I Meal Prepped 16 Meals for Only $30 | Budget Friendly Meal Prep

the price of food is increasing and i've been trying to pay a bit more attention to my spending so for this week's video i wanted to do a little experiment just to see how much or how little i could spend a week on meal prepping i made some peanut butter and jelly baked oatmeal for breakfast some spicy adobo chicken and peppers for lunch and some ground chicken taco bowls for dinner now i don't usually prep like this i'll normally only make one or two meals at a time because i think it's important to leave some room for variety in your day but for the sake of this video i did all three and i'm going to show you exactly how i did it first let's talk a bit about pricing to determine the cost of each meal i took each ingredient along with its price from my grocery store and its weight and i put it into a spreadsheet to calculate the cost per gram then i multiplied that by how much the recipe called for and i added everything together so i've got three meals starting with breakfast the peanut butter and jelly baked oatmeal if you add up all the ingredients it comes to a total of six dollars and forty nine cents or one dollar and eight cents per serving since it makes six meals next we have the spicy adobo chicken and peppers this one makes five meals if you add up all the ingredients it comes to a total of ten dollars and sixteen cents or two dollars and three cents per serving and lastly we have the ground chicken taco bowls this one has a bit more ingredients so it's going to be a bit more expensive but the total comes to 13.98 or 2.80 per serving for the entire prep we've got 16 meals out of it and the total price was 30.63 or 1.91 cents per meal not bad if you ask me now obviously prices are going to depend on where you live so your mileage may vary but i live in austin texas which definitely isn't the cheapest cost of living city you can prep food that's cheaper than this but that wasn't my goal i just wanted to see about how much it would cost if i did breakfast lunch and dinner for the week now let me show you how to make these the flow of this video is going to show you the order of how i prepped everything in order to make things move smoothly it's not one recipe at a time so i'm going to be jumping to and from each recipe quite a bit as always the recipe links will be included in the description let's get into it with this pb j baked oatmeal to start i made the jelly and i actually did this the night before so that i had time to set up in the fridge i added one pound or 454 grams of frozen strawberries to a large pot over medium heat and then i sprinkle over one and a half teaspoons or six grams of splenda you can also use real sugar in addition to the sweetener i added two teaspoons or eight grams of pectin to help make the jelly consistency for the purposes of the baked oatmeal you don't actually need to use this you can just cook down the fruit and pour it into the baked oatmeal and it will work just fine if you were feeling extra lazy you could just cut this step out completely and cut the strawberries into slices and add them to the baked oatmeal it will still turn out well once my jelly has been cooking and reducing for about 10 or 15 minutes i transfer it over into a glass dish move it into the fridge and allow it to cool and set the next morning it looked like this the pectin is what gives it the jelly consistency so if you make a bigger batch so you can use it for other things and you want that jelly consistency you need to use the pectin all right now that the jelly is out of the way and it's the next day we can actually start on the real prep it's 2 49 p.m when i started we've got two recipes that use rice here so we're gonna need to cook a lot of it we need 7.25 cups or 1088 grams of cooked rice at the end so whatever you need to make that amount do that wash the rice put it in the rice cooker and get it going now that the rice is out of the way we're going to wash and cut all the vegetables that we need for each of our meals today for the spicy adobo chicken and peppers we're gonna need two bell peppers one of them is gonna be a medium red pepper or about 150 grams the other one's going to be a medium green pepper also 150 grams you're going to cut these into a large dice by cutting around the seed capsule taking each piece into slices and then cutting across those slices to create your dice you're also going to need one medium or 200 grams worth of a sweet onion cut this in half and then cut each half into thin slices for the ground chicken taco bowls i made homemade salsa and for that i used one small white onion or about a hundred grams worth that i just cut in half to prepare for the air fryer i also take two medium jalapenos or 60 grams worth and cut off the stems i take one half of a bunch or 20 grams of cilantro and roughly chop this to prepare for the food processor one of the roma tomatoes i bought or 60 grams worth will be put in the rice so i cut it in half took out the seeds and cut it into a small dice i have the lime to prepare for squeezing and then i took the remaining tomatoes and i broke the skin on them with a knife to make it easier to peel once they come out of the airfryer i used the airfryer for the salsa but you can just as easily throw this all on a sheet pan and put it in the oven or use a pan on the stove i added a half a tablespoon or seven and a half grams