Healthy Meal Prep that ACTUALLY Tastes Good

If you want to eat healthy regularly, meal prep is the way. Here’s how to make it actually taste good. Get your first purchase from Blueland for 15% off by clicking my link https://www.blueland.com/brianlagerstrom

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Korean Beef
∙375g (2c) medium-grain sushi rice
∙500g (2¼c) water
∙6-8g (1½ t) salt (for rice)
∙15g (~1T) cooking oil
∙2 lbs/1kg ground beef, 90/10
∙400g (~1 lb) broccolini, chopped into 1″ pieces
∙200g (2 large) bell peppers, sliced into ¼”x1″ pieces
∙10g (4 cloves) garlic, crushed
∙20g (~2″) fresh ginger, grated
∙75g (5T) soy sauce
∙15g (1T) sesame oil
∙50g (3T + 1t) beef stock or water
∙25g (2T) rice vinegar
∙25g (2T) brown sugar
∙75g (¼c) gochujang (or sub 25g sriracha + 25g miso + 15g extra sugar)
∙15g (~1T) cooking oil
∙Salt for veggies

1. In a rice cooker, combine rice, water, & salt. Cook until done.
2. Heat wok over high (or med-high if using nonstick). Add oil & ground beef. Cook, breaking apart until browned, about 10 min.
3.Pprep vegetables: Chop broccolini into 1-inch pieces. Slice bell peppers into ¼-inch thick strips, then cut those strips into 1-inch lengths. Crush garlic and grate ginger; set aside.
4. Once beef is browned, add garlic & ginger, stir-frying, 60 sec. Add soy, sesame oil, beef stock/water, vinegar, sugar, & gochujang. Stir until sauce reduces
5. Wipe out wok, add oil, sauté veg over high, 5 min until tender but snappy.

Shrimp & Pesto Pasta
∙2 lbs/1kg shrimp (16-20 count)
∙10g (1 1/2T) smoked paprika
∙5g (1½t) garlic powder
∙10g (2t) salt (for shrimp)
∙25g (2T) olive oil
∙450g (4c) fusilli pasta (or similar)
∙2 bunches (~300g) kale, thinly sliced
∙400g (~4c) green beans, cut into 1″ pieces
∙150g (~½c) basil pesto
∙30g (1/3c) grated parmesan cheese
∙10-15g (~1T) cooking oil
∙Salt for boiling water and veggies

1 Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta until slightly past al dente. Drain, mix immediately with pesto and parmesan.
2 Marinate shrimp with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and olive oil.
3. Chop kale thinly; cut green beans into 1” pieces.
4. Heat oil in wok over high. Sauté beans with salt for 2 min, add kale and cook until wilted. Cover and steam 2 more min til tender.
5. Heat wok over high, add oil, cook shrimp in 2 batches until lightly seared and just cooked through.

Mexican-Inspired Chicken Meal Prep
CHICKEN:
∙2 lbs/1kg boneless skinless chicken thighs
∙20g (1½T) olive oil
∙10g (2t) salt
∙10g (1T) chili powder
∙5g (2t) ground cumin (for chicken)
∙1g (1t) dried oregano
∙5g (2t) onion powder
∙5g (1 1/2t) garlic powder
∙1/2c water

RAJAS:
∙400g (1 large) onion, thinly sliced pole-to-pole
∙400g (~3 large) Anaheim or poblano peppers, sliced thinly
∙Salt
∙10g (4 cloves) garlic, minced
∙150g (1c) frozen corn
∙150g (2/3c) sour cream (sub greek yogurt)
∙ Splash of water

BEANS
∙3 cans (425g each) black or pinto beans, drained (reserve liquid)
∙5g (2t) ground cumin
∙5g (1t) salt
∙10g (4-5 cloves) garlic, minced (for beans)

