Another video of one of my go-to Instant Pot recipes! When I first started meal prepping paleo recipes over six years ago, my biggest problem was how do I eliminate all these delicious sauces!? BBQ, honey mustard, ketchup... do I really need to purchase an expensive paleo sauce every time I want a healthier version of these? Eventually I found that this was not the case whatsoever, but instead I could make my own versions pretty easily. However, I have tried my fair share at making my own BBQ sauces, and most involve a blender and a lot of ingredients. After discovering this recipe below though, I have never attempted making a different one. This BBQ chicken recipe is SO simple and I always have these ingredients stocked just in case I need to whip up something quick for meal prep. When purchasing apple butter, balsamic vinegar, and blackstrap molasses, check the ingredients listed on the label! There should NOT be any added sugars or coloring whatsoever. Take the time to look at the different brands and labels on the shelf. Trust me, there is always one or two that are far more superior then the rest 😊. If you checked out the video by now you should already know that prepping and making this BBQ Pulled Chicken is easy peasy. I have also experimented with pouring the sauce in at the beginning (instead of water) and letting the chicken cook in the sauce. This is a perfectly fine option to do as well, but I do think pouring it over at the end provides more flavor. You also may have noticed that I used over 5lbs of chicken in the video, which typically means I'll increase the sauce ingredients some as well - just depends on how saucey you like it. Let me know if you give this one a try and how you like it!
Homemade BBQ Pulled Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here
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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 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 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 Showing you guys how simple and easy it is to make a nutritious and delicious breakfast casserole for your week with very little prep on your part! My good friend makes these casseroles like every week for breakfast, and I never realized how much easier it was to just use pre-prepared frozen vegetables, so I am spreading the word. All you need to do is go to the store, pick out 1 lb of your favorite ground meat (I chose 365 Pork Breakfast Sausage), 2 bags of your favorite pre-prepared frozen vegetables (I chose Stahlbush Sweet Potatoes and Cascadian Farm Riced Cauliflower Blend - Bell Peppers & Onions), a carton of eggs, and unsweetened coconut or almond milk (I used So Delicious Coconut Milk Sugar Free Original). Only 5 ingredients, plus some spices! Next, take your frozen veggies out in the morning to thaw, or let them thaw out while you make your lunches for the week. When you're ready to make the casserole, just cook your 1 lb of meat on the stove top until done. Then, oil your casserole dish, and throw in your cooked meat with your frozen veggies. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, and spices together, then pour over the meat and veggie mixture. Last, bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, and done! This casserole makes 6 servings, and with the specific ingredients that I used (mentioned above), each serving had 17g Fat, 13g Carbs, and 23g Protein.
Unsure about where to start with changing your health and lifestyle around? Setting aside 20 minutes of prep time to make a super easy breakfast casserole (like this one) is all I recommend for now! You now have a pre-made delicious and satisfying breakfast full of whole food sources to start your days for the next week. Pick ONE daily habit (or meal) to change, and implement! Only ONE! No need to do anything more until you have consistently implemented that ONE daily change overtime, and are confident you secured it's spot into your life. Focusing on less helps you achieve more. Reach out if you need help or have any questions! Easy Paleo Breakfast Casserole Ingredients:
Inspired by this recipe here I had this one saved for a while and decided it was finally time to give it a try. Not sure if that is a meal prep hack or not, but I'll make it a point just in case it helps anyone out... Whenever you come across a recipe you think you'd enjoy, save the link! Soon enough you will have a list to go through for those times you can't figure out what to cook or need an idea quickly. Although you can also just visit my blog and search through there too haha. Anyways, I absolutely love the cashew chicken meal and this recipe was a winner since it didn't include a bunch of sugar and other unnecessary ingredients. This meal also turned out SO amazing! I doubled the chicken, used 3 peppers, and 5 oz of cashews, then increased the sauce ingredients slightly, but I definitely wish I doubled that part. Everything was made in one pan and I heated up the cauliflower rice on the side while the chicken was cooking. Simple as that! This recipe will no doubt be my go-to cashew chicken recipe in the future.
Paleo Cashew Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Not the most quality picture, but this is an important meal prep post so keep reading! This is the one blog post you should definitely bookmark, well besides the main LiveSqueezy page of course. Here are my recipes for the super easy meal prep we all resort to when we don't feel like cooking. First, the classic slow cooker shredded chicken. This chicken can be a little bit tastier with a little cooking fat, chopped onion and garlic, and a few spices. Now you have a ton of plain shredded chicken that you can dress up however you want throughout the week, or throw into the freezer to have ready whenever you need. Ideas for dressing up plain shredded chicken:
For this week's meal prep I simply dressed my shredded chicken with Steve's PaleoChef Peach BBQ sauce since I already had a bottle in the kitchen. The next easiest bulk meal prep recipe to make is this pressure cooker sweet potato mash. If you are someone who likes to meal prep, cook in bulk, or just save time in the kitchen, then the pressure cooker is absolutely worth the investment. Anyways, I have now posted this sweet potato mash recipe way too many times, which is the biggest indicator that it's not only my favorite, but it's also extremely efficient, simple, and delicious. Although I post it a lot, I try to vary it up slightly each time. This week I added some garlic cloves into the mix (I know, huge difference). You can play around with this recipe by adding different spices and cooking fats, or adding coconut milk or unsweetened applesauce at the end. You can also add in other vegetables/squashes, like cauliflower or butternut squash, to roast in with the sweet potatoes as well. Get creative! I like to make a TON of sweet potato mash so I can have some for dinner too if I want. I love to make up my own Sweet Potato Bowl and add almond butter, paleo/gluten free granola/muesli, and blueberries. I have also tried topping it with a couple eggs, shredded coconut, ghee, spinach, and bacon. There are so many possibilities! Hopefully these ideas help your meal prep get a little easier or different! I know I post a ton of recipes and it might seem overwhelming, so if you are new to meal prep or just hate being in the kitchen, these are some ways to have the basics prepped to get you through your week. As always, feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions. Happy meal prepping! Pressure Cooker (or slow cooker) Shredded Chicken Ingredients:
Original recipe found here Super Fast Instant Pot (Garlic) Sweet Potato Mash Ingredients:
*I always use at least 6-7 lbs of sweet potatoes, 2 cups of water, and cook it for 10 minutes. **I always add at least 1 tsp of salt. 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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