Tag: meal prep

  • Healthy chicken fajita bowls

    Healthy chicken fajita bowls

    Click here to skip my blah blah blah and go straight to the recipe video (I won’t be offended, I promise).

    I have been wanting to get into recipe video production for a while, and now that I have a new DSLR camera (with auto-focus!), there’s no longer any excuses not to do it. Like most folks, I’ve been watching the likes of Tasty go absolutely viral and for good reason – I love watching the short videos that give me daily inspiration when I’m trying to decide “What’s for dinner?”. In my video, that question is answered with a resounding chicken fajita bowls!! Scroll down below to check out my first crack at a recipe video 🙂

    Being a visual learner, I definitely prefer following a recipe with a video tutorial, so in the spirit of bringing my readers more top quality content (ie, selfishly, the type of content that I enjoy), I’ve decided to give it a go on little old seefoodplay.com!

    The idea of filming a recipe from start to finish was surprisingly intimidating, so I wanted to go for a recipe that would look good on camera (lots of color!), that I make often so comfortable with the recipe, and that I actually wanted to share with readers. Now, the thing that I am absolutely most comfortable with is pasta (all pasta, any kind of pasta – I can make it perfectly al dente practically in my sleep). But in the interest of trying to branch out, I decided to go for another one of my favorites: a chicken & veggie ‘fajita’ bowl. I’m a huge fan of meal prepping, especially the lunches that I take to work, and this recipe is perfect for just that.

    In the spirit of the ubiquitous Tasty recipe video, my take on this was to keep it simple and healthy, packed full of fresh ingredients, and easy to make ahead… all in about a minute-long video. I hope you enjoy the video and recipe – it’s filling, super easy, and a great idea to add to your meal prep catalog!

    If you do make this recipe, don’t forget to let me know either in the comments below or by tagging a photo of your version on Instagram under #sfprecipes.

    Easy chicken fajita bowls

    • 2-3 sliced bell peppers (I used green, red and yellow)
    • 1 small onion (sliced)
    • 4 cups cooked rice
    • Spice mix: 1 tbsp each of garlic powder (salt, smoked paprika, oregano,)
    • 1 can of black beans
    • avocado slices
    • sour crème/crème fraiche
    • chives or spring onions for garnish
    1. Brown the chicken in a bit of olive oil, but be careful not to overcook
    2. Remove chicken, cut into slices, set aside
    3. Combine the spice mix and veggies
    4. Sauté all the veggies until they’re cooked through but still crisp
    5. Add the chicken back into the pan to soak up the flavors and to warm up
    6. Prepare the bowls: add rice, peppers, chicken, black beans, and avocado
    7. Garnish with fresh lime juice, sour cream, and cilantro or spring onions

    seefoodplay | healthy chicken fajita bowls

  • Weekly meal plan

    Weekly meal plan

    Weekly meal plan collage - 2 august 2015 | seefoodplay

    This edition of my weekly meal plan brings you some very easy recipes, most of which can be made from ingredients that you probably already have on-hand!

    If you’ve been reading my blog, then you probably know that I’m big into meal prep and planning. Now, though, I’ve decided to be a bit more structured about consistently writing down our meal plans and sharing them with my readers on a weekly basis! 🙂

    I’m focusing on healthy eating now more than ever before, partly because I’ve recently found out that I have a few health issues that I need to sort out… again. I’m starting to wonder if I can improve my overall state of health and well-being by changing what we eat, even just a little bit. I’ll be doing a daily lemon water experiment, too, so keep an eye out for more details on that in the coming weeks!

    As usual, I don’t usually include breakfast or lunch in my meal plans because I like to those meals flexible. I have plenty of make-ahead snacks ready to go in the fridge & freezer, and will grab a soup or salad near my office if I want to have something different.


    Monday // Jonathan’s pasta pesto

    Tuesday // Oven-fried chicken (shake n bake) w/asparagus and hasselback baked potatoes

    Wednesday // Appetizer tomato, bresaola & mozza w/truffle salt & olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Main dish: Butter, garlic & dill baked salmon with tagliatelle.

    Thursday // Smoked paprika & lime shrimp w/rice

    Friday // Homemade ramen, fried egg & cucumber salad


    simple baked salmon | seefoodplay.com Oven-roasted asparagus | seefoodplay.com IMG_1351 Cilantro lime rice| seefoodplay.com

    Breakfasts & Lunch: this week I will be bringing things from home for breakfast & lunch. Lots of copycat bacon & egg mcmuffinshomemade frappaccinos, freezer burritos, and well…leftovers!

  • Weekly meal planning

    Weekly meal planning

    Weekly meal planning| seefoodplay.com

    Working a 9-5 (more like 8-8 in reality, by the time you count the commute) and getting a homemade + healthy + fast meal on the dinner table every night can be quite the challenge.

