Recipes Used:
- Pork Ramen -https://pinchandswirl.com/pork-belly-ramen/
- Instant Pot BBQ Chicken – https://carmyy.com/instant-pot-bbq-chicken/
- Honey Garlic Ground Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry – https://dishesrecipe.com/recipe/honey-garlic-ground-beef-and-broccoli-stir-fry/
Products used in this video (Affiliate links)
Video Summary
In this video, I tackled August meal prep with three different recipes to help busy families get ahead for the week. With kids heading back to school, I know everyone’s schedules are getting crazy, so having meals ready to go is a lifesaver. I prepared barbecue chicken in my Instant Pot, made honey garlic ground beef stir fry with cauliflower rice, and tried something completely new – pork ramen with jarred pork and frozen zucchini from last year’s garden. I also attempted soft boiled eggs for the first time. Even though I didn’t follow all the recipes exactly and had to make some substitutions, everything turned out delicious. The best part is that we not only have meals for this week, but also created some future freezer meals in the process.
Video Transcript
Chicken
Welcome back. Happy August. We are meal prepping today because it’s just a great way to be on track for the week ahead. I definitely have realized that if I meal prep at the beginning of the week, the week goes by so much more smoothly. And for a lot of you, kids are back in school, and so that means you have very hectic, crazy lives. I don’t have kids. My life changes minimally. The only thing that really changes at this time of year is that the traffic patterns change significantly and it takes me a lot longer to get anywhere throughout the city. But that’s nothing compared to the craziness that you guys are all experiencing with going to and from school and everything. So, let’s prep some food so that way this week is just super simple.
I’m going to start by prepping just some chicken in my Instant Pot or it’s just a pressure cooker. I’m going to get some spices on it. Add a little bit of liquid. And this is just going to be so simple. I’m just doing barbecue chicken. So once it finishes cooking, I’ll add the barbecue on. And I figure we can just eat this on sandwiches, have a salad on the side, and it’ll be kind of like a pulled pork but with chicken.
I’m just going to get a few spices in there. That was some salt and pepper. This is paprika. And what else? Maybe a little bit of garlic and onion. And this is frozen chicken. I just took it out enough to be able to get it out of the package. So, it will let off quite a bit of juices. That’s why I’m going to wait to put the barbecue sauce in because I want the barbecue sauce to be like a sauce, not a liquid. So, let’s get a little bit of water in here. And then I’m just going to start it. And that’s how easy this prep is. I literally didn’t take anything out ahead of time. I just now did and got it microwaving for about a few seconds just to get it cool enough or just to get it thawed out enough. I’m looking here trying to figure out, okay, poultry start. Okay. I usually only use my rice setting. So, let’s also get some water boiling to make some boiled eggs.
Boiled Eggs
Okay, I’m going to get this on. And I think I’m going to put the eggs in. Is it now that you put them in? I always forget how you’re supposed to do eggs. Are you supposed to put them in before it boils or after? I’m going to put them in now. I’m just going to do soft boiled eggs hopefully. Here’s these eggs. And as soon as these eggs are done, I need to go put my laundry in the dryer. So, don’t let me forget.
Ground Beef
I’m also going to get some ground beef in this pan. And let me tell you what all we’re going to make. Actually, I should grab some onions, too, to get in this pan before I get too chatty on you. Okay, here’s these onions. What I’m making is going to be some honey garlic ground beef stir fry. And I am going to use cauliflower rice instead. Mainly because my pressure cooker is already doing something and that’s what I use to make the rice. And then I’m also going to try to make a pork ramen because I have pork in a jar and I rarely use it. The only thing I can think to use it for is pulled pork, but I’m doing that with chicken and I didn’t want two of the same things. So, I’m going to try to do that. We’re going to use some ramen packets, which I bought for the first time in years. We’re not going to use the little packet inside of it, though. And then, of course, our barbecue chicken.