1 Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Toss chicken thighs with olive oil, salt, chili powder, cumin, dried oregano, dried onion, & dried garlic. Roast directly on sheet pan for 25 minutes until cooked through.
2 For veggies, preheat wok over high with oil then sauté onion and peppers with salt until charred and tender, 6-8 min. Add corn, cook 5 more min. Add sour cream & splash of water. Stir and cook another 2 minutes.
3 For beans, add 2 cans, drained, to a food processor, reserving some of the bean liquid. Process until smooth, adding in a little bean liquid to loosen.
4. To refry beans, heat oil and minced garlic in a pan over med heat until garlic has softened. Stir in pureed beans and fry for about 3 minutes. Add 1 can whole beans, drained. Cook 3 minutes until thickened.
5. When chicken is cooked, immediately add 1/2c water to sheet pan and let sit. Once cooled slightly, scrape up any pan drippings, then shred chicken, mixing with drippings.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Korean Beef Bowl
5:35 Keeping my dishes clean
6:34 Shrimp and Pesto Pasta
11:16 Mexican inspired chicken, beans and rajas

#mealprep #healthymealprep #mealpreprecipes

hey what’s up in this video I’m going to show you guys three recipes that taste as good as restaurant food but are somehow still healthy all three are high protein have multiple vegetables and avoid junky ingredients this is the exact blueprint that I’ve been using to cook meals that are super cravable but also make me feel good and give me energy health food can be super delicious you just have to know how to build flavor and today I’m going to show you how to do it first up is a meal I call Korean beef to prep it I’ll start with my rice cooker and then add in 375 G of rice I’m using medium grain sushi rice because I love it and it’s really close to the rice that I had in Korea next in goes 500 G of water and then a strong pinch of salt for me that’s usually about 6 to 8 G since this is white rice I’ll just hit that button and check back later next I’ll grab a large sautéing device for meal prep lately I’ve been loving my yosua 13 1/2 in walk because it can cook so much food at once you’ll see what I mean later of course if you don’t have a walk you could use a 12-in non-stick pan or a 10-in would work but it’ll be a little bit tight okay once my pan is ripping hot I’m going to add in a long squiggle of olive oil about 15 G worth then I’ll drop in a 2 lb CLA of ground beef I’m using 9010 because 8020 makes this dish a little greasy and heavy on the calories for a week night okay once this beef ball is in the pan I’m going to jump in with my ground beef musher and break things down the upside to owning a walk is that it gets really hot and it Browns things quickly but it also is a potential down downside because it makes a pretty decent amount of smoke in the first minute or two of cooking luckily I’ve got a hood vent that pushes that smoke outside of my house so it’s not a big deal but if you don’t have that you’re better off using medium high heat and a non-stick pan okay once this is broken down a bit and I’ve flipped it a few times I’m going to keep an eye on it and keep mush it every minute or two while I prep up my veggies for that I’ll start with a pound of broccolini I’ll chop off the Woody stem end then I’ll cut what’s left every inch or so all the way through the fettes in total I need about 400 G of chopped broccolini next I’ll take two large red bell peppers and slice off the sides and remove any white piffy stuff on the inside then I’ll slice the planks thin maybe about 1/4 inch or so once those are sliced I’ll cut those in half so they’re about an inch long like my broccolini in total I want 200 g of peppers oh also don’t forget to be checking in on your beef and smooshing it a little bit while you’re chopping your veggies the last bit of veg prep here is to smash four to five garlic cloves through my garlic press and grade a couple inches of Ginger on my micro in total I need 10 G of garlic and 20 G of Ginger back at the stove after about 10 minutes of Browning this beef is crumbled down into small PE size pieces so next I’ll drop in my garlic and ginger then stir fry for about 60 seconds to open up their flavor and to cook off the raw Edge another thing I like about the form factor of a walk over a regular pan is that it’s super deep so that you can stir and toss the food all over the place without it flying over the edge walks are just nice things to cook food in I was sleeping on them until about a year and a half ago now I love them okay okay the ginger and