Meal Prepping: Episode #2

If you haven't seen my first adventure in Meal Prepping, you can find it here. The After my first, mostly successful try, I've decided to put together my own list for the second try. The recipes in this batch includes 7 recipes that sound delicious to me (hopefully they sound tasty to you as well!). I will post the recipes as-is today, and update with pictures and notes as I make them! Enjoy!

Recipes

• Cilantro-Lime Fish Tacos
• Smoky Corn Chowder with Shrimp
• Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls
• Zesty Orange Chicken
• Verde Chicken
• Pork Carnitas
• Shredded Chicken Tacos

Shopping List
Protein
6 fish fillets, frozen (I used Tilapia)

6 pounds Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

2 slices bacon

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

3-4 lb pork roast (shoulder, butt or loin)

Canned/Boxed

rotel (1 lg. can )
chicken stock (32 oz)

half and half OR cream (1/2 c)

brown rice (2 cups)

black beans (1 can)
green tomatillo salsa (12oz)

Fresh

fresh cilantro (1/2 c fresh chopped or 3 Tbsp dried cilantro)
lime (juice of 3)
medium yellow onion (1 1/2)

tomatoes (5)

garlic (13 cloves or 7t)

Frozen

corn (3 1/4 c)

orange juice concentrate (1 can)

Pantry Items

smoked paprika

crushed red pepper

chili powder

cumin

oregano

ground ginger

sesame seeds

salt

pepper

sugar

soy sauce

rice wine vinegar

sesame oil

corn starch

chicken bouillon cubes (2)

Day of

Soft taco shells
basil (optional)

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Pork Carnitas

This recipe is a part of a meal prepping post (original recipe from this website). If you're interested in meal prepping, you can find the grocery list and the full set of recipes using the link above.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lb pork roast (shoulder, butt or loin)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 onion, diced
• juice from one lime
• 1/2 cup orange juice (or 2 Tbsp orange juice concentrate + 3/8 cup water)

Instructions: 

• Place all ingredients in the slow cooker.
• Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
• Pull pork apart, removing any excess fat.
• Serve either as a rice bowl or in tortillas, and top with cilantro and sour cream.

More coming... 

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Chicken Fajitas

This recipe is from my meal prepping a few weeks ago (originally from this website). In a pinch, this would be a recipe I would do again. It was tasty. However, I just don't like peppers when they've been frozen or overcooked (which can easily happen in a crockpot. While the peppers were fine, I'd rather make fajitas the traditional way.

Yields: Four servings

Ingredients
1 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 small yellow onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Materials (if made as freezer meal)
1 gallon-sized plastic freezer bag

Prep
1. Label your freezer bag with the name of the recipe, cooking instructions, and “use-by” date.
2. Add all ingredients.
3. Remove as much air from the bag as possible, seal, and lay flat in your freezer for up to three months.

Cook
1. The night before cooking, move the frozen bag to your refrigerator to thaw.
2. The morning of cooking, pour contents of freezer bag into your crockpot and cook on “low” setting for 6 hours or until chicken is tender.
3. Shred chicken and serve with cooked onions and peppers.

Serve on tortillas with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.

Crockpot Chicken Philly Cheesesteak

This recipe is from my meal prepping several weeks ago (originally from this website). I made it, and have eaten some of it. It was not my favorite, but I don't know exactly how it was meant to be served. On bread? By itself? That was not specified, so I had a hard time figuring out the best way to eat it. The flavor is not bad, but the peppers were not my favorite (I'm not a huge fan of frozen peppers - we'll see how this goes with the chicken fajitas next week!).

Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup chicken broth
1 pound chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
3 medium-sized bell peppers, cut into strips (I used two green and one red pepper)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced
6 slices of provolone cheese *not needed until day of cooking

Materials (if prepping as freezer meal)
1 gallon-sized plastic freezer bag

Prep
1. Label your freezer bag.
2. To your freezer bag, add all ingredients except cheese.
3. Remove as much air from the freezer bag as possible, seal, and lay flat in your freezer.

Cook
1. The night before cooking, move frozen bag to your refrigerator to thaw.
2. The morning of cooking, pour contents of freezer bag into your slow cooker and cook on “low” setting for 3-6 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and tender.
3. Add sliced cheese and cook additional 10 minutes or until melted.

