Greek Chicken and Greek Salad Meal Prep

Lately I'm all about the meal prep.  Life is too busy to be thinking of and making lunch every night before work, so I've been trying to prep lunch and breakfast in advance so I can just grab and go. 

I prepared 5 mason jars for a weeks worth of lunches filled with greek salad over the weekend, threw together some greek salad dressing to top them with and half my lunches for the week were done in less than 5 minutes!  Not to shabby!  

Then I found a tasty looking Greek Lemon Chicken Recipe over on the Cooking Classy blog that I decided to try to add some protein to my lunches to go with all my veggies.  

Lunches complete.  

All my meals appear to be in Mason jars for the week, what with my blueberry baked oatmeal portioned out and stored in mason jars and now the salad too!  BUT I think I will have to use a different container for the chicken as my fridge can only take so many jars.  

Grilled Greek Lemon Chicken

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 small or 2 large boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for brushing grill
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (1 1/2 Tbsp)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley, for serving

Directions

• Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound thicker parts of chicken to even thickness. In a small mixing bowl whisk together olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary and season with salt and pepper (about 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper).
• Place chicken in a gallon size resealable bag, pour in olive oil mixture. Seal bag while pressing air out. Rub marinade over chicken. Transfer to refrigerator and allow to marinate 2 - 5 hours (rotate bag and move chicken around halfway through if possible). Preheat grill over medium-high heat (to about 425 - 450). Or preheat oven to 350.  
• Brush grill grates lightly with olive oil. Place chicken on grill, close lid, and grill about 4 minutes per side, or until chicken registers 160 - 165 degrees in center of chicken on an instant read thermometer. Let chicken rest 5 minutes, garnish with fresh parsley then serve immediately. 
• I baked my chicken as it was an easier clean up and it's snowing here so I wasn't using the BBQ.  I baked the chicken breasts for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  
• Original Recipe source: Cooking Classy

Greek Salad Jars

Ingredients

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 orange pepper

4 mini cucumbers

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1/2 purple onion chopped

Directions

Chop all veggies into bite sized pieces. Toss together in a medium sized bowl and portion into 5-6 Mason Jars.  

When ready to eat, pour 1-2 Tbsp Greek Salad Dressing Recipe over top and shake to coat.  

Greek Salad Dressing Recipe

Yields: ½ cup

Ingredients

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic, smashed with side of your knife then peeled*
1 tsp. dried oregano leaves
3 pinches of salt
10-15 grinds black pepper

Directions 

Add all ingredients to a mason jar or any type of container with a top. Cover and shake vigorously until combined. Adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Cover and store in the refrigerator up to 1 week. Stir before serving.

Recipe Source: Little Broken