garlic are smelling fragrant you guys so next I’m going to add in my sauce stuff so that’s 75 G of soy sauce 15 G of sesame oil 50 g of beef stock or water 25 G of rice vinegar 25 G of brown sugar and finally 75 G of goou Jong if you ain’t got no Jung Sub in 25 G of sriracha and 25 G of miso and maybe 15 G of extra sugar to finish I’ll jump in and stir until the sauce ingredients are combined and the liquids have reduced into a glaze the final product will look like taco meat but taste like lunchtime in so it’s sweet it’s salty it’s spicy and sesame forward next I’ll grab six meal prep containers I’m using 36 ooun glass ones because plastic is bad when you microwave it I think the internet said that or was it seed oils I don’t know for health reasons glass good plastic bad ooh but these have a plastic top does that matter I don’t know don’t think about it you just need six meal prep containers okay from here I’ll divide my beef evenly between all the containers why six portions over five or four well four portions is the same amount of work and makes the exact same amount of mess as portions so it’s kind of inefficient five portions is an odd number so that means one of the two people in my house needs to plan and prepare a non-meal prep Meal which kind of Feats the purpose of being prepared ahead of time so that means that six is kind of The Sweet Spot that’s three meals for two people which usually last us about 2 or 3 days to finish this dish I’m going to wipe the beef stuff out of my walk and then reheat it over high heat I’ll give it another squirt of oil then I’ll dump in my chopped broccolini my chopped peppers and then a moderate pinch of salt right away I’ll give things a toss and a stir stir to get oil coating the veggies and to get everything mixed up from here I’m going to sauté these veggies for about 3 to 4 minutes over high heat tossing them every 30 seconds or so texturally I want these vegetables to be tender but snappy there’s a sweet spot in there somewhere where the hard Edge and fibrous nature of the vegetable has softened but there’s still a bit of fresh crunchiness that makes the vegetable feel alive and after one more toss toss in about 5 to 6 total minutes of stir frying the broccoli and peppers are looking perfect if you’re cooking this in a non-stick pan by the way you’ll need to cook for about 2 two to three more minutes because of the naturally blower Heat at this point the rice is done cooking so I’m going to split that evenly between all six containers and then finally I’ll split my walk roasted vegetables between all of the containers as well M that’s a lot of nice food in one place you got meat veggies and some squishy rice this is one of my all-time favorite meals I usually throw a little bit of chili crisp on top or if I’ve got it in the house some chopped kimchi now the lids go on then I’ll pop these things in the fridge for consumption at some point over the next 3 to 5 days next up is a shrimp and pesto pasta with some roasted kale and green beans but first I want to make this shrimp pasta I’m going to grab a large pot of water and drop it on the stove while that comes up to a boil let’s get some shrimp marinated for that I’ll grab 2 lb of shrimp specifically a peeled in D vain 1620 count these ones have tails on them and I don’t like eating around those in my final dish so I’ll rip those off and then drop the shrimps into a bowl once cleaned into the bowl I’ll add in 10 G of smoked paprika this will give the shrimps a little something extra then five grams of garlic powder 10 grams of salt and 25 grams of olive oil now I’ll just toss all that to combine I like to marinate shrimp a little bit especially with some salt because it helps them hold on to their water during cooking and that keeps them Plumping juicy now I’m going to let these hang out then cook some pasta over at the stove I’ve got some boiling water so I’ll add in a strong grip of salt then drop in one pound of fusili I like this particular shape for this dish because it holds pesto really nicely and since it’s small and bite-sized it comfortably fits into the meal prep containers while that cooks I’m going to grab two bunches of kale gather them up into a tight pile then slice thinly I think half2 in strips is ideal also I removed all the stems before cutting because those are Mega fibrous and you really don’t want to eat them in total two bunches of kale yields about 300 G up next I’ll grab some green beans specifically French style hero these are less fibrous than regular green beans and less thick so they cook a lot faster to prep them I’m just