Serve on rolls.

Southwestern Chicken Chili

This recipe is from my meal prepping a couple of weeks ago (originally from New Leaf Wellness). It has good flavor, but I made a few small alterations because I like my chili to be spicy! I may also include some spicy rotel or something next time. Drop in the crock pot and enjoy!

Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients
1 pound chicken breasts
1 onion, peeled and chopped (one cup)
2 stalks of celery, chopped (about one cup)
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 red pepper, chopped
14oz can of tomato sauce
15oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 cup chicken broth
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons (the original recipe had 2 teaspoons) chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2-3 dashes of tabasco sauce (not included in the original recipe)

Materials (if made as freezer meal)
1 gallon-sized plastic freezer bag

Prep
4. Label your freezer bag with the name of the recipe, cooking instructions, and “use-by” date.
5. Add all ingredients.
6. Remove as much air from the bag as possible, seal, and lay flat in your freezer for up to three months.

Cook
3. The night before cooking, move frozen bag to your refrigerator to thaw.
4. The morning of cooking, pour contents of freezer bag into your slow cooker.
5. Cook on “Low” setting for 6-8 hours or until chicken is cooked through and veggies are soft.
6. Shred chicken.

Serve: Top with cheddar cheese and crushed tortilla chips.

Lemon Pepper Chicken

This recipe is from my meal prepping a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to New Leaf Wellness for the recipes!! This one is definitely up there on my list of favorites from this set of crockpot meals. When prepping the broccoli, I used water, lemon juice, and pepper to steam/sauté it. I also stopped the chicken a little bit early (it was cooked, but not shreddable) so that I could dice it. I am not a fan of shredded chicken on rice. If you are, I'm sure it would be good that way as well.

Yields: 3 servings

Ingredients
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
The juice from one lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Materials (if prepping as freezer meal)
1 gallon-sized plastic freezer bag

Prep
1. Label your freezer bag.
2. To your freezer bag, add all ingredients.
3. Remove as much air from the freezer bag as possible, seal, and lay flat in your freezer.

Cook
1. The night before cooking, move frozen bag to your refrigerator to thaw.
2. The morning of cooking, pour contents of freezer bag into your slow cooker and cook on “low” setting for 3-6 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and tender.

Serve with rice and broccoli.

Spring Chicken Soup

This recipe is from my meal prepping a couple of weeks ago. This recipe is quite tasty. The only things I would consider changing would be using some sort of small pasta rather than the orzo (it was hard to get to, as it sunk to the bottom, and just didn't fill the soup out very much). I also needed to cut my carrots smaller (you can't quite tell in this picture, but they were still pretty long, and not super thin...). I did have to pull about half of the soup into a pot on the stove as I was finishing it up. It was a bit much for my crock pot (which I think is pretty standard-sized). This recipe is quite large (and could be larger if you wanted to add more chicken broth to stretch it a bit) - it will obviously depend on who you're feeding, but I believe that this will give me at least 10 servings.

Yields: 8+ servings

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast (1+lb)
1 bunch of green onions, chopped (whites and greens)
1 medium-sized zucchini, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
5 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 celery stalks, sliced
The juice from one lemon
1.5 teaspoons dill
1.5 teaspoons dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup orzo *not needed until day of cooking
48oz chicken broth (6 cups) *not needed until day of cooking
16oz water (2 cups) *not needed until day of cooking

Materials  (if made as freezer meal)
1 gallon-sized plastic freezer bag

Prep
1. Label your freezer bag.
2. To your freezer bag, add all ingredients except orzo, chicken broth, and water.
3. Remove as much air from the freezer bag as possible, seal, and lay flat in your freezer.

Cook
1. The night before cooking, move frozen bag to your refrigerator to thaw.
2. The morning of cooking, pour contents of freezer bag into your slow cooker and add chicken broth and water.
3. Cook for 6 hours on “low” or until chicken is cooked through and tender.
4. Shred chicken and add orzo.
5. Cook for additional 30 minutes.

Serve with fresh, crusty bread.