Truly a delicious Instant Pot chicken meal to save! I did not top with sesame seeds, but the sesame oil gave this chicken a true honey sesame chicken taste. I ended up tripling the ingredients below, then only using half the honey due to preference. Also, since I had much more chicken I skipped out on sauteing it and just increased the pressure cooking time. No worries if you don't have arrowroot starch to help thicken the sauce either. Putting the pot on saute mode at the end and continuing to mix everything will reduce the sauce plenty enough without it. I actually hardly use arrowroot starch anymore when using the Instant Pot since saute mode reduces the sauce just as well. While the chicken was cooking I heated up some coconut oil and threw frozen plain cauliflower rice and the extra diced green onion together to pair with this chicken. Super simple and easy meal to put together for dinner or meal prep!
Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here
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Holy moly did I really enjoy every part of this meal! I am not sure it's the quickest meal prep recipe, but if you have the time or can prep a few things the day before then this one is definitely a must-try. I already have a couple go-to BBQ chicken recipes that I cycle through every so many weeks, but I decided to give this new homemade one a try. It turned out like no other BBQ I have tried before! I was surprised and really enjoyed the taste. It was not sweet whatsoever, but more light tasting with a very slight kick from the Chipotle and chili spices. I read the note for the Italian dressing swap and used that option instead. Now for making everything easier on myself, I prepped the sauce the night before so I could just throw the chicken in the Instant Pot in the morning. The recipes gives three ways for making the BBQ chicken based on what you have and preference, so don't be steered away if you don't have an Instant Pot. I also prepped the sweet potato the night before, but you can purchase pre-diced sweet potato or frozen diced sweet potato at most stores to help save you time there as well. You can clearly see I skipped out on the pickles, but that is only because I don't like them. Let me know if you try this recipe with them and how they turned out! If you don't have the time to make your own BBQ sauce, a few whole-ingredient ones that I'll purchase off the shelf are Tessemae's or The New Primal, both can be found at Wegman's or Amazon. Now for the coleslaw, what an easy vegetable side to prep. I used Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo, but only half of the amount the recipe calls for because we aren't big mayo people. I honestly loved how it turned out and enjoyed eating every crunchy bite. On days that I took this to work I just ate everything cold and still loved it. When I was home I could add the coleslaw after I heated up the chicken and sweet potatoes and enjoy it that way. Once the stay-at-home orders are lifted I'll definitely be making this one for family and friends!
BBQ Chicken Bowls with Sweet Potatoes, Coleslaw, and Pickles Ingredients: BBQ Chicken
Original recipe found here Whole30 BBQ Sauce with Chipotle (Paleo, Vegan) Serving: 1 Cup Ingredients:
If desired, for a smoother texture, gently transfer sauce to a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Season with salt. Original recipe found here This was the most spot on Sweet and Sour tasting and delicious meal ever! Seriously though, I will be making this one again very soon it was that much of a hit in our house. I ended up using the slow cooker option on my Instant Pot for this meal, so I could brown the meat and cook all in one pot. Plus, I was able to put the pot on saute mode at the very end to thicken up the sauce a little more. I definitely recommend doing the same if you have an Instant Pot, but if not this meal will still turn out delicious in the Crockpot - just one more pan to clean when you're done ;-). The only change I made to the recipe is using half the honey, and that was just by preference. The meal still turned out plenty sweet with a little less honey if you want to do the same. If you find ginger at the store definitely add in that fresh grated ginger too! The beef does stay in small 1-2 inch cubes if you properly brown them, but I opted to shred it at the end while I was reducing the sauce. My beef also turned out looking like pork, probably because I diced it up a day before cooking it and exposed it to more oxygen. Oh well it still turned out so good! I heated up some coconut oil and tossed some plain frozen cauliflower rice, salt, and extra green onions to pair with this. Add this recipe to your list of must-trys now!
Crockpot Sweet and Sour Hawaiian Beef Ingredients: Sweet and Sour Pineapple Sauce
Original recipe found here I hope everyone is staying home and healthy, and also considering trying some new recipes or meal prep with this extra time at home we all have! I am finally going through a list of recipes I had saved to try for quite some time now, including this one that turned out absolutely delicious! This recipe is Instant Pot and Slow Cooker friendly, and did not have much prep to it whatsoever. Although I bought frozen cubed sweet potatoes and pre-cut onions and peppers, which left me with only having to cut the chicken. Either way, this recipe is definitely one of the simpler ones that I have tried. I also loved that there were peppers, green beans, sweet potato, and cauliflower rice with this meal. ALL the colors and nutrients! I had to almost quadruple the ingredients below to get enough meals for our house, so I also increased the cooking time in the Instant Pot to around 30 minutes. This was definitely over kill and my sweet potatoes paid the price, unfortunately. Just pointing this out in case you enjoy eating those chunks of potatoes instead of it getting cooked into the sauce. I would also suggest removing the potatoes and chicken while you saute the sauce at the end. Paired with some cauliflower rice and topped with raw cashews and this meal was a hit all week long. Let me know if you give it a try!