of oil and a bit of salt to taste for flavor and i tossed this around until all the oil was coating each of those vegetables i added the tomatoes onions jalapenos and garlic to the basket of my airfryer and i air fried at 400 fahrenheit for about 10 to 20 minutes while that was going it was time to start the baked oatmeal so i added 3 cups or 240 grams of rolled oats 2 scoops or 60 grams of vanilla whey and 1 teaspoon or 4 grams of baking powder to a large bowl and i mixed that together to incorporate it once mixed i added 2 tablespoons or 42 grams of maple syrup 10 tablespoons or 150 grams of liquid egg whites 2 cups or 480 grams of 2 percent milk and 3 tablespoons or 48 grams of peanut butter give the bowl another mix to make sure all that peanut butter is well distributed it might help to put the peanut butter in the microwave first just to help soften it up and make it easier to mix in next you're going to spray a 13 by 9 casserole dish with some oil and pour your oat mixture inside of it if you have any oats collecting in one area of the pan make sure you spread those out into all corners so that we have even distribution throughout then you're going to take that jelly we made stir it up and swirl it over the top of the baked oatmeal if you wanted to save the jelly making step and just use the sliced strawberries i would add those to this mixture and just stir them in with everything else alternatively if you wanted to use a store-bought jelly you could do that as well however this one isn't overly sweet so if you buy one from the store i probably wouldn't use as much you're going to bake at 350 fahrenheit or 177 celsius for 35 to 40 minutes by the time i was finished prepping that baked oatmeal my salsa had been going for about 10 or 15 minutes so i pulled it out of the air fryer and turned everything to the other side so it had a chance to brown after a few more minutes it was finished so i got out my food processor to prepare the salsa everything goes into the food processor the cilantro the onions the garlic the jalapenos and the tomatoes but before i put the tomatoes in i peel the skin off the outside you don't have to remove the skin but it has trouble getting blended by the food processor or your blender and it creates little stick bits and i don't like them so i always take the skin off squeeze in some lime to your liking add salt to taste and then process it down into the consistency that you like best make sure you give it a taste test and adjust any flavors as needed i then take that salsa and divide it out into five smaller containers one for each of the meals you're going to have extra but it's all going to count in the calorie estimates anyway so just store it in a separate container and you've got calorie free salsa for the rest of the week once that was finished i started on the spicy adobo chicken and peppers i took 2 pounds or 908 grams of boneless skinless chicken thighs and added 2 tablespoons or 30 grams of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce then i sprinkled over some salt and pepper to taste and i mixed everything together so that the adobo sauce fully coated each of those chicken thighs i should have diced up these chipotle peppers when i was cutting my vegetables earlier but i forgot about them once the thighs are well coated in the adobo sauce you can move them over into the basket of your air fryer and air fry at 400 fahrenheit or 204 degrees celsius for 8 to 12 minutes while that's cooking you can prepare your peppers and onions add a half a tablespoon or seven half grams of oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat and add in your onions first i like to cook the onions on their own for a bit to give them a chance to brown before i add in the peppers while the onions were cooking the chicken was about halfway done so i pulled the basket out of the air fryer and turned each piece over and then returned the basket to the air fryer to finish cooking around this time the onions had developed some good browning so i added the peppers to the pan as well give the peppers a bit of salt to help encourage the water to come out so that they cook faster and then let these go for about three to five minutes until they begin to soften whenever the chicken is finished pull it out of the air fryer and place it onto a cutting board you're going to cut that chicken into bite size pieces i try to shoot for about half inch cubes once you get the chicken cut we're going to put it into the pan with the peppers and the onions to develop color on all sides so make some room in the center of your pan add the chicken and allow it to cook to develop that color to the pan you're going to add one teaspoon or three grams of garlic powder as well as 2 tablespoons or 30 grams more of those chipotle peppers in adobo sauce mix it all together to distribute those seasonings and then add in three and a half cups or 525 grams of cooked rice squeeze over the juice of one small lime or about 20 to 30 grams worth season with salt and pepper to taste and then stir everything together to mix in all the flavors this recipe makes five servings so you can get out five of your meal prep containers and divide the contents of that pot evenly between each of your five meal prep containers just like i always say if you eat each of the meals by the end of the week it doesn't matter if one has slightly more than the other it's all going to even out