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

Buffalo Chicken Lunch Bowl

We are back on track this week after the holidays with our workout calendar in hand and meal prepped for the week!!  On Monday I made a Blueberry Almond Baked Oatmeal which gave us breakfast for each work week morning and I also prepped everything for this beautiful Buffalo Chicken Bowl.  

I made the Buffalo Chicken in the Slow cooker late in the afternoon by adding 4 chicken breasts into he crockpot with 1 cup of Franks Buffalo Sauce (not just the hot sauce it's gotta be Buffalo wing sauce).  Then once the breasts were cooked (about 2.5 hours) I shredded them using my kitchen aid stand mixer.  I can't tell you how much I hate shredding chicken with forks and I usually make my hubby do that job.  But I learned about this method some time ago so tried it  and was blown away!!  So I did it again and within less than a minute the chicken breasts were perfectly shredded.  I threw in some of the buffalo sauce from the bottom of the crock pot and it was done and ready for the week!  

While the chicken was cooking I chopped up the veggies for the salad portion of this dish.  I used tomatoes, peppers, avocado, black beans and corn.  You could add anything you have on hand to mix it up which makes this salad super versatile.  

Because I'm following the 21 day fix I was conscious of how much corn and beans were going into this dish since lunch for me is usually carb free since I only get two carbs with the container count category I'm in.  I chose to add more veggies to mine and less corn and beans but you choose what you like and how much. 

When I was ready to eat this tasty looking salad I warmed up the chicken (you could just eat it cold if you prefer) served up about 1 1/4 cups of salad and then topped it with chicken and drizzled homemade ranch dressing on top!  SO SO EASY!!  

I can tell you I wasn't 100% sure how good this lunch would be but when I took he first bite I was so pleasantly surprised!!  I'm really in love with this lunch and I know it will be in my usual meal prep lunch rotation! It will give me a healthy lunch for at least 3-4 days and Gord is taking the chicken in wraps all week too!

Buffalo Chicken Lunch Bowl 

Yields 4-5 servings
21 Day Fix approved: 1 Yellow, 1 Red, 1/2 Blue, 1 Green

Ingredients

1 can organic corn
1 can organic black beans
1 orange pepper
1 avocado
2 tomatoes
4 chicken breasts
1 cup Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce

Homemade Ranch Dressing
1/8 cup Ranch Dressing Mix
1 1/3 cups plain Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons milk (I used whole milk)

Directions

Throw the chicken and hot sauce into the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours. Once chicken is cooked through, shred it with 2 forks and set aside.OR throw all the cooked chicken breasts into a stand mixer and shred by mixing on medium for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Check out the Video below to see how much easier it is. 

In a separate bowl, mix together the Ranch Dressing mix, Greek yogurt, and milk then stick it in the fridge.

Next, drain and rinse your corn and black beans and add them to a bowl. Dice up the tomatoes, pepper and avocado and add them to the bowl as well.

Assemble your bowl by adding in the veggie mixture, topping with chicken, and finishing them off with some homemade Greek yogurt ranch dressing.