Sweet Potato Chicken Curry (Instant Pot or Slow Cooker) Ingredients:
For Instant Pot
For a thicker curry – mix together 2 Tbsp. of water with 1 Tbsp. tapioca starch. While instant pot is on the saute setting, stir into curry after the coconut milk is heated through and let set for a few minutes to thicken. Original recipe found here This one might very well be another staple meal prep recipe that I'll be adding to the rotation. The ingredients are minimal, prep is quick, and once it's in the slow cooker you are pretty much done! To get plenty of extra meals, I tripled most of the ingredients below with the exception of doubling the tomato paste and keeping the chicken stock at 1 cup. There was still plenty of sauce to cover all the chicken with that conversion. I did this in my Instant Pot using the slow cooker option, so at the end I did put the pot on Saute mode to reduce the sauce some and help shred the chicken. If your chicken breasts are larger, I recommend cutting them in half before throwing in the slow cooker. Anyways, I had friends in town this weekend, so I especially picked this meal out as something easy to whip up while I was busy hanging out with everyone. I paired it with an even easier and makeshift version of the Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice I have posted many times before -- instead of heating everything up on the stove top, I simply microwaved some plain frozen cauliflower rice bags, then tossed in a big bowl with some fresh cut cilantro, fresh lime juice, and salt. It actually still turned out just as tasty, in my opinion, and was a great pair with this Chipotle Chicken. Grab some salsa, guacamole, avocado, lettuce, or whatever you want to top and you've got yourself a tasty meal. This recipe is definitely worth saving for a weekend or day when you have no time to meal prep and still want something delicious to eat all week long!
Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here After hearing from a couple of good friends that this recipe is their favorite, I'm bringing this one back from when I last posted it in 2016. However, for some reason my sauce looks way darker then it did the last time I made it. The only difference this time around was I used my trusty Instant Pot to saute and slow cook in instead of a crock pot, and I left out the Arrowroot Flour. Which now that I write this out, I am sure that Arrowroot Flour would have lightened up the sauce color for sure. I am getting side tracked though. This meal still turned out delicious! I recommend using a can of full fat coconut milk for the most flavor. Garam Masala and Arrowroot Flour are the only ingredients that you may not have in your pantry already. Garam Masala is just a spice that you can find at most grocery stores. You can even search my site for recipes that use the spice to make sure you put it to good use! The Arrowroot Flour is just a thickening agent, which you can totally omit or swap for another thickening agent if you want. I skipped using it this time since the saute mode on the Instant Pot helps reduce/thicken the sauce up. I love these saucey recipes because I can easily heat up or microwave frozen plain cauliflower rice to pair with this, and be done with meal prep. Super easy, super quick, and super delicious!
Slow Cooker Butter Chicken Ingredients:
Directions:
Original recipe found here My coworker was telling me about her sausage and peppers she made for dinner and I knew immediately what I was making for meal prep the following week. You are probably thrown off by the zucchini noddles and sweet potato glass noodles, but over top of all that is the Crock Pot Sausage and Peppers recipe below. I thought this entire meal turned out absolutely delicious and I seriously looked forward to eating it all week. I usually cut up the sausage more, but I was happy with cutting it into thirds for this meal - it made it extremely easy making sure I got an entire sausage serving in each meal. I found some Italian Chicken Sausages at BJ's and opted to use three bell peppers instead of two, but other then those minor tweaks I made the recipe as is. I sliced the onions and peppers the night before, so that I could wake up Sunday morning and quickly get this meal in the crockpot. The only prep left to do after that was brown the sausages and saute the onions, then everything went into the crock pot on low for 6 hours. Later in the day I spiralized about 7-8 zucchinis (this got me about 3 oz of cooked noodles in 10 meals), and I heated it on the stove top until they were soft. Besides adding some salt, I didn't flavor them with anything since I knew the sausage and peppers would have plenty of sauce. I also boiled up some Sweet Potato Glass Noodles (found at Wegman's) as my carb source in this meal. Those are just the vegetable and carb pairs I chose for this meal though. Feel free to use another spiralized or riced vegetable, whole wheat pasta, or rice instead. Of note, zucchinis are by far the easiest vegetable to spiralize yourself, so totally worth saving the extra money and skipping out on the pre-made zoodles. The two spiralizers that I own are the Veggetti (really only usable for Zucchini though) and this 5-Blade Vegetable Slicer (great for all vegetables, including potatoes). Anyways, the recipe itself was super easy to throw together and turned out tasting amazing. If you are looking for a new slow cooker recipe to make then I definitely recommend giving this one a try!
