5 Quick and Easy Lunch Recipes
When it comes to meal prepping you want to make sure you’ve got the two most important qualities down. First and foremost you want to make sure that your meal prep is healthy. If it isn’t healthy then there’s no point in packing it. After all the whole goal of meal prep is eat well so that you can live well. The second most important aspect though is to make sure that you have a few easy recipes up your sleeve so that on busy weeks you don’t have to worry about having the time to meal prep. That’s where these 5 quick and easy lunch recipes for meal prep come into play.
Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients:
- 2 cups rice
- 4 cups water
- ⅔ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (sliced thinly)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 green bell pepper (sliced thinly)
- 1 head broccoli (cut into florets)
- 1 cup carrots (sliced)
- 1 onion (cut into chunks, large)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Directions:
- In a medium saucepan over high heat combine the rice and water and bring to a boil
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and cover
- Simmer until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed (20-25 minutes)
- Mix soy sauce, brown sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl
- Add ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes into the soy sauce mixture and combine
- Coat your chicken with the marinade
- Refrigerate for 15 minutes
- Put one tablespoon of sesame oil in a large skillet and heat on medium-high
- Add bell peppers, broccoli, carrots and onion to skillet and cook until just tender (5 minutes)
- Remove vegetables from skillet but keep warm
- Put one tablespoon of sesame oil in the large skillet
- Remove chicken from marinade and transfer to skillet to cook over medium-high heat
- Cook chicken for about 2 minutes on each side
- Add cooked vegetables and marinade to skillet
- Bring everything to a boil and continue to cook and stir for 5-7 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink inside
- Serve or save over rice
Mexican Brown Rice
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup corn (frozen or fresh)
- 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed (15 oz)
- 3 cups whole grain brown rice
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 cup jarred salsa
- 1 avocado (diced)
Directions:
- In a large skillet over medium heat combine your corn and black beans
- Cook until the corn is tender (3 minutes)
- Add ready to serve rice and chili powder and stir
- Cook for 3 minutes while continuing to stir
- Combine salsa and warm for another 2 minutes
- Remove the skillet from the heat and allow 5-10 minutes for cooling
- Garnish with diced avocado
- Serve or save in your meal prep containers
Chicken Caesar Pita
Ingredients:
- 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (4 oz each)
- ⅓ cup caesar dressing (reduced fat)
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups romaine lettuce (coarsely chopped)
- ¼ cup shredded carrot
- 2 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese
- 2 whole wheat pita pocket breads (cut in half to make pockets)
- 1 plum tomato (sliced thinly)
Directions:
- Set your oven to broil
- Brush 1 tablespoon of the caesar dressing on both sides of the chicken and pepper
- Put chicken on the rack of a broiler pan and broil 4-6 inches away from the heat for 12-15 minutes
- Flip your chicken once during cooking
- Cool for 5 minutes
- Cut chicken into thin slices
- Combine romaine lettuce, carrot and cheese together in a large bowl and mix with caesar dressing
- Fill each pita bread half with tomato, chicken and lettuce combo
- Serve or save in your meal prep containers
Blueberry Stuffed Chicken
Ingredients:
- 4 large skinless, boneless chicken breast
- 4 ounces goat cheese
- ½ cup dried blueberries
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F
- Cut out pocket in the middle of each chicken breast for your stuffing
- Mix goat cheese, blueberries, rosemary, minced garlic and red pepper flakes together to create the stuffing
- Divide stuffing into four parts and stuff each chicken breast pocket with it
- Grease a large saute pan
- Cook the chicken in the saute pan over medium-high heat for two minutes on each side
- Brush BBQ sauce onto each side of chicken breast
- Bake brushed and stuffed chicken in the oven at 375 degrees F (25-30 minutes)
- Make sure to flip the breasts halfway through
- Remove from oven and let rest before serving
- Serve or save in your meal prep containers
Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Boats
Ingredients:
- 3 small or medium spaghetti squash
- Salt and fresh pepper (to taste)
- ⅓ cup skim ricotta cheese
- 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley (or basil)
- ¾ cup whole milk shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ onion (chopped finely)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 14 oz. Italian chicken sausage
- 14 oz. crushed tomatoes (can)
- 2 tablespoons basil (chopped)
- 1 bay leaf
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F
- Cut each spaghetti squash in half lengthwise
- Scoop the seeds and membrane out of each spaghetti squash
- Season them with salt and pepper
- Put on a baking sheet cut side down and bake at 400 degrees F (1 hour)
- Combine ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and parsley in a small bowl
- Heat a bit of oil in a large saute pan on medium-low
- Add your onions and garlic and saute (3-4 minutes)
- Add sausage and cook thoroughly
- Add the crushed tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste
- Toss in the bay leaf and cover
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer (20-30 minutes)
- Add basil
- Once the spaghetti squash is cooked, let cool for 10 minutes
- Remove flesh using a fork to create “spaghetti”
- Toss “spaghetti” with half of your sauce
- Portion “spaghetti” back into the squash halves
- Top each half with the remaining sauce
- Add 1 tablespoon of the ricotta cheese mixture and 2 tablespoons of mozzarella cheese to each squash
- Bake (cut side up) in the oven at 400 degrees F (20-30 minutes)
- Serve or save in meal prep containers
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