in the end each of these spicy adobo chicken and pepper meals has about 504 calories and 46 grams of protein they'll last in the fridge up to five days and i reheat them in the microwave at some point around this time your baked oatmeal will be finished so you can pull it out of the oven look at that little bastard look how beautiful it is take a knife along the perimeter of that pan to release it from the edges and then you're going to top it with the remaining 2 tablespoons or 32 grams of peanut butter i take that peanut butter and put it in the microwave for a few seconds before i place it into a ziploc bag cut off the corner and pipe it over the top of the baked oatmeal each slice of this baked oatmeal has 376 calories and 22 grams of protein and makes six servings and finally let's finish up those ground chicken taco bowls take 3.75 cups or 563 grams of cooked rice and add a half a tablespoon or seven and a half grams of oil those 60 grams of roma tomatoes we chopped up earlier eight grams of chili powder and three grams of paprika mix everything together until it is well combined you could do this step while you are preparing something else like when the meat or the vegetables are cooking but because i have to do everything on camera i had to do it separately so this is another step where you could save some time to a large skillet over medium high heat add a half a tablespoon or seven and a half grams of oil and then 12 ounces or 340 grams of shredded cabbage i have this recipe written to call for shredded cabbage but i had this salad mix in the fridge that needed to be used up and it's got all the cabbage patch kids in it so i decided to use it this one's probably a bit more nutritious than shredded cabbage but it's also more expensive next you're going to add in one teaspoon or three grams of garlic powder and then you can drizzle in a little bit of water to create some steam and help that cabbage cook down this should only take two or three minutes to cook then you can season with salt and pepper to taste take it out of the pan and store it aside until we are ready to plate it up later into a large skillet over medium high heat add a half a tablespoon or seven and a half grams of oil and then two pounds or 908 grams of 96 lean ground chicken the chicken i'm using here is just boneless skinless chicken thighs that i mince up in my food processor and i store in ziploc bags inside of my freezer i've got a video to show you how i do that if you are interested i will put it on the screen now season the chicken lightly with salt and then continue to brown and cook it until it is about 90 of the way done and then add in one teaspoon or three grams of chili powder one teaspoon or three grams of paprika one teaspoon or three grams of cumin and then one teaspoon or three grams of garlic powder mix all that together until it is well combined next you're going to add in 3 4 of a cup or 180 grams of tomato sauce stir this in and allow it to cook down a bit give it a taste test and adjust any flavors as needed once that meat is finished cooking it is time to plate it up this recipe is going to make five servings so get out five meal prep containers and divide your ingredients evenly between each of them each of the containers gets a fifth of the rice a fifth of the cabbage and a fifth of the ground chicken once everything has been evenly distributed i go back through and create a little space for a ramekin of salsa to fit into each container lastly i garnish with a little piece of lime wedge this is optional but i find it to be a nice touch each one of these ground chicken taco bowls has about 481 calories and 39 grams of protein they'll last up to 5 days in the fridge and i reheat them in the microwave just making sure to pull out that salsa container before it goes in and there we have it 16 meals done and dusted starting time 2 49 pm finishing time 505 pm for a grand total of 2 hours and 16 minutes now that doesn't include the time i took to make the jelly the night before but i also didn't double up on any burners on the stove so you'll be able to go faster than i did if you are able to do that once all those meals have cooled down a bit you can throw on the lids and move them into your fridge to prepare for the week i don't currently have enough meal prep containers to fit 16 meals so i just left the baked oatmeal in the casserole dish and put that in the fridge and cut out a slice each morning to put on a plate and reheat again our grand total was 30 dollars and 63 cents or a dollar 91 a meal for 16 meals i was really happy with that considering i haven't been out to a good restaurant in austin yet where i've spent less than 25 for a meal so to get 16 meals for 30 dollars seems like a steal now obviously cooking yourself is cheaper than eating out i know that but there are people who will eat out for lunch every single day of the work week and if they're spending 25 a meal they could be saving so much money just by meal prepping one meal of their week all three of these recipes are published on my website and i will include links to them in the description of this video below that's it for this week i hope you guys enjoyed this one and that it's helpful see you next time

Channel: Josh Cortis

Views: 2,172,790

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Id: Ebl-dXubSRQ

Length: 12min 38sec (758 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 03 2022