Prepping for the meals
So, while that’s going, I’m going to get everything out that we need for all of these dishes. Okay. Rice vinegar. I wanted to wait to do that because I knew that I needed to kind of get everything going first. This is some sesame oil. Got honey, coconut aminos. I need to get garlic and red pepper, probably salt and pepper, too, and red pepper flakes. Ginger. You know, I have this ginger that I always forget about. So, I’m going to use some of that.
And yes, it is a little bit crazy doing all this at once, but it saves so much time because like all the time I’m taking to do all this cooking, I would be taking this time on separate days. And so, we’re doing it all at once. All of these dishes can go in the dishwasher and it’s just super quick and convenient. So, let’s get some salt and pepper in here. And this you can really put like whatever you want in it. I’m still trying to figure out if I want to do anything else other than broccoli and cauliflower. We’ll see.
Pork Ramen
Okay, this pork recipe is so different from anything that I’m used to. And I’m not even following the recipe. I mean, can you believe it? We’re not following the recipe. I’m also cutting it in half because we don’t know if we’re going to like it. And of course, we’re a family of two and that’s what we do.
Okay, the water’s not quite boiling, but I’m looking at the clock and I think it’s time for me to go change my laundry. So, be right back. Okay, just kidding. Laundry is not done. It still says 4 minutes. So, I’m doing a bulky load. So, it tells me a time and then it doesn’t really mean it.
Okay. So, over here, I’m going to get some broth in as well. And it calls for six cups. Oh, I don’t know how much exactly I want. So, I’m going to put just this in. And I’ll add more because it has like a little bit from in there. And I’m going to use the chicken broth that comes out there as well. We’ll see. Okay, let’s get this turned on. Going to add some salt and pepper. So far, it’s not a whole lot of anything in there.
This recipe called for pork that was already seasoned. It had salt, pepper, and sugar on it. So, I’m going to put a little bit of sugar in. And then I don’t have baby bok choy. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to put some zucchini from last year’s garden in here. A lot of it. I guess it’ll cook down. And we’re going to let that cook down all the way because I don’t want it to taste funny. Yeah. I don’t know. I’m not the biggest fan of like the raw zucchini flavor, but when it’s mixed into things, it’s totally fine. That needs some sesame oil as well.
And you know what? I’m not following the directions, so hopefully this is okay what I’m doing. And I don’t have green onion, cilantro, or Thai basil. I might have all of those, but there’s so many of these that I’m not willing to go over there and check. And this calls for soy sauce. I’m going to use coconut aminos. More ginger. I’m just going to do one. You know, I saw something like this and it called for mushrooms. It must not have been this one. I’m going to put them in there, though, because why not? And I’m going to put their liquid in there as well.
I’m going to get some garlic into both of these. Since this calls for cilantro, basil, and chives, I’m just going to substitute out dry. And I feel like that’ll be just as good. And I might put some onion powder in there as well, because I just realized I didn’t actually put onions in it, which would have been good.
So, I think this will come up to a boil and then we can get our noodles in and then we’ll be able to see if we like how much liquid we have or not. And I want this to boil for a little while to get that zucchini fully cooked because it was raw when I put it in from the freezer.
Beef & Broccoli
All right, we are just about ready to move on to the next step here. We’re not quite boiling over there yet, but we’re almost there. So, I’m going to go check that laundry again. Okay, you guessed it. It was not ready for me yet. I’m going to get the sauce made here. I don’t have soy sauce. I’m going to use coconut aminos. And I’m going to do basically a teriyaki. I’m going to do a decent amount of this. And then a good amount of honey plus a little bit of water. And that’s going to be our sauce. Although we do need to add some rice vinegar. And we will taste it little by little to see if we have the flavors that we want. And I’m also going to add some red pepper flakes.
Okay, our water is fully boiling back there. I’m going to turn this one onto a simmer and I do have some ice water ready to put those eggs in so that we don’t get them cooked too much. This smells good. This is going to need a cornstarch slurry, but I want to get our frozen goodies in here first. So, I’m going to wait on tasting it till after our frozen goodies get in because I know that’s going to change the flavor.
