This is my third time posting this recipe, so I'll make it worth your while! First off, this recipe is originally for the slow cooker, so if you do not have a pressure cooker then check out the original link at the bottom of this post for how to make this in your crockpot, and then go buy an Instant Pot 😉... Now since I have always just made this recipe in my Instant Pot, and this is one of my staple and go-to meal prep recipes, I decided to make a more detailed blog post about what I actually do every other week. I also wanted to show everyone how incredibly simple it is to make one of my favorite recipes, use the Instant Pot, and log the recipe in MyFitnessPal, so I made a quick little video compilation of the steps. If you find it helpful at all please let me know and I will make more! About this recipe though... I wrote in parenthesis below, but I will typically increase the chicken amount to anywhere between 6-7 lbs since I am meal prepping for 3 people, and I love having extra for dinner when needed. If you don't need that much chicken though, just use the suggested 2.5-3 lbs as the recipe calls for below. No need to adjust anything else, although sometimes since I have so much chicken I'll increase the oil and spices some. This is a low fat and carb chicken recipe, so it definitely needs to be paired with a carb and vegetable of your choice, which you can then load with more fat according to your goals. I typically bake sweet potatoes to go with this buffalo chicken, and will roast some broccoli with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and salt to complete the meal. If you need even more fat, I suggest increasing the coconut oil in the buffalo chicken, throwing some ghee or nut butter on your sweet potato, definitely using EVOO (or bacon fat 🥓) to saute or roast your vegetable of choice in, or top everything with a fried egg or two. The options are endless! This meal is typically what I eat before I head to the gym, so it's higher protein and carb, and low fat. If all this macro talk is going over your head though, don't pay any attention to it. The point of this post is to show how incredibly easy bulk making something delicious for your lunches all week is. That knocks out one meal on track everyday! If you are looking for more specific guidance then check out the nutrition coaching tab and send me a message! Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken with Sweet Potatoes Ingredients:
Notes: *You don't absolutely need the arrowroot starch - it just helps thicken the sauce some. If you do not use it, you can still put the cooked chicken on "Saute" mode in your Instant Pot to thicken the sauce. It usually takes me around 10 minutes when I don't use the arrowroot starch. Original recipe found here
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Oh my goodness this meal was seriously incredible! 100% worth purchasing the dried galangal, fish sauce, and coconut aminos if you don't have those more specialty ingredients. I linked them all to Amazon, but you can probably get them cheaper in stores, well at least the coconut aminos that is. I didn't chance trying to find the dried galangal in the store though and just got some off Amazon. The good thing is that this meal was THAT amazing that I will be making this again like next week, so I'll put these ingredients to use. I increased the chicken to closer to 6 lbs, so I doubled the ingredients below. Instead of putting 8 slices of bacon in the Instant Pot though, I fried 4 of them in frying pan, then wilted the baby kale in the leftover bacon fat. Super easy vegetable pairing, plus this gave me some extra crispy bacon to top the meal with. I also heated up a few bags of plain frozen cauliflower rice, which is hidden under all that chicken. If you couldn't tell already, frozen cauliflower rice is my go-to vegetable for meal prep. Remember not all frozen cauliflower rice is created equal though. Check the ingredients on the back of the package and make sure you pick one that just has vegetables listed. Also, for all those Instant Pot users who think we need to add at least 1 cup of liquid to the pot in order to cook (no, just me?), apparently we were wrong. Since the chicken and pineapple release plenty of fluid, no need to worry about adding more liquid. If you are a sweet and salty person, then this is the meal for you! If you like quick and easy one pot Instant Pot meals, then this is the meal for you! If you like really incredible tasting meals for meal prep, then this is the meal for you! But really, this was so delicious.
Instant Pot Pineapple Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Oh my gosh!!! This was the BOMB. So much flavor, so many fun and tasty ingredients, and so not that hard to make! To make prep a little easier I bought matchstick carrots and frozen plain riced cauliflower. I also used dried unsweetened cranberries instead of cherries because I could not find dried cherries anywhere (well at least ones without sugar added). My recommendation is to go out and get your grocery shopping done the day or night before, prep this recipe first thing the next morning, and throw it in the slow cooker for the rest of the day to cook. My favorite meal prep days are the ones where I get something knocked out right away instead of waiting all day to get started on everything. Always a good move to find a way to break the cooking up instead of slaying it in the kitchen for 3 hours. Anyways though, this meal was seriously amazing. Don't be intimidated by all the ingredients and give it a try! I promise you will be extremely pleased to eat this for lunch all week long!
Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken with Chopped Almonds, Apricots and Cauliflower “Couscous” Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Crockpot Chicken with Butternut Squash, Pears, and Cranberries with Rosemary Mashed Root Vegetables11/19/2018 It's Thanksgiving week, which means yes, I still meal prep, and yes, I like to make Thanksgiving types of food for the whole week. This year is especially busy though, so I pulled some recipes I've already posted to make this meal. I actually haven't made the Crockpot Chicken with Butternut Squash, Pears, and Cranberries since January of 2016 (one of my first blog posts), and this time I actually made the Rosemary Mashed Root Vegetables as the recipe calls for. When I made that mash last time I used butternut squash, tri-colored carrots, and more sweet potatoes, so using less sweet potato and adding white potatoes and regular carrots instead turned out for a completely different taste, but still tasty! I did have higher expectations for this meal, if I am being honest, but I still enjoyed having something different this week. I recommend cutting the chicken breasts in half and rubbing the seasoning on them before placing in the crockpot, just to make sure the chicken is more flavored. Also, for the Rosemary Mashed Root Vegetables I recommend using a canned coconut milk since it packs way more flavor then the boxed coconut milks, which I accidentally used. I also think adding a tablespoon or two of ghee would really hit the spot as well, but that's just my opinion! I know, I know, I am probably not selling anyone on these recipes, but they were still tasty and easy to whip together! Let me know if you give either a try.
Crockpot Chicken with Butternut Squash, Pears, and Cranberries Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Rosemary Mashed Root Vegetables Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Between not having power to the oven and stove top, to being out of electricity all together, meal prep has been quite the struggle the last couple weekends! Since skipping meal prep is clearly not an option though, I found this new slow cooker recipe to try, utilized my trusty Instant Pot, and moved my meal prep to where there was power (thank you to Debbie if you are reading this!!). This Crockpot Garlic Honey Chicken is pretty similar to the Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken recipe I’ve posted before, but this one has some added vegetables to it, aka more nutrients! I used boneless chicken thighs for this one and thought the meal turned out really well! My only complaint is that thickening the sauce up in the slow cooker seemed impossible. After about 45 minutes I decided to just throw it on the stove top on high instead, which worked much better. I served this over straight up plain cauliflower rice (seriously just used the frozen bag you can pop in the microwave) since there was plenty of sauce to go on top, but feel free to serve over rice, a mixture of cauliflower rice and regular rice, or whatever you please. This meal was delicious, super easy to throw together, and will most likely go into my rotation of weekly meal prep recipes!
Crockpot Garlic Honey Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here As the name suggests, this was just a simple meal prep recipe to throw together over a very busy weekend. I loved this slow cooker chicken because it had very little prep, and all I had to do was make sure I bought the chicken and red onion ahead of time. I quickly sliced the red onion, then seasoned the chicken, and put everything in the crockpot on high for 4 hours. Easy peasy, and done in under 8 minutes. I made sure to get this in the crockpot before my busy day started, so when I got home it was almost done. This chicken recipe is a great one to prepare in bulk, have ready in your fridge throughout the week, and dress up multiple meals however you please -- top it on a salad; throw it in a casserole, soup, or omelette; heat it up with some rice/riced veggies; dress it with your favorite BBQ, buffalo/hot sauce, mustard, salsa; or make a chicken salad out of it. The possibilities are endless with this basic shredded chicken. Anyways though, since I had this incredibly simple chicken, I decided to find a delicious yet not too difficult vegetable recipe to pair with it. These balsamic brussels sprouts were exactly what I was looking for and they turned out tasting amazing! I will definitely be making these a lot moving forward. Last thing I will note is that I just threw a bunch of sweet potatoes in the oven to bake while I did various chores around the house. If you have a two-hour period at home, then why not throw some potatoes in the oven to bake and have ready for your week!? I just set a timer on my phone, so I'm reminded to get them out of the oven. There you go. A super simple and basic meal prep.
Simple Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Balsamic Brussels Sprouts Ingredients:
Original recipe found here This was an unexpected game changer! I prepared the grated sweet potato and spices the night before, so all I had to do the next day was throw everything in the crockpot. Well that was the plan, but since I did not get home until later in the day, I actually threw everything in the Instant Pot for 25 minutes instead. There are not many ingredients to this recipe whatsoever and it turned out tasting plenty flavorful and delicious! I loved it paired with the Garlic Cauliflower Mash recipe too, but that is just my preference. All I added to my mash was cauliflower, garlic cloves, salt, garlic powder, and 1/2 Cup broth (I left out the extra added fat this time since the meatloaf had enough for me). I'm always looking for new ways to eat sweet potatoes and I will definitely be throwing this recipe into the rotation for now on. Plus, it was seriously too easy to make that it's a great recipe to save for meal prep. Definitely recommend giving this one a try!
