Seven Simple Chicken & Veggie Meals
3 DISHES YIELD 7 MEALS!
We’ve had a polar freeze for the past few weeks with temperatures of -30°C and below. With the anticipation of warmer days for the upcoming week, I wanted to PrepUp meals now so that we have more time to spend outside. My babies haven’t been outdoors for weeks now, so we’re pretty excited to spend a lot of time playing in the snow! The last thing I want to think about is what to cook for dinner!
I like buying bulk and am a big fan of Costco! If Costco ever wanted a “Mom-bassador,” well I’m their girl! When I’m cooking large volumes of food at once (batch cooking), I’ll pre-plan meals I have in mind so no food will go to waste. The true art of meal prep is in the planning phase. That’s my opportunity to create a meal prep “mood board” and there’s a lot of room for creativity here. For this session, it was important that we have a “spoon” dish, especially after coming in from the outside, so I created a veggie soup from scratch that’s sure to not disappoint any palate.
On the Menu are 3 dishes which will yield 7 meals in total:
Chicken Fried Brown Rice
Chicken Lentil Stew
Marina’s Hearty Veggie Soup
My “hero” ingredient in this post is a package of boneless/skinless chicken breasts and I centered the meal prep plan around it. I personally have a love and hate relationship with chicken breasts. It’s a healthy protein option, but it’s so boring, tasteless and too easy to overcook. I like using chicken breasts for batch cooking because it’s easy and freezes well, but I certainly love to disguise it in meals so it’s not just another ol’ chicken breast.
Try it out yourself and be sure to share your pictures online, tagging @prepupbymarina
PrepUpbyMarina Method: Time: 2.5 hrs.
Yield 7 meals ( 6 servings each)
STEP 1:
**DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP —> READ THE ENTIRE PROCESS FIRST TO VISUALIZE IT<—
Ingredients:
TIP: I grouped all of the fridge items together. Try to keep in fridge until required to use.
Fridge Items:
HERO INGREDIENT: package of boneless/skinless chicken breasts (I used 1 Costco-size 1.3 kg package)
6 eggs
1 cup frozen peas
unsalted butter
Place on your counter:
3 onions
12 garlic cloves
6 large carrots
6 large bell peppers
2 cups broccoli
3 zucchinis
3 celery sticks
~1 cup of white whole mushrooms (exact amount isn’t important)
2 scallions/scallion paste
Vegeta Seasoning
Salt and pepper
½ cup quinoa
2 cups brown rice
1 1/4 cup pasta for soup of choice (I used organic Gemelli)
avocado oil or oil of choice for sauteeing
2x 796ml cans diced tomatoes
4x 398ml cans chickpeas
9 bay leaves
reduced sodium soy sauce
maple syrup
dried onion flakes
red Pepper Flakes
parsley flakes or fresh parsley for garnish
Tools:
2 medium bowls, that will be your ‘BOWL A’ and ‘BOWL B,’ can label to keep track
measuring cups and spoons
Instant Pot
large cooking pot
medium cooking pot (used later for pasta)
2x cutting board and knife (1 for veggie chopping, 1 for meat)
small saucepan
Wok
2 large freezer ziplock bags opened and secured so you can add ingredients to them. I use freezer bag holders I bought on Amazon. Prior to this gadget, I’d just hold the bag open and add ingredients.
Immersion blender
STEP 2:
Food PrepUp:
1.) Label each of your ziplock bags: “Chicken Chickpea Stew,” date made and good for 3 mos. Add following instructions to label: “Cook from frozen in instant pot. Add 2 cups of water or broth and set manual pressure to HIGH for 20 mins. Turn Venting knob to Sealing. Quick Release (QR). Add 2 TBS tahini, stir and serve.”
2.) Put 2 cups of brown rice in the instant pot with 2 cups of cold water. Close the lid and turn the Venting knob to Sealing position. Pressure cook on High Pressure for 15 mins and Natural Release for 5 mins, then Quick Release. Turn off and fluff rice with the fork.
3.) While rice is cooking in the instant pot, start chopping up your onions. Place 1 chopped onion in BOWL A. Add 1 chopped onion in each of the ziplock bags. You’re done with the onions now.
4.) Start mincing your garlic. I finally got a garlic press and it definitely has saved me a lot of chopping time. You will need to add 2 large garlic cloves to BOWL A, 3 cloves in each of the ziplock bags, and 4 cloves in a separate medium bowl (BOWL B). You’re done with the garlic now.
5.) Place your wok and soup pot on the stove. Heat 2 TBS of oil on medium heat in the soup pot. Add contents of BOWL A to the soup pot and sauté for about 5 mins until onion becomes glassy, stirring regularly.
6.) Chop up your celery and add to soup pot, continue to sauté and stir regularly so doesn’t burn. If starts to burn, don’t fret, reduce heat and keep stirring. The longer you can get away with sautéing your veggies without burning and adding water the more aromas can be released into your soup broth.