going to cut them down into 1in pieces nothing fancy here just like for the peppers and broccoli we want something that’s bite-sized in total I need about 400 G at this point the pasta is done cooking so I’m going to drain off the water then add in my sauce which is 150 g of tasty pre-made pesto I used to avoid pre-made pesto like the plague until I found this brand Sano I like it because it’s fresh and actually tastes like basil I get mine at Whole Foods but you can order some on Amazon and it’s about the same price behind the pesto I’ll add in 30 G of GRA ated parmesan then jump in and stir everything to combine o also I want to mention that you should overcook your pasta just a little bit El Dente pasta is really delicious fresh but it gets hard and stale once cooled down in the fridge and it doesn’t quite come back to life when reheated okay once pesto I’m going to move my pasta into six clean meal prep containers back of the stove into some hot oil I’m going to drop my chopped green beans a little bit of salt and then from here I’m going to give those a toss toss and rip them over high heat for about 2 minutes before I added in the kale let’s be honest green beans can be kind of lame and punishing to eat so to make them delicious I like to give them some aggressive heat up front to kind of char them on the outside this gives them a bit of a smoky roasty flavor and it makes them a lot more interesting next I’ll add in all of my kale then a strong pinch of salt and I’ll work that in with the green beans to wilt things down and stir everything together and after about a minute of cooking I’ve got it melted in with the beans and sauteed a bit so at this point I’m going to add in 15 G of minced garlic and stir fry that for a second to open up its flavor and after about 30 seconds of action here I’ll stop drop a lid on and cook this over medium heat for about 2 minutes this lid traps steam which softens the fibrous beans and kale in a way that acute high heat cooking usually can’t it’s really helpful 2 minutes later when I pop off the lid and stir things together you can see that the humble vegetables that we started with are now looking really really Swan next I’ll move this over to the glass and drop the veggies in six ways alongside the pasta that’s a lot of fiber in nutrition in one place kids if you don’t like either of these vegetables though I would say Sub in broccolini and zucchini now I’m back at the stove one more time with a clean hot walk more oil goes in then I’ll add in half of my marinated shrimps that ends up being about 20 pieces or so if I cooked all these shrimp at the same time it would cool this walk down way too much and the shrimp would Steam and cook really unevenly now I’m going to cook these 75% of the way through on the first side that’ll take about 2 minutes or so and once the shrimp are looking translucent on the pan side I’m going to flip one over to check the sear as you can see we’ve got some Browning on the edges and the shrimp is most of the way cooked through to finish I’ll scrape the pan to loosen things up then shimmy the walk to get the heat spread out to the back sides of the shrimp don’t cook these for too long though because once flipped they overcook quickly keep in mind that these are going to be reheated later so we want to air on the side of a little bit undercooked rather than a little bit overcooked when finished I’ll drop into the prep containers then drop the other half of my shrimp into a hot walk you guys these shrimp are plump juicy and a little bit smok from that paprika overall it’s just a great way to switch up the daily protein from chicken or beef which I feel like I eat every single day this is a cravable meal that’s got all the stuff that you want tasty veggies interesting protein and cravable carbs up next is a Mexican flavored meal with an interesting veggie side that you might not have heard of before to get started I’ll grab 2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken dyes then hit them with a long Ziggy of olive oil about 20 G worth then 10 G of salt 10 G of chili powder 5 G of ground cumin 1 G of dried oregano 5 G of onion powder and 5 G of garlic powder from here I’ll jump in and just mix things to combine right on the sheet tray there’s no need to make a bowl dirty for this which I love and once the chicken’s all coated with the oil salt and spices I’m going to move the sheet tray over to a 425f oven and roast it for about 25 minutes while those cook I’m going to prep my veggie side dish rahas well it’s actually a healthier version you’ll see what I mean I’ll start with