I was excited to get back to meal prepping this past weekend so I can get back on track my macros and eating healthy. I’ve been pretty busy the past two weeks and if I don’t have my meals already planned out I tend of fall off the ball with my macros. I had been maintaining for the first two weeks of February, but during the last week I stopped tracking most of my dinners. And so we’re here with a sesame chicken meal prep recipe with some homemade riced cauliflower and broccoli to change things up! I have a whole post coming up on what I’m doing to keep on track with my goals and training, and also what I have in mind for the next few months.
I go through periods of enjoying plain shredded chicken that I can add flavors to later in the week – sriracha or salsa being my current favorites – but that was getting a bit boring. This recipe calls for a sweeter marinate made with hoisin sauce which is sealed into the chicken while cooking. When I made this a few weeks ago, I used the Morningstar chicken strips that I didn’t like very much. I knew when I made the recipe again I wanted to use the real deal. I’m much happier with this recipe than the last.
For sides, I like having veggies to make sure I’m getting my micronutrients in and also for volume. Lately, I’ve been loving the Green Giant Riced Cauliflower and Vegetable Medley, but when I was grocery shopping for this particular week nearly all the Green Giant products were cleared out. Usually, I’m not looking forward to any one particular veggie for the week, but I really had riced cauliflower in mind to keep my carbs down for another meal prep I was planning.
I decided to improve and instead made my own version using chopped cauliflower florets you can find in the produce section. I hate cutting cauliflower because it makes a mess everywhere (and to be honest these made a bit of mess too) and the florets are much easier to pop into a food processor and be done with it.
I already had some frozen peas and carrots that I microwaved to thaw and then added them into the riced cauliflower. Mix everything together, top with some butter spray and lemon pepper seasoning. The whole bowl, with all of the cauliflower and 123 grams of the peas and carrots, is 140 calories / 28C / 7P / 0F. I made seven servings from my recipe at 51 grams per serving is 20 calories / 4C / 1P / 0F. Loving this quick side dish recipe! Now on to the chicken!
Sesame Chicken Meal Prep Recipe
what you’ll need
- chicken breasts – I used around 23 ounces raw
- 15 grams hoisin sauce
- 30 ml soy sauce
- 1 ml sesame oil – I’m very easy with this oil since it’s fat content can get pretty high
Wisk all of the ingredients for the marinate together, set aside. Cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch cubes and put in a glass bowl. Pour the marinate over the chicken and let sit for at least 30 minutes in the fridge. Feel free to let the chicken marinate longer to your liking. Heat a skillet to medium heat and lightly spray with cooking spray. Add the chicken and cook thoroughly. The hoisin sauce has a lot of sugar in it so it will begin to caramelize as the chicken cooks. Continue turning the chicken so it doesn’t burn.
Measure out all of the cooked chicken in ounces – be sure that you track meats once they’re cooked. The cooked chicken weighed to about 15.5 ounces and I divided that into five meals. With the chicken I added one serving of riced cauliflower and around 40 grams of broccoli. Each meal prep comes out to 175 calories / 9C / 30 P / 1F. This meal turned out to be much lower in carbs than I’m thinking I’ll stick to for this meal. While I’m maintaining I like to have 15 – 20 grams of carbs per meal during the day so I’m not rushing to eat all carbs at the end of the day. I’m still on the fence about whether I’ll be cutting or maintain in March, but if I end up cutting this recipe will be perfect. If I maintain I’ll have to mix in some plain rice or up my carbs for my preworkout meal.
Hope you liked the recipe and give it a try! Thanks for reading!
