Meal prep is a huge part of my weekly schedule. Meal prep is preparing a few days or even a week’s worth of foods/meals on one particular day of the week. You can pre-portion breakfast, lunches, dinners and even snacks so that you have convenient food to eat throughout the day.
I prefer to pre-portion my meals, but other people will store cooked foods in the refrigerator to put together meals throughout the week.
If you are not familiar with meal prep, then take a minute and check out my 5 Reasons to Meal Prep. Meal prep has helped me keep a healthy lifestyle during even the busiest of times! I love that it saves me time throughout the week, but it also saves me money.
Like most people, Sundays are the most convenient day usually for me to meal prep. I try to grocery shop on Saturdays, then spend Sunday cooking.
Some Sundays I have plenty of time to cook a variety of foods for the week. Other weekends I have very little time to do anything….
No time to meal prep? Enter these 15-Minute Meal Prep Chicken & Rice Bowls.
They are quick to make. Literally it will take 15 minutes or less to make 4 healthy lunches or dinners!
These 15-Minute Meal Prep Chicken & Rice Bowls are also healthy! You’ll get protein from chicken and brown rice provides complex carbs. Add some veggies in for a healthy and filling meal.
They require zero cooking skills. Convenience foods come in handy for this recipe because the microwave will do all the cooking!
Sure I prefer to cook fresh vegetables and cook the grains myself rather than getting processed items at the grocery store. However, I like to make these healthy bowls with slightly processed foods rather than skipping meal prep and going out to lunch all week!
The items I used for the 15-Minute Meal Prep Chicken & Rice Bowls include a whole rotisserie chicken, two 10-oz packages PictSweet Farms Steamables Spring Vegetables and one 8.5oz package Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice. I seasoned it with Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Onion & Herb Seasoning blend and some salt. I like to control the amount of salt the dish has, so I use a salt-free blend and add my own salt. This recipe makes 4 bowls total.
The best part about these 15-Minute Meal Prep Chicken & Rice Bowls is that they are very customizable to your food preferences. If you love broccoli but no other vegetables, then make this with broccoli only! Hate cooked carrots? Find a vegetable blend without them!
The frozen vegetable section is full of different vegetables and vegetable blends. Go crazy! Mix & match and try different varieties.
You can also mix up the whole grain. Use plain brown rice, plain quinoa or most grocery stores have microwavable seasoned varieties of these grains too. If the grain is seasoned already, then I would use a flavor of Mrs. Dash that complements that grain. For example, I used a brown rice & quinoa that had garlic which is why I chose the onion & herb Mrs. Dash blend.
First, you’ll cook both the vegetables and the grain in the microwave according to package directions. In terms of the chicken, I prefer to use a rotisserie chicken for meal prep, but frozen cooked chicken works too. Once you have those three ingredients ready then add them to a large bowl and mix them together.
Then you’ll add the salt and seasoning blend and stir it all together. Boom, you have four lunches or dinner prepared in no time! Next, divide the mixture into four different meal prep containers and store with your other meal prep items.
You can make this same meal using roasted vegetables and stove-top grains, but it will obviously take more time.
This recipe would be a great start if you aren’t familiar with meal prep. Again, it’ll take 15 minutes and you can see how you like having your lunch or dinner already prepared.
I use this recipe for weekends that I have hardly any time to cook. I’d rather take these 15 minutes to throw together these bowls than to skip meal prep all together.
Another quick & easy meal prep recipe for busy weekends is my No-Cook Meal Prep Burrito Bowls recipe.
You could get crazy and make both recipes in one weekend and have lunch AND dinner prepared. Woah.
- 16 oz cooked chicken*
- 2 - 10 oz packages frozen steam vegetable blend**
- 1 - 8.5oz package of microwave brown rice***
- 1 Tbsp Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Seasoning Blend Onion & Herb
- 1 tsp salt
- Cook steam vegetables according to package directions and drain excess water from the bags. After vegetables are cooked, cook rice according to package directions.
- Combine the chicken, vegetables and rice in a large bowl and stir until well combined.
- Add the salt-free seasoning and salt and stir until evenly distributed.
- Divide among four containers, allow to cool and store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
- *use shredded rotisserie chicken or frozen chicken
- **any variety of vegetables will work, including stir-fry, spring mix, California blend, etc.
- ***Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice or Uncle Ben's Ready Brown Rice (seasoned or unseasoned)