one large onion and and slice it pole to pole thinly I’d say no thicker than a/4 in in total I want 300 G next I’ll grab four to five New Mexico or Anaheim or pablano peppers and slice those into qu in strips as well I’m looking for about 300 to 350 Gams of peppers okay once the veggies are cut I’m going to grab my food processor and load in two drained cans of pinto or black beans then 5 G of cumin and 5 G of salt now the lid goes on and I’ll spin this until things are smooth if you don’t want to pull out your food processor and you want to skip this extra dirty dish you can certainly Mash these beans during the refry just know that they’re going to be pretty rustic and a little bit mealy I saved some of the bean liquid so that I could drizzle in about 3 tablespoons to loosen things up otherwise they’re going to be pasty and there we go after the bean prep I’m going to grab my chicken out of the oven after 25 minutes they should be nice and roasty looking and any chicken drippings that came out of them have now glazed onto the sheet tray next I’ll pour in a/ cup of water to soften the roasty chicken stuff that’s stuck to the pan and I’ll come back and retrieve it later for now I’m going to let this chicken rest out on the Chet tray then cook my vegetables for that back into some hot oil I’ll add in my onions the peppers a strong pinch of salt and then from here I’ll pan roast over really high heat to char the vegetables and soften them for about 6 to 8 minutes if you haven’t heard of rahas before it’s a Mexican dish of charred peppers onions corn Crema and melted cheese and it’s usually served in a tortilla it’s super dope but that much cream and cheese is usually a weekend Indulgence for me and it’s it’s not the type of food that I eat during the week to keep me going so my version is lighter at this point we’re about halfway there the peppers have some blistering and the onions have soften but things are still too crisp from here I’ll add in 10 G of minced garlic and 150 g of frozen corn then jump back in and toss everything to combine then Sizzle these veggies over my highest heat for five more minutes or however long it takes for the veggies to cook texturally we want these to be soft but not mushy after another couple minutes of sautéing I’ll add in a 150 g dup of sour cream cream and a splash of water to help steam things down now I’ll stir that in and cook it down for about 2 minutes so that the sour cream coats the veggies nicely then I’ll move everything over to the six prep containers these lighter rahas are really nice they’re a little bit spicy a little bit creamy and sweet from the charred onions in the corn for anyone who’s had rahas this dish will definitely Echo that experience it just won’t be as heavy now to refry these beans I’m going to start with 5 to 10 G of minced garlic in some oil and Sizzle that over medium heat for about 30 to 60 seconds until the oil is tasting garlicky and the garlic is starting to soften from here I’ll slide in my pureed black beans if the garlic is starting to Brown at this point add in a small splash of water to cool things off quickly because you definitely don’t want burnt garlic in here once the beans are in I’m going to stir and then refry over medium heat for about 3 to four minutes to help cook off some of that canned Bean flavor and then finally I’ll add in a third can of drained whole black beans and then stir those in from here I’ll cook everything down for about 3 minutes until the whole mixture leaves a thick Trail when I pass a spatula through it like this next I’ll move these beans over to the meal preps alongside the rahas and then the last little bit of prep is to use a wooden spoon to scrape up the roasty chicken stuff from the sheet pan this stuff tastes really good and it’s essentially the sauce that’s going to coat the chicken so we don’t want to leave it behind Okay juice is scraped up so now I’ll move on to shred the chicken or you could chop it I prefer shredding though because it keeps the chicken contained within the Chet tray and it keeps me from having to get a cutting board dirty once the chicken is shredded down I’m going to toss it with all the roasting juices and that’s that this is a great week night chicken recipe for tacos or quesadilla filling or even a quick and dirty enchilada of course the Final Touch here is to divide this chicken six ways into my meal preps and that’s a Mexican inspired dish that’s interesting delicious and nutritious it’s got about 50 to 55 g of protein it’s got several veggies and beans those are good for you they’re full of fiber if you guys like