This Asian inspired easy meal prep is a quick last minute meal prep to ready you for the entire week. Your co-workers are bound to be jealous! I always love those day where I warm my food up in the kitchen at work, and everyone asks “What’s that? Where did you get that from?” I take great satisfaction telling them I made it myself. It’s a good ego boost, and not only that, I’ve had several people ask me to make them lunches too! However, this weekend I was a little less inspired to meal prep.
You know those weekends, and you just want to sit around all day, and decompress from a stressful week? This was one of those times for me. Typically by Wednesday, I have an idea in mind for my meal prep. I’ve been going steady for five weeks now, but this week I had a little trouble brainstorming. I woke up Sunday morning in a panic, as I had NOTHING prepared and needed to start cooking that afternoon! Not only that, I was feeling very lethargic that weekend, and really did not want to leave my bed.
Usually every weekend my boyfriend and I are cooking constantly, at least one out of the two days we have together. But this weekend we decided to take a break and relax a bit more. Which left me feeling a little lost on what to meal prep for the week! But sure enough inspiration hit me (with a little help from browsing Pinterest). So I took out my recipe notebook and starting scribbling down my idea!
Make sure you check out my Pinterest as well, to see where I draw most, if not all of my inspiration for these recipes! Seriously, I’m pinning new recipes all day!
Asian Inspired Easy Meal Prep
Usually, or at least lately since I’ve started this blog, I’ve been very organized when it comes to writing down my recipes. I write every ingredient and all the steps down before I hit the kitchen. This Sunday was a different story, as I mentioned earlier I just wasn’t feeling it this weekend! As much as I love cooking, sometimes you just gotta take a break, right!? For this one I went into my kitchen with only the name of the recipe, as well as one ingredient listed, ground chicken.
That morning I wrote a few things down on my grocery list and hit the store! All I really needed was the chicken, and some vegetables to stir fry. Thankfully I had all the sauce ingredients in the fridge and pantry! I had an idea in my head from a previous recipe for sesame chicken sauce that I have not made just yet. So I decided to adapt that for my meal prep! I tweaked the ingredients for the sauce and picked up some baby bok choy and broccoli – my favorite stir fry vegetables EVER! This was truly one of the easiest meal preps I’ve thrown together since I started working in the office about 3 years ago.
Make sure to check out my Instagram to stay up to date with all of my meal prep and recipe development adventures! I post previews of my meal prep recipes every Sunday! And you’ll get bonus sneak peaks of my upcoming recipes, while their in the development period. Join the fun!
One Pan Meal Prep
One pan meal prep = the easiest meal prep. I was feeling so lazy this weekend that I truly just wanted to throw everything in one pan. That means at the end of this, all I had to clean was one pan, a cutting board, a knife, and the small pot I used to cook the rice. Which takes about five minutes, and then I’m back in bed doing NOTHING. I can’t be the only one that relishes at the idea of sitting in bed and doing nothing for an entire day. Or even better, a WHOLE weekend! And if you’re like me, you better cherish that one weekend, but they are far and few in-between.
The only thing that would have made this recipe easier would be leaving the chicken and vegetables in while make the sauce. I have been trying to adapt the recipe for another Asian inspired meal prep, so stay tuned! But that also says a lot about how much I liked this recipe, I already want to make it again! It’s going to be my new go-to meal prep plans for those lazy weekends. Work has been crazy lately, so I’m hoping for another relaxing weekend SOON!
Serve It Over Whatever You Want!
I used white rice for this recipe, I know, I know I have been talking up quinoa a lot in my recent meal prep posts. But in true Laura fashion I wrote it down on my shopping list and then somehow skipped right over it! So I had to use my trusty back up, white rice. It was delicious with the sesame chicken sauce, I almost wanted to lick the container in the lunch room at work! But of course, I restrained myself, because…well…that would be weird. However, I did totally shovel every last grain of rice into my mouth like a madman. And you will too!
But I’ve said so in the past, and I will say it again, quinoa is much more nutritional than white rice. The next time I make this recipe I will be making sure to buy some quinoa. Even though white rice is a basic stable, I’m on a mission to eat healthier and I plan to keep it up for as long as I can! Which means, the three donuts I ate at work for my managers birthday didn’t count! Right?!
Don’t worry, I’m make sure to continue on the healthy trend after that! It’s just one day, right? I mean there’s not another birthday to celebrate for another few months, I think. So it’s okay to treat yourself on the special days. But I promise, I’m back to watching what I eat and trying to live my best healthy life!
Sesame Ground Chicken and Veggies
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 1/2 lb broccoli crowns cut into bite size pieces
- 1 lb baby bok choy
- 3 Tbsps olive oil
Sauce
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 Tbsp chili paste
- 2 Tbsps white wine vinegar
- 3 Tbsps ketchup
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
Instructions
- In large pan over medium heat, brown chicken, breaking it up into smaller pieces as it cooks. Cook all the way through, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan.
- Add 1 Tbsp olive oil, broccoli, and bok choy. Add remaining 2 Tbsps of oil, and stir to coat vegetables. Cook for 30 minutes, until vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan.
- Add sesame oil, and minced garlic. Cook for 2 minutes, until garlic is fragrant. Add remaining sauce ingredients and stir thoroughly. Cook sauce, stirring, until thickened slightly, 5 – 10 minutes.
- Add chicken and vegetables and stir to coat in sauce.
- Serve over white rice (optional).
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