Paleo Crockpot Sweet Potato Meatloaf Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Garlic Cauliflower Mash Ingredients:
I tend to like my chili and soup less liquidy and more meaty, but I really enjoyed this one as-is! All I did was increase the chicken amount to 2.5 lbs and I added three bags of frozen riced cauliflower at the end. I also did not use white sweet potatoes, but regular orange ones instead, and I should have followed the note below a little better. If you use orange sweet potatoes, dice into 1" chunks, or even slightly larger, because they do get extremely soft! I actually used the slow cooker for this one too, not the Instant Pot, and it always reminds me that I need to slow down. While the Instant Pot is faster, it also makes my meal preps a little more crazy since I'm rushing to get everything done. With the slow cooker you just throw it all in the pot early in the day, go do what you need to do, and come take care of it 4-8 hours later. It's the perfect meal prep helper and allows you to still take care of all the other things on your to-do list, or those other things you would rather be doing instead of meal prep. Anyways, this chili was light, delicious, and comforting, so I'll definitely bring it back once the colder weather starts to hit.
Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili with Sweet Potato Ingredients:
Notes: *If you can't find a white sweet potato, a common orange one will be fine, just cut into 1" inch chunks since they're a bit softer. **Coconut cream is the solid part in a can of refrigerated coconut milk. You can buy full fat coconut milk and use only the thick part, or purchase a can of coconut cream only. Original recipe found here Although this one says slow cooker, I threw it in the Instant Pot for 25 minutes instead and it came out great! I simply heated up a few packages of Riced Veggies Cauliflower & Sweet Potato to pair with the chicken, but feel free to pair with your favorite vegetable or rice instead. You can also always throw your favorite vegetable or potato in the food processor and pulse until it's rice like too! To help minimize the time I'm meal prepping though I've been purchasing frozen riced veggies, which stores seem to have a lot more of these days. Anyways, since this meal has plenty of sauce, you can honestly pair with a plain riced vegetable since it will get covered - just my opinion! The original recipe link below says you can just dump all the ingredients in the slow cooker, instead of sauteing the onions and sauce first, so if you're short on time then definitely go with that option. This meal was SO flavorful and I loved every bite. If you are a fan of an Indian-spiced meal then give this one a try!
Slow Cooker Butter Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here This meal was SO delicious! Before you check out the ingredients below and think nope not making this, hear me out. Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste is paleo friendly and found at just about every grocery store. Fish sauce is definitely really smelly, but the amount in this recipe is so little that I could not pick out the taste whatsoever while enjoying this meal. You can either omit the fish sauce all together if you don't want to try or purchase it, or you can get Red Boat fish sauce, which I have found at Whole Foods. If you do purchase a fish sauce, make sure to search "Fish Sauce" on my site and make some other delicious meals, so you can put it to use! Avocado oil is not in most peoples pantry, so if you don't want to purchase that one just use olive oil. The sambal oelek/Asian chili paste was a new one to me, and I was originally going to make my own using that recipe I linked below. However, I realized the amount of that ingredient was so little that I just ended up buying and using Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce, which I found at my local grocery store. This was the closet thing to a chili paste that I found that didn't have any added sugar in the ingredient list.
Now that I have addressed the ingredients that most likely turned you away from making this recipe, I'll talk about the other details worth noting. First, I found some packaged shredded cabbage, which made prep even easier (I used two 10 oz bags). I also found that 3 limes was the perfect amount for this recipe. If you have an Instant Pot, this meal was super easy to prepare and get done. Though, there are slow cooker instructions below in the notes section if you need them. Anyways, when the chicken was done and I threw in the coconut milk, I put the Instant Pot on saute mode and stirred it around every so often until the sauce was reduced some. While the chicken was cooking I had prepared the sauce for the slaw, so all that is left to do at this point is toss the cabbage and green onions with the sauce. Talk about easy! I was a little nervous about how I'd like this slaw, but it honestly turned out really good. It was light, not too spicy at all, and paired perfectly with the curry chicken. If you couldn't tell already by how lengthy this post is, I will most definitely be making this one again. This was a simple and easy meal prep recipe that turned out tasting amazing! Let me know if you try this one out. Instant Pot Shredded Red Curry Chicken & Sweet Thai Slaw Ingredients: For the Shredded Red Curry Chicken:
Notes:
Original recipe found here |
Erika CopelandSharing the recipes I prepare to help others eat more nutritious food and begin their journey to a healthier life. categories
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