Tag: healthy

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Easy and Healthy Caribbean Jerk Chicken Bowls

Hi, me again! I know it’s been awhile since I have posted a new recipe on here so I knew I needed to come back with a bang… pun intended. This is a dinner recipe that doesn’t get into rotation as much as it should. This is another recipe that gets prepared for Kevin & I for 2-3 nights, but if you are cooking for a family of 5 this should be a great dinner to serve all of you.

Servings
5-6

Cost
Total: $30
Per Serving: $5- $6

Time
Prep: 10- 15 Minutes
Cook: 25 Minutes
Total: 35- 40 Minutes

Ingredients
2 Red Peppers
1 Green Pepper
1 Medium Red Onion
1 Whole Pineapple (can sub pre-cut or canned)
2.5 Cups of Brown Rice
4-5 Chicken Breasts

Seasonings
Lawry’s Caribbean Jerk Marinade
1/3 Cup of Fresh Cilantro
2 Limes
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder

Step 1: To start, I marinated the chicken breasts in the Caribbean Jerk Marinade for about 10 minutes. This is definitely something you can do for an hour or even overnight. I had started thinking about dinner on this particular night a little later than I should have… so 10 minutes it was!

Step 2: Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. While the chicken is marinating, you should begin chopping the vegetables and fruit. I have taken step by step pictures of how to chop bell peppers and onions in a previous blog. If you would like more detailed instructions you can visit the blog about BBQ Chicken Tostadas. For the pineapple, I suggest chopping the stem off first and then slicing off the skin completely. Then, turn the pineapple onto its side and slice it into circles. Once you have that finished, you can dice into medium chunks.

Step 3: Remove the chicken from the marinade and place onto a baking sheet. Place the chicken into the oven for 20- 25 minutes (depending on size and thickness of the chicken). Always be checking the internal temperature of the chicken and be sure it gets up to 165 degrees, Add the chopped veggies to a large skillet and begin cooking over medium heat. Drizzle the veggies with olive oil and coat them with the seasonings listed above: 1 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of black pepper, 1/2 tsp of onion powder, 1 tsp of garlic powder.

Step 4: When there are 15 minutes remaining, put the 2.5 cups of brown rice into a pot to begin cooking. I usually just use the Minute brand of brown rice because it’s quicker. (If you prefer the non pre-cooked rice, get that started prior to marinating the chicken because that usually takes about 45 minutes). Squeeze one lime into the rice once it’s almost finished cooking.

Step 5: Once everything is cooked, you can plate your desired serving. I suggest placing the pineapple chunks on top because they are cold. After you have plated everything garnish with cilantro and 1 lime wedge per plate or bowl.

Step 6: Enjoy!

Don’t forget to let me know if you make any recipes I post or add any substitutions to my original recipe 🙂

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Healthy Buffalo Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Zucchini Bowls

Okay, so bare with me. This is my first cooking/ food related post and although I enjoy cooking and am honestly pretty good at it… I don’t usually follow recipes. So creating this post with a recipe for others to follow is not the easiest thing for me to do. I rely heavily on tasting my food and instinct- so hopefully this will end up making sense! Sounds promising… ha!

I plan every meal for my lunch and every dinner for my boyfriend and myself before each week starts. My goal is to have a variety of meals that are easy, healthy-ish (most of the time), and cost effective. This meal is one I ALWAYS come back to. It’s super easy and relatively healthy. I hate reading blogs that give you 10 pages before their recipe- so I promise not to do that 🙂

This recipe will typically yield enough for 3 lunches for myself. All the ingredients together- excluding olive oil & seasonings, because these are things I always have on hand- cost $12.10. I don’t know about you, but on the rare occasion I eat out during the work week, I can easily spend $12 on one meal. With this recipe, you’ll be making 3 meals for about $4. Because I know it will be asked, this meal is about 320 calories.

Ingredients:

1 Large Sweet Potato
1 Large Zucchini
1 Package of Ground Chicken
Your Favorite Buffalo Sauce
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder

  1. The first step in any recipe I will share with you will always be to get your “mise en place” in order… or for those that don’t live in the food and beverage field or binge The Food Network- get all of your ingredients prepared and ready to be cooked!
    In this step I dice up my sweet potatoes into bite-sized cubes: peeling the skin off, dicing the potato into 1/2 inch circles, cutting those circles into 3-4 strips, and cutting those 3-4 strips into 3-4 bite-sized pieces. You want to be sure your cuts are even as possible so everything cooks evenly.


While still in the first step, I will also cut the zucchini into bite-sized cubes as well. Start by cutting the zucchini into 1/4 inch circles and then cutting those circles into 4 pieces.

2. Next, I will spread the sweet potato on a baking sheet, coat with a bit of olive oil, and sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder evenly over the cubes. Once they’re seasoned, I pop them in the oven at 375 degrees alone first because the sweet potatoes need a little extra time than the zucchini. The sweet potatoes will be in there for 50 minutes total. While the sweet potato begins roasting, I will remove the ground chicken from its packaging and get ready to cook it on the stove top.

3. Once the sweet potato has been in the oven for 20 minutes, I will remove the baking sheet and move the sweet potatoes to one side to make room for the zucchini. (You could just use another baking sheet, but…dishes.) I then spread the zucchini out and add the same seasoning combination. These will go into the oven for 30 minutes. After putting the baking sheet back into the oven, you can begin cooking the ground chicken on the stove top.

4. I coat a medium-sized cooking pan with Pam and begin sauteing the chicken similarly to ground beef. I use a wooden spatula to break the chicken into smaller pieces, cooking over medium heat. Cook until there are no longer pink pieces- about 10-15 minutes.

5. Once the ground chicken is completely cooked, I coat the chicken with buffalo sauce- I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s Buffalo Sauce- it’s not too thick or thin & doesn’t pack too much heat. You’ll use about 1/4 cup of buffalo sauce, but you can coat according to your preference.

6. Once the zucchini and sweet potato have been in the oven for an additional 30 minutes and are beginning to brown you can remove and get ready to begin placing into your Tupperware. Place 1/3 of the sweet potato and zucchini that you made into each dish. For the chicken, I usually put about 1/4 of what I made into each. This will leave you with some leftover, but often I just add these to my eggs in the morning for a little extra protein and no wasted ingredients 🙂

There ya go! You just meal prepped 3 meals for lunch for the week and it took one hour! I usually meal prep another meal at the same time as this, so usually I get 5-6 meals done in an hour, but I’ll start with this for now. If you are vegan or vegetarian I have made this recipe with roasted chick peas instead of the ground chicken and it was just as amazing. I hope this becomes a staple lunch in your house as it has in mine!