I love to cook and love eating even more! I don’t have the time or money to go out to lunch when I’m working. Every Sunday I spend about one hour prepping and cooking lunches for the Mr. and myself. The total cost for ten healthy and delicious lunches is about $12!
Shopping/Ingredient List
- 2.5lb bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 c quinoa
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 green bell pepper
- 10 mushrooms
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- minced garlic
- lemon juice
- red pepper flakes
- pepper to taste
*The veggies I use vary by the season and what is on sale.
Directions
I am someone who rarely measures ingredients when I am cooking. I marinade the chicken breasts in the bag they come in and marinade the veggies in a gallon zip-loc bag. I use the same marinade for both. I drizzle olive oil in each bag, I would guess about 1/3 c. Then about 1/3 c of balsamic vinegar, followed by 1/3 c of lemon juice. I like spicy food and I put about 2 tbsp of minced garlic in each bag, followed by a 1 tbsp of red pepper flakes. I then sprinkle cracked pepper over each. I let everything marinate while I start the quinoa and my gas bbq.
I use a rice cooker to cook quinoa, because it is so easy and comes out perfectly cooked every time. I put 1 c of quinoa in the rice cooker and 2 c of water. My rice cooker automatically shuts off when it is done.
Next I fire up my gas bbq, all burners on high. When the bbq reaches 500 degrees I turn the burners to low, off, low and put on the meat and veggies.
After about 15 minutes on the grill I turn over the chicken and vegetables and let them cook for another 15 minutes or so before I remove everything from the grill.
When everything is done, I begin dividing all of the food into pyrex snap and go containers that I picked up at Costco. I really like these because they are glass and I feel a lot better about microwaving glass containers instead of plastic. I usually put about 1/4 c of quinoa in each container, about 4oz of chicken and I evenly distribute the veggies between the 10 containers. I will add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to each and a little more pepper and red pepper flakes.
This hour of meal prep makes my week go so much smoother and saves a ton of time and money throughout the week.
Great idea and looks delicious- do you think you could use cooked brown rice instead? Also I am always nervous about food lasting without going bad- this really stays good from Sunday through Friday for lunch?
You could definitely use rice! I just prefer quinoa. I’ve never had any issues with my food going bad. If you are nervous about that, you could freeze your meals.
Thank you! I appreciate your response 😃. Have a great day!