    Our routine is usually as follows: do a grocery shop once a week and pick up random things that I think I might want to eat, then do several smaller shops to pick up specific ingredients to make dinner with, once I’ve decided what to actually cook. For two people, our monthly grocery bill has been unnecessarily high (easily over €700). Granted, we allocate a decent-sized portion of our budget to food because…well, we love to eat good food! We don’t skimp on high-end ingredients like organic meats, seafood and veggies, and we don’t always buy based on what’s on sale. What happens way too often, though, is that we ended up wasting food (which is horrible) and not eating as diverse meals throughout the week as we should. Since my shopping isn’t always targeted based on actual meals, I end up with too many ingredients that I can’t use that end up going bad. Of course, when we’re not sure what to make for dinner, way-too-often we opt for an easy pasta dish. I would eat pasta for every meal if I could (really…) but Hubby’s metabolism doesn’t process it the same way mine does, so alternatives need to be served up on a regular basis.

    To battle the weekly dinner problems described above, I’ve implemented a 3-part strategy to eat better (for less money), waste less food and generally be more organized with our meal management.

    So, the plan is:

    –          Online grocery shopping

    –          Strict(ish) budget of £400/month

    –          Weekly meal planning

    Online grocery shopping solves the problem of just randomly throwing things in the shopping cart, then getting to the checkout with  tons of groceries but nothing to really make into actual meals. Our flat is a 3rd floor walk-up, so it’s also a pretty big convenience to not have to lug everything up the stairs! We shop at Waitrose (one day I’ll write about the Tesco grocery delivery fiasco) and we love it. The food is fresh and deliveries arrive on-time, which is key for busy folks like us. Most online grocery stores have a shopping list feature, so you can essentially build your list over the course of a few days, then order once you’ve gotten everything you’ll need for the week. Shopping online makes price comparison significantly easier, because you can just sort by price and make smarter choices. The price per item or per kilo is often provided as well, so you can really make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck this way. If you have the online shopping option available to you, then give it a try!

    Sticking to a budget: We are big believers in only putting quality products into our bodies, and are very thankful to be able to afford organic foods and the like.  That doesn’t mean, though, that we can’t eat just as well for less money! We just need to pay attention to what we’re buying and stick to a budget. Again, online shopping comes in handy because I can very easily keep track of exactly how much I’m spending and I can cut down on mid-week shopping trips – I always end up buying things I don’t need when I’m at the grocery store! So, I’ve reigned in our budget to no more than £400/month. So, that works out to £75-100/week, plus a little leftover for a mid-week shop if we do run out of something.

    Online shopping and budgets are key, but the real revolution for us has been meal planning. I’ve dabbled in make-ahead breakfasts and freezer meals, but I’ve never actually committed to a full-on weekly meal plan. It just seemed so daunting: spending hours thinking of recipes, making sure to have all the ingredients on-hand, then a full day of preparing everything ahead of time. Who has time for that…? Well, it turns out – I do!

    Saturday morning I spent around 2 hours working out recipes. This takes a while because: my husband is somewhat picky, I wanted to choose recipes that allow me to use similar ingredients without making similar recipes, I was sticking to a budget, and I wanted easy recipes that could be semi-prepped in advance. Once all of my meals were planned out, I made a grocery list and did my online shopping to be delivered on Sunday. So ::drumroll: here’s the menu for our first week of meal planning:

    • Monday: Homemade shake-n-bake chicken
    • Tuesday: Paris-style roast chicken
    • Wednesday: Beef & Broccoli stir fry
    • Thursday: Jonathan’s spaghetti bolognese
    • Friday: Greek chicken salad

    Once my groceries arrived, I brined the chicken, made the shake-n-bake mix, marinated the beef for the stir-fry, marinated the chicken for the salad (the put it in the freezer). I didn’t pre-chop any veggies because I still prefer to make those fresh. All of this took under an hour, which was pretty surprising as I thought it’d take way longer. It was so fast, that I had time to work on my Ikea Bekvam stool makeover (coming soon!) before it got too late 😉

    For the moment, I’m only doing the meal-planning for dinner but I’ll be updating it for all meals soon – so keep an eye out for that!

    Since I have a husband that’s less-than-thrilled when it’s his turn to make dinner, this also erases the stress he might feel when I text to say that I’ll be home late…please make dinner! Whenever I know I’ll have a late night at work, we plan ahead by picking out a man-friendly recipe that Jonathan feels comfortable making. The main ingredients are usually already prepped, so on “his nights” he usually just needs to pop his recipe in the oven and I come home to a delicious-smelling apartment!

    What are your tips for getting healthy meals on your dinner table every night without going crazy? I’d love to hear them, as our strategy is constantly evolving!