Crock Pot Sausage and Peppers Ingredients:
Original recipe found here I will definitely be making this again... and again... and again! This one turned out SO delicious and was relatively easy to throw together. I used just over 5 lbs of beef, 3 Tbsp of olive oil, 2 granny smith apples, and juice from 2 medium oranges (which equaled 1/2 C). Besides those ingredient adjustments though, which were just to accommodate for the increase in beef, I made the recipe below as-is. When the beef was done pressure cooking, I set the Instant Pot to saute mode to reduce the sauce some, and stirred around frequently. Once the sauce was down to a more desirable level, I let the beef cool before measuring and distributing over top of plain cauliflower rice. Since there was plenty of flavor and sauce with this beef, I really don't think you need to worry about cooking up the cauliflower rice any special way. I personally grabbed some frozen plain cauliflower rice and heated it up to make for an even quicker meal prep. I love a recipe that can be done in one pot/pan, doesn't have a ton of ingredients or prep to it, and of course turns out tasting amazing. This recipe is all of that and more!
Instant Pot Korean Beef Ingredients:
Notes: To make this recipe in the slow cooker follow all the steps 1-7. Slow cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-7 hours. Original recipe found here Anyone else find it strange to read 'Lime Teriyaki', instead of 'Teriyaki Lime'? I had that similar feeling when tasting this chicken for the first time too. The first couple bites were different; I've never tasted these flavor combinations together, or anything similar to it before. The more I ate it though the more I stopped being skeptical and realized I actually enjoyed it. Probably not the best way to describe a meal you enjoyed, but that is my honest review. I thought it paired pretty well with roasted sweet potatoes, but then again I kept asking myself all week if it would pair better with a rice/cauliflower rice combination. The hint of lime is definitely there and throws you off (or threw me off for sure). I almost wonder if it would pair well with roasted plantains or plantain chips. Either way, you can make this recipe in either the slow cooker or Instant Pot. I chose the Instant Pot this time around and doubled the ingredients to make enough food for meal prep. I also skipped out on the arrowroot starch and just put the Instant Pot on 'saute' mode to help thicken the sauce. If you are using the slow cooker option and don't have arrowroot starch, you can bring the extra sauce to a boil on the stove top to help thicken/reduce some. I know I say it after many of my posts, but if you try this one out please let me know what you think! This one obviously left me with quite the first impression, so I'd love to hear what others think.
Slow Cooker or Instant Pot Lime Teriyaki Chicken Ingredients:
For your Slow Cooker:
Original recipe found here My Roasted Sweet Potatoes Ingredients:
Sometimes I really wish my pictures did the meal more justice... Anyways, I probably say this for every curry meal I post, but if you enjoy a curry meal then you will enjoy this one! I didn't actually make this recipe as-is though, so I am not sure I can give an accurate review for it. Instead of the acorn squash, I used butternut squash, and instead of all of the spices listed after the lemon, I used the spices listed in the notes section. Both of those swaps were out of convenience though since it's much easier to find already cubed butternut squash at the grocery store, and I didn't already have all the spices listed on the original recipe. Whichever way you decide to make this recipe though, I definitely suggest browning the meat first, and also adding some salt. Other then that, I thought this meal was especially good over some roasted sweet potatoes! I also threw in some cauliflower rice just to add some more vegetables to this recipe, but I can see a mixture of cauliflower rice and regular rice being good too. Let me know if you try this recipe out and how you choose to make it!
Slow Cooker Squash & Ground Beef Curry Ingredients:
1. If you're not on the autoimmune protocol, replace the AIP curry blend (dried garlic, onion, turmeric, basil, dill, cilantro, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves) with 2 tablespoons of your favorite curry powder. 2. Another spice option is to make your own AIP Curry Powder, like this one, which combines much fewer spices, and spices that you are more likely to already have in your kitchen:
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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