Who doesn't love Fall!? We went apple picking the other day and got some fresh apples and cider to put to use. I paired these two recipes together for a seriously comforting Fall meal! The chicken was ridiculously simply to make. If you are not a fan of mustard, do not worry - I could not pick up on any hint of mustard in the meal once it was done. For the mash, I changed up the main ingredients a little bit, so check out the original recipe link below if you want to stick to using sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and carrots. Instead, I picked up a bag of frozen butternut squash and frozen tri-colored carrots, in addition to the sweet potatoes. Since I used a large amount of sweet potatoes, I boiled them separately from the squash and carrots, then combined everything later in the food processor. This made for a much smoother mash then the potato masher could do, but not necessary if you don't want to. I must admit I was a little nervous for how the mash would turn out. However, it ended up tasting truly amazing and was a great pair with the apple cider chicken! Please don't be afraid to try that mash out! It's also a great way to sneak extra and different nutrients into your diet... just saying. Anyways, I 100% recommend giving this meal a try sometime this Fall!
Apple Cider Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Rosemary Mashed Root Vegetables Ingredients:
Original recipe found here
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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 Anytime I get to eat steak all week is a great week! This one turned out tasting amazing and it was super easy to make, so it will most definitely become a go-to recipe for me. There was plenty of marinade left over too, which can be reheated (see step 6) and served with the meal. Hit up the grocery store on a Saturday, throw all the marinade ingredients into a mixer, and cover it over the steak overnight. Then, whenever you have time on Sunday, grill up the marinated steak and serve over your favorite salad blend, grilled or roasted vegetables, and baked or roasted potato. That is how you meal prep like a boss and eat good all week long! Just kidding, but really, eating better doesn't mean spending all day in the kitchen or eating bland foods. A little bit of planning ahead of time and you could set yourself up for a great week. This steak does have a hint of mustard flavor to it, so if you enjoy that taste then I recommend giving this recipe a try!
Paleo & Whole30 Marinated Flank Steak Ingredients:
Recipe Notes *Gluten-free liquid aminos or soy sauce is a non-paleo/whole30 alternative Original recipe found here I've had this chicken recipe saved for a while now and finally made myself just try it already. When a recipe calls for chicken thighs I usually just swap it for chicken breasts, but not this time! I actually prepped chicken thighs for once and this recipe turned out so delicious that I think I'll even meal prep them again in the future ;-). I doubled the chicken recipe below and used 10 boneless chicken thighs (just under 2.5 lbs) to get 9 meals worth for the week. Now I am not a fan of real spicy food and I didn't think this chicken was anywhere near that level of spicy. Maybe I'm just getting a higher tolerance for spicy foods though. Either way, I really enjoyed this one! As for sides, I tried making this a true southern comfort healthy meal, so I opted for sweet potato fritters and a really easy garlic cauliflower mash. The sweet potato fritters made for a little more intense meal prep, so definitely no need to get so fancy if you don't have the patience or time to do so. I've made these fritters before though and love them! Since I prep sweet potatoes every week, it's nice to mix it up every once in a while with something other then a roasted or baked potato. Whatever you decide on, the chicken itself is amazing and 100% worth trying out! Every once in a while I just like to spend the extra time making a bomb meal to eat all week, so I went a little more all out on this one. If you ever feel like your meal preps are getting boring and old, and you need more motivation to stay on track, I recommend carving out an extra 20-30 minutes for yourself to spend on a more tasty meal to make for the week. You will never regret it and it will be just what your mind and body needs, all week long!
Nashville Unfried Hot Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Paleo Sweet Potato Fritters Ingredients:
Inspired by this recipe Garlic Cauliflower Mash Ingredients:
Super yummy and easy burger recipe to prep! I threw the spinach and red onion in the food processor instead of spending time finely dicing everything. After that all you need to do is throw the spinach, red onion, ground chicken, and spices together in a bowl and form the burger patties. When dealing with ground chicken or turkey, I have found it extremely helpful wetting my hands with water before shaping each burger - way less sticky and messy! Anyways, since the rain held off I decided to just throw the burgers on the grill instead of the skillet. If you don't have Adobo seasoning, check your local or natural grocery store for some, or just use the alternative spices listed below. I paired this with baked sweet potatoes that I actually cooked in my Instant Pot using a steamer basket (recipe is below), which I think might be my preferred way for now on when bulk making sweet potatoes! Previously I skinned and cubed all my sweet potatoes and just threw them in the Instant Pot with 1-2 cups of water. Once they were done I drained and threw them back in the instant pot on saute mode for a couple minutes to mash everything together. Another pretty easy way to bulk make sweet potatoes, and also gives you the opportunity to add different spices or fat to the mash, but using the steamer definitely takes less prep on my part. While all that was going on I threw the extra red onion on a sheet pan with some green and yellow squash, added a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt, and just baked in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 375 F (moving around half way through). Pretty easy meal to throw together that I absolutely look forward to eating all week!