7.) Chop the carrots and add 4 to the soup pot sauté, stir and mix. Add remaining 2 carrots to BOWL B. You’re done with the carrots now.
8.) Add water, just enough to cover the sauté in soup pot and stir, turn up heat to med.-high until reach boil, then reduce heat to medium while gentle simmer. Add more water if not fully covering vegetables. Stir so doesn’t burn.
9.) Chop the zucchinis and add to soup pot. Stir. You’re done with the zucchini now.
10.) Add water to soup pot to fill it about ¾ full. Turn up heat to med-high until reach boil. Add 1 TBS Vegeta, stir. When soup reaches boil, reduce heat to low-low medium. Add 3 bay leaves.
11.) Chop about 1 ½ cups of broccoli and add to BOWL B. Add remaining to soup. You’re done with the broccoli now.
12.) Add mushrooms to soup pot. Stir. I cut in half my mushrooms, but you don’t need to. You’re done with mushrooms now
13.) Chop the scallions and add to BOWL B. You’re done with scallions now.
14.) Add 2 TBS. oil to wok on medium. While waiting for soup to boil, take out chicken breasts and separate just over 1/3 (~500g) of chicken breasts and season lightly with salt and pepper on both sides. Keeping 2 groups of chicken separate, cube all chicken breasts and place the seasoned ones in wok. Stir-fry until no longer pink and juices run clear, ~ 5 mins. Remove chicken and set aside.
15.) While chicken is simmering in the wok, chop up your bell peppers in larger chunks and divide into 2 groups. Place each group in each of ziplock bags, layering on top of onion and garlic.
16.) Divide remaining chicken and add equal amount to each of ziplock bags on top of bell peppers. You’re all done with the chicken now.
17.) In each of ziplock bags, add the following ingredients in this exact order: ¼ cup quinoa, 2x chickpeas cans (drained and rinsed), 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 3 bay leaves and 454 ml diced tomatoes or ~about ¾ of the 796ml can in each of ziplock bags. Seal tight letting out as much air as possible. Congrats, you just made 2 future meals. Place in freezer.
18.) Add remaining diced tomatoes to the soup and stir. Continue cooking on low heat.
19.) While soup is still cooking, add more oil to the wok and heat on medium. Take out 6 eggs and lightly beat and pour into the wok. Cook, stirring occasionally ~3 mins until set and remove from wok and set aside. If there’s egg remaining in wok, wipe it off and add more oil to coat the bottom of wok.
20.) Add all of items in BOWL B to wok and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir-fry until tender, ~5 mins. Add peas and stir fry-fry for another minute. Remove half and add to medium bowl (use your now empty BOWL A). Divide half of your cooked rice, half of chicken and egg portions and add equal amounts to wok and to BOWL A where you placed half of the veggie stir-fry mix. You should now have 2 separate portions of the stir-fry. Remove wok from stove top and set aside for now.
21.) In a small saucepan bring ½ cup soy sauce, 5 TBS maple syrup, 4 TBS unsalted butter, 2 TBS dried onion flakes, ¼ tsp red-pepper flakes to boil and reduce heat and simmer for 2 mins.
22.) Place your wok back on the stovetop and on medium heat add half of the soy sauce mixture to it, stir fry for ~2 mins, toss to combine. Remove and place in now empty BOWL B.
23.) Add BOWL A into wok, and repeat step 23. Set aside to cool. Once cooled completely, freeze flat in 2-3 large freezer bags, label “Chicken Fried Brown Rice,” date made and good for up to 3 mos. To thaw, place in fridge overnight, warm gently in microwave or in a skillet over low heat, stirring occasionally.
24.) Take a medium-size cooking pot and fill with water and wait for water to boil. (You can also bring a kettle to boil, to save more time and transfer kettle water to cooking pot). When water reaches boil add pasta and cook as per package instructions.
25.) While pasta is cooking, turn off heat from soup and let cool a little. Take your immersion blender (If you have a plastic one, cool soup longer before immersing it) and puree the soup. Add either fresh parsley or parsley flakes for garnish.
26.) When pasta is done, drain and wait for soup to cool a little longer before adding all of your pasta to it. If you add the pasta while the soup is still hot, the pasta will expand and be overcooked. Another way to do it is to cook pasta al dente and then add to soup so it finishes cooking in soup.
27.) Let soup cool for a couple of hours max on your stovetop, or divide in shallow dishes so it cools faster. Once completely cooled, divide in containers and freeze. I separated half to eat for dinner and froze the rest for future use. To thaw, take out of freezer and place in fridge overnight and heat on stovetop, stirring occasionally and serve.
CONGRATS, YOU’RE DONE! Please share your feedback on how it turned out for you and any tricks you discovered along the way! Bon Appetit!
