Meal Prep 16 Healthy Low-Calorie Meals in 30 Minutes
Here is what's on the menu for today:
Low-Calorie Shrimp Fajita Bowl with Cilantro-Lime "Rice" (could use chicken)
Tilapia, Mashed Potatoes, and Vegetable Medley (could use chicken)
Chicken Teriyaki Veggies (could use shrimp)
The instructions will tell you how to make 5 individual servings of the shrimp fajita bowl and the tilapia with mashed potatoes and vegetable medley, and 6 individual servings of the chicken teriyaki veggies.
Store these meals in the freezer until you put them into the oven. No need to pull them out the night before!
Do you eat with someone? Make double.
Do you eat with 4-5 people? Instead of separating each meal into individual servings, freeze each meal all together and enjoy the meal family style. (You will only get 3 dinners instead of 15.)
These meals would be perfect for someone who is trying to eat whole, clean, healthier, low-calorie, low carb, delicious food without any JUNK in it (preservatives, food coloring, chemicals, etc).
Why meal prep 16 healthy meals?
Save time
Just heat/cook it without any prep time the day of! No messy kitchen or dishes to clean up after each meal!
Save money
Buy ingredients in bulk + no more throwing out ingredients that have gone bad because you forgot about them!
Eat a lot healthier
You will be less likely to eat unhealthy/fast food if you have something healthy and delicious and super easy to warm up/cook waiting for you!
Feel satisfied
These meals are low calorie/high volume, so you will feel full longer on less calories. Feel free to compare the volume of these meals to store bought freezer meals... these homemade ones are better!
Ingredients
Low-Calorie Shrimp Fajita Bowl with Cilantro-Lime "Rice" (could use chicken)
Low-Calorie Shrimp Fajita Bowl with Cilantro-Lime "Rice"
Makes 5 meals
Nutrition per meal: 188 calories, 21 carb, 1.4 fat, 26.7 protein
40 large frozen raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, tail off (or use chicken breast tenderloins and cook longer) (450 cal, 0 carb, 2.5g fat, 110 pro)
4 bell peppers (160 cal, 36 carb, 2 fat, 4 pro)
1 1/2 large onions (90 cal, 21 carb, .3 fat, 2.5 pro)
3 tablespoons taco seasoning
8 cups frozen cauliflower rice (216 cal, 40 carb, 2.4 fat, 17 pro)
1/3 cup lime juice (20 cal, 6.8 carb, 0 fat, .3 pro)
1/4 cup cilantro
1 tsp chicken broth (5 cal)
Tilapia, Mashed Potatoes, and Vegetable Medley (could use chicken)
Tilapia, Mashed Potatoes, and Vegetable Medley (could use chicken)
Makes 5 meals
Nutrition per meal: 337 calories, 44 carb, 16 fat, 36 protein5 frozen raw tilapia fillets, 4 oz each (or you can use chicken breast tenderloins) (730 cal, 0 carb, 15g fat, 150 pro)
5 Yukon gold potatoes, or your favorite kind for mashed potatoes (total 24.5 oz or 700 grams) (640 cal, 145 carb, 1g fat, 17.5 pro)
8 cups frozen stir-fry mix vegetables- 2 pounds (267 cal, 64 carb, 0g fat, 10.7 pro)
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning, more or less to taste
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon chicken broth granules (5 calories)
1/2 cup water
1/2 large onion (44 cal, 10 carb, 0g fat, 1.2 pro)
Chicken Teriyaki Veggies
Chicken Teriyaki Veggies
Makes 6 meals
Nutrition per meal: 286 calories, 26 carb, 1.8 fat, 41 protein2 lb raw chicken breast tenderloins (997 cal, 0 carb, 11.2g fat, 210 pro)
12 cups frozen stir-fry mixed veggies (almost any frozen veggies would work)- about 3.5 pounds/1.5 kg (467 cal, 112 carb, 0g fat, 18.7 pro)
1 cup teriyaki sauce - I use store bought, but you can use homemade (256 cal, 45 carb, 0g fat, 17 pro)
*Please note, the nutrition counts are provided as a courtesy and I try to get them as accurate as possible, but please check your ingredients as there can be differences depending on different brands, etc.
Instructions
Meal Prep Instructions
1. Fill a large pot of water about 1/3 full with water and heat on high.
2. Peel and chop the 5 potatoes into 3/4 inch pieces. Place the potato pieces in the boiling water. Let it boil for about 15 minutes, or until fork tender, uncovered. You might need to adjust the heat so it stays at a boil without overflowing. When it's fork tender, drain and return the potato pieces to the pot.
