could do that) but it was so expensive when I went grocery shopping so I opted for some good old chicken.

Again, this is an extremely simple meal that you can put your own twist on according to your likes and dislikes.  I love making meals that are easily changeable.

I used my favorite kitchen appliance again this week…my beloved crock pot.  It was Easter this past Sunday (which is the day I do my meal preps) and my boyfriend and I were with his family for most of the day, so I just didn’t have time for anything more than throwing everything into the crock pot before we headed out for the day.  You could totally make this on the stove top or even in your oven if you wanted to use this recipe to make enchiladas.  I was actually wanting to make zucchini enchiladas (using sliced zucchini instead of tortillas) but again, there was just not enough time this weekend.  I do plan on trying that out though, I think it sounds amazing!

For this recipe, I used pretty basic ingredients.  I started out with the liquids first.  I added a 28 ounce can of red enchilada sauce, 24 ounce jar of Southwestern salsa, 14.5 ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes (I squished the tomatoes because I am not a fan of large tomato chunks), and 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth.  I decided to use the chicken broth because I wanted quite a bit of liquid since I was going to be pouring it over rice (if you use this recipe for the inside of enchiladas, I would skip adding this so it’s not insanely runny).

I then got my veggies prepped and other ingredients ready.  I used yellow onions, green bell peppers, corn, black beans, pinto beans, and of course, the chicken breasts.

Since I used the fire roasted tomatoes, I wanted to try and mimic that flavor with my onions and green bell peppers.  I chopped my onions pretty small and started cooking them in a very small amount of vegetable oil.  I let them cook for much longer than I normally would so that they would start browning on the sides.  Once I liked how they were cooked, I did the same with the green peppers.  After both were cooked, I dumped them into the crock pot of liquids.  I just used canned corn and beans so I drained each of those out and into the crock pot they went.

Once I had all my ingredients ready, I trimmed my chicken breasts and placed them inside the crock pot (make sure your meat is fully submerged in the liquid) and then set it on low heat.

We got home around 6 hours later, and by that time, the chicken was almost cooked.  I took each breast out and shredded them, then placed all of the shredded chicken back into the crock pot.  I then let everything simmer for about another hour or so, and by then it was ready to go.

For the rice, I just made some simple jasmine rice with lime juice in my rice cooker.

When I portioned everything out, I sprinkled a small amount of mexican cheese and fresh cilantro on top.  All of the ‘extras’ are of course optional.  I actually wanted to put some sour cream on top to try that out but unfortunately I didn’t have any.

All I have to say now is…Chipotle who????

Recipe:

• 28 ounce can red enchilada sauce
• 24 ounce jar salsa (any kind works–I used Southwestern)
• 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 15 ounce can yellow corn, drained
• 15 ounce can black beans, drained
• 15 ounce can pinto beans, drained
• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 lbs chicken breast
• Salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, garlic, chili powder, red pepper flakes to taste

• 5 cups jasmine rice, rinsed
• juice of 1 lime

-Combine all liquids (enchilada sauce, salsa, broth, and tomatoes) in crock pot

-Drain canned veggies (corn, beans) and pour into crock pot

-Dice onions and cook in 1 tbsp vegetable oil until they start to brown. Remove from pan.  Repeat with green bell peppers.  Put both into crock pot once cooked

-Trim fat from chicken breasts (I had 3 large breasts and I cut each in half so they would cook faster) and submerge into crock pot mixture

-Cook on low heat for about 6 hours.  Remove chicken, shred finely, and replace chicken back into crock pot

-Let simmer for an additional hour

-Prepare rice according to your rice cooker.  Lime juice optional.

-Pour chicken mixture over rice once rice is cooked.

-Add any additional toppings you prefer

Meal Prep-Healthy Vegetable Soup

Do you ever have those Sundays where you just know that the coming week is going to be a hard one?  That was my Sunday.  I was just exhausted this past weekend and had little to no motivation to meal prep some fancy, new, time consuming meal that I’ve never made before….so…I opted for a classic.  I opted for simple.  I opted for comfort.  I opted for vegetable soup.