Adobo Chicken Burgers Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes Recipe Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Now I usually don't enjoy lemon chicken recipes, but I gave this one a try and absolutely loved it! I followed the recipe as is below, but decided to bake my sweet potatoes separately and throw in some asparagus with the chicken instead. There's not much prep to this recipe whatsoever, but you can make it even easier by using a Herbes de Provence Spice Blend instead of the fresh rosemary, if you prefer. The two squeezed lemons got me about ½ cup fresh lemon juice and it seemed like most of that was left behind in the pan after I distributed the chicken and asparagus to my meal containers. For all those who meal prep the classic chicken, vegetable, and potato, this recipe spices it up with some rosemary and lemon and makes the week's worth of lunches much more enjoyable!
Lemon Rosemary Chicken and Asparagus Ingredients:
Original recipe found here I've been eating a lot of Super Fast Instant Pot Sweet Potato Mash lately, okay more like every week, so I decided it was time to make my sweet potatoes more fun and with a little more flavor. Enter the bacon! I love making bacon in the oven, then placing vegetables (especially Brussels) or sweet potatoes in the remaining bacon fat, adding a little salt, then baking them. That is seriously the easiest way to make a delicious side. Since this part was my deciding factor in the meal, I found a chili dusted chicken to quickly grill up and pair with it. I have to be honest though, the chicken did not turn out flavorful enough for me, and I am someone who doesn't need a lot of flavor. I think next time I'd add a teaspoon of salt, add some olive oil, and make sure not to cook the chicken for so long. If you have some fun grilling spices then this would be the perfect time to try those out, or you can go ahead and try this chili dusted version to see if you enjoy it, or at least make it better then I did. Either way, the point of this meal was the sweet potatoes and bacon and that turned out more delicious then ever. I am looking forward to eating those all week long!
Chili Dusted Grilled Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Bacon Ingredients:
Chicken:
This looked like a delicious and fun new casserole recipe to try out! This is a serving size for 6 per the original recipe, but I used a larger 9x13-inch casserole dish and increased the sauce some, which then gave me 8 servings. Since I used a larger casserole dish I used 10 eggs instead of 6 and also threw in a tiny bit of coconut milk to make sure the sauce covered the entire casserole. Other then that though, I made the recipe below as is and only had to bake it for 30 minutes since I used a larger dish. If you don't see white sweet potatoes at your local store you can just use a regular sweet potato. Also, I prefer to throw cubed sweet potatoes in the food processor to "shred" instead of using a shredder. That is just mush easier, in my opinion, and it doesn't leave my forearms sore. I made this for my mom's breakfast meal prep, so I only taste-tested a couple tiny bites, but those bites were tasty and sure made me wish I was eating this for breakfast all week! Let me know what you think if you give this one a try!
Whole30 Breakfast Lasagna Ingredients: Base
Original recipe found here I've had this recipe saved for a while now as a quick and yummy meal option to make for when I didn't have much time to meal prep, and that day finally came! I don't prefer to prep food mid-week, but I came home from vacation on a Tuesday night and had to make sure I had some meals to get me through the rest of the week. It's always tough coming back from vacation and getting back on track, so I've found it best to just prepare a real tasty meal to ease back into things. This meal was just that! I picked up a package of Aidells Chicken & Apple Smoked Chicken Sausage (which comes in a pack of 4), some already cubed sweet potatoes that I found at Whole Foods, and 2 medium apples. Talk about a simple and easy recipe! I ended up slicing the sausages, but not all the way through so that I could easily just place each sausage into the 4 meals, then I divided up the cooked apples and sweet potato evenly into the meals. I will point out that my meals ended up being 16g Protein, 11g Fat, and 49g of Carbs, which is high in carbs and lower in protein. If you need more protein and less carbs, I suggest using less sweet potatoes and adding some eggs to the meal, or purchase some more chicken sausage and make a couple more meals. Also, you can easily sneak some veggies into this meal by throwing in spinach at the end and mixing around until all of it wilts. Overall, this meal was delicious and super easy to get done, so that I had a few extra meals to get me through the week!
One-Pan Paleo Chicken Apple Sausage & Sweet Potato Skillet Ingredients:
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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