3. Meanwhile, slice the onions and peppers for the fajitas. Mix the onions, peppers, frozen shrimp, and taco seasoning in a large bowl. Spray 5- 9" pie tins with non stick cooking spray. Evenly divide the mixture and arrange them into the pie tins, available on Amazon here. Alternatively, you could put each serving into a quart size freezer bag to store in the freezer and then dump them into an oven safe dish to bake when you are ready to cook it.
4. In a large bowl, combine the lime juice, cilantro, and chicken broth granules. Then, mix that mixture with the frozen cauliflower rice. Spoon out the "rice" mixture evenly in the remaining space next to the shrimp mixture.
5. Cover the fajitas with foil and label. Place in freezer.
6. When the potatoes are finished, mash them and add 1/2 cup cold water (to help them cool faster), 1 teaspoon of chicken broth granules, and 1 teaspoon of freshly chopped rosemary. Stir and set aside to cool off.
7. Spray 6- 9" pie tins with non stick cooking spray. Evenly divide the frozen veggies between the 6 pie tins. Fill a bowl with the teriyaki sauce. Working with half of the chicken at a time, submerge the chicken into the teriyaki sauce and set on top of the veggies. Divide and drizzle the remaining sauce over the veggies.
8. Cover the chicken teriyaki pie tins with foil and label. Put in freezer.
9.Spray 5- 9" pie tins with non stick cooking spray. Divide the mashed potatoes evenly and place on the sides of the pie tins. On another side of the tins, place the frozen veggies, evenly divided.
10. Slice the onion into thin slices and place a couple slices along the middle of each of the pie tins to create a "bed" for the fish to lay on. Place the fish on the onion slices.
11. Garnish the potatoes with the remaining rosemary. Sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on the fish and vegetables.
12. Cover the fish meals with foil and label. Put in freezer. I forgot to put the date on mine, but you should do that.
13. These meals are best eaten within 3 months.
Cooking Instructions
Shrimp Fajita Bowl with Cilantro Lime "Rice"
1. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. Remove the foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until the shrimp are done. The shrimp are done when they are no longer gray and are pink throughout.
5. The calorie count for this meal is pretty low so you should be able to put it into a carb friendly tortilla and still stay within your calorie budget, if you want.
As shown in this photo, I added a mission brand carb balance tortilla (70 calories), 1 tablespoon of plain nonfat Greek yogurt (8 calories), 1 teaspoon of shredded cheddar blend cheese (9 calories) and 1 tablespoon of guacamole (23 calories) for a total of 110 additional calories. Grand total= everything on this plate adds up to just 298 calories!!!
It is so delicious. I devoured it and it kept me very satisfied for many hours. I could eat this for lunch everyday for a month and not get tired of it!! I'm SO GLAD I have 4 more of these meals already made.
Tilapia, Mashed Potatoes, and Vegetable Medley
1. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of water on top of the mashed potatoes. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Flip the fish. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the fish is done. The fish is done when it is white and flaky throughout.
3. You might wish to add additional water to the potatoes and stir them with a fork. You may wish to add additional lemon pepper seasoning to the fish and veggies.
Can you believe this entire plate of food is just 336 calories!? Amazing! It has so much volume and kept me satisfied for hours. The colorful veggies offer such a good assortment of vitamins and minerals to nourish your body. I loved every bit of this meal. My favorite part were the onions sitting under the fish. They had the BEST sweet flavor. The lemon pepper adds tons of flavor with 0 calories so use it liberally.
Chicken Teriyaki Veggies
1. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. Remove foil lid. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Flip the chickens and bake for another 10-15 minutes. The chicken is done when it is white and not pink in the middle. You should cut into the chicken to check it.
3. When it's done, cut the chicken into bite size pieces and mix with the veggies.
4. Optional: eat with chopsticks :)
Cleanup Instructions
You can choose to wash and reuse the pie tins or recycle them. Meal prepping in this way is awesome because that's really all you need to clean up, and if you have NO time, no worries!
Health Benefits of Cooking with Spices
I wrote a very informative blog post about the health benefits of cooking with spices, go here.
For expert level learning about healing spices, I recommend the book "Healing Spices" by Bharat B. Aggarwal, PhD. Get it on Amazon here.
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