**On the plus side, what’s healthier than a big old bowl of vegetables??**

From my previous posts, you’d know that I am in the process of moving…well, getting ready to move.  I have been re-organizing, cleaning, clearing, trashing, donating, and trying to sell anything we could.  I’ll be moving to Washington in a couple of months, and my boyfriend and I decided that we only want to fill our two cars with as much as we can, and leave the rest.  We want a new start.  We want simple.  So we are saying no to a big moving truck and only keeping what we need/can fit.  I spent literally the entire weekend doing as much as I could and I actually did get quite a bit done.  But by the end of the day on Sunday, though, I really just wanted to cuddle up with a blanket and a yummy bowl of soup.

I think we can all agree that soup gives us a sense of comfort…am I right?

I didn’t want to make a heavy soup, and I wanted to skip out on meat this week, so I decided on classic vegetable.  You can really add anything and everything into your version of vegetable soup, but I am just here to share my version.

Also, crock pots are my saviors.

My local stores didn’t have every ingredient I wanted on sale this week, so I did use a few frozen veggies..which is fine..fresh or frozen are what I like to use.  I try and stay away from canned veggies if I can, but hey, use what you can.

Since I did get some of my vegetables frozen. that saved me a little time on prepping.  This was such a quick meal to prepare, the longest part is waiting for it to cook in the crock pot.  You can even make this soup stove top if you want, but I went with the crock pot because I wanted to let it simmer for a few hours.

I started out by cutting up my onion and celery stalks.  I wanted to add in some extra flavor by slightly carmelizing my onions before I put them in the crock pot.  I simmered them for a few minutes over the stove and then added in some minced garlic and my chopped celery.  I let that brew for a few minutes while I got my other ingredients ready to go.

As soon as I saw my onions starting to slightly brown, I removed the pan from heat.

I got my green beans, carrots, peas, and corn frozen, so no prepping there!  You can just throw those bad boys in your crock pop straight from the bag.

For the broth, I went with vegetable broth and a small can of chicken broth (just for a little added flavor).  You can do all vegetable, all chicken, whatever your heart desires.  I went with vegetable because it was the healthier option and the sodium content was quite a bit less than what it was in chicken broth.  (If you remove the chicken broth, this is a perfect vegetarian meal!)

I decided to thrown in some chick peas for protein since I was straying away from meat this week.  However, customize your version any way you’d like!  You can use kidney beans, ground beef, turkey, etc.

**It was at this moment I realized I would be needing 2 crock pots**

As you can see, I added in some additional veggies that I had laying around the house.  I found some pre-diced (thanking my past self for cutting these a few weeks ago when I did) sweet potatoes from a meal prep I made a few weeks ago, so I threw those in my crock pot(s) along with 3 small russet potatoes (diced, of course), and some freshly cut parsley.  I also added in some spices before I left my soup to cook.  Those spices consisted of salt, pepper, chili powder, crushed red pepper, basil, italian seasoning, and a couple bay leaves.

And that’s it.  That’s all there is too it.  I wasn’t actually going for a spicy soup, but somehow I made it that way.  I mean, it wasn’t spicy spicy, but it definitely has a zing to it.  And not going to lie, it tastes freakin’ delicious.

Recipe:

• 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 large yellow onion
• 3.5 c. celery
• 3 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 lbs. frozen peas
• 1 lbs. frozen green beans
• 1 lbs. frozen carrots
• 2 lbs. frozen mixed green beans, peas, and corn
• 6 c. sweet potatoes
• 3 c. russet potatoes
• 2 cans chick peas
• 2 cans italian diced tomatoes
• 3 48 oz. boxes vegetable broth
• 14.5 oz. chicken broth
• 4 bay leaves
• Salt, pepper, basil, chili powder, crushed red pepper, italian seasoning, fresh parsley, to taste

-Heat vegetable oil in pan.  Once hot, add in diced onions and cook until transparent.  Once transparent, add in cut celery and minced garlic.  Simmer until onions start to brown.

-Add in peas, carrots, green beans, corn, chick peas, potatoes, and tomatoes (not drained) into crock pot.

-Once onion mixture is cooked, add into crock pot.

-Add broth into crock pot.

-Add spices.

-Let simmer 4-10 hours.

(I left mine to cook about 8 hours on low-medium heat)

ENJOY!