Okay, they’re still quite frozen. These are broccoli. And here is cauliflower rice. I love when the meal has the vegetable and everything all in it. This one doesn’t actually have like a starch, but that’s okay. We don’t need a starch in every meal. It would have if I wouldn’t have used riced cauliflower.
So, that’s dropping the temperature a lot. I’m going to put that heat back up. We’re going to let all this cook together. And if I have a lid that fits, I’m going to put a lid on it as well. Okay. These are all just in case I need it over here still.
Ramen Broth Taste Test
This is looking delicious. We have 5 minutes left on our chicken. I’m going to give this a taste. See if the flavor is good. And then we’ll be able to add the broth from that chicken in here. Let’s see. I don’t want to get just herbs. I want to get mostly the broth. Okay. That’s good. It’s pretty mild though. So, I think I’m going to add in, you know, honestly, a little bit of one of these seasoning packets. So, I feel like that’ll help the flavor. It’s really, really mild right now, but I’m not going to add the whole thing. Maybe like half of one of them when I’m going to do two or maybe just that. That wasn’t even close to half. That was maybe a little bit.
Okay, I think I need to get those eggs out. I have never made soft boiled eggs before, so we will see how this works out. Okay. Going to move them over here because that’s where I’ll need them.
Okay. Call me crazy, but I feel like this is missing fish sauce. So, I’m going to just add a little bit of fish sauce in there and see if that does it. Yeah, that’s good. Okay, let’s get our ramen in. I’m going to do a quick release on the chicken.
And here’s where we’ll see if we’ll need more liquid, but I know Nick’s not a huge fan of just like brothy soups. So, if I have it less brothy, the better. Now, what do we think about these? Let’s open them. But actually, let’s stir this one first. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, everything’s starting to thaw through, which is great.
Ooh, that’s good flavor. I think I’m going to give it a little bit more vinegar to give it a little bit more of a kick. And the last thing we need to do is just thicken that sauce. So, let’s give it one more taste. Oh, yeah. That was it. Oh, delicious. Okay. Lid back on.
Okay, let’s get the chicken. Okay, make sure it’s cooked. And you know it’s not cooked. Why don’t we temp it? Actually, I would have been able to tell that without temping it. Let’s get that going again. We’ll just start that again.
Eggs
Okay, let’s see what I want to do here. Here, I think I’m going to grab a plate. I’m not convinced that these are the right amount of cooked. Oh my goodness, it’s not wanting to peel. Well, okay, that was a fail. At least we’ve got four of them. All righty. There we go. Uh oh. Well, it started off really strong. Okay. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Okay. Let’s see. Moment of truth. Well, okay. They’re not super gooey, but they’re not overcooked. So, I guess close enough.
We’re basically done here. This one I just need to stir everything together. And I think that’s going to be plenty of liquid. Turn this just to low. Looks great. Actually, let me turn it off. I think we’re good there. Shall we add our cutesy little eggs on top?
Okay, let’s get some cornstarch and water in here. All right, slurry going in. Okay, this one is done, too. Still a little bit liquidy, but I feel like that’s okay. Turning that off. Now, we’re just waiting on that chicken. And I remembered I did want to put the chicken’s broth in there. Okay, the chicken got done. And I thought I hit record, but I didn’t. I’m going to get the broth in here. Okay. Well, make sure we still have a good flavor.
BBQ Chicken
Yep. Then over here, I just need to cut this chicken up. And then we’ll get some barbecue sauce on. It doesn’t look the prettiest, but once it’s covered in barbecue sauce, you won’t even be able to see it. Could also shred it, but I really just dislike shredding chicken. I mean, it’s kind of shredding. I just find a knife so much quicker and easier.
Oh, our sun is going away. All right, let’s get this all moved out of the way. And here’s all I’m going to do with this. I’m going to just get it into, oopsies, this little dish. And we’ll add some barbecue sauce. Going to get the rest of this one and some of this one. Mix it. And then see if we need any more.
Reveal
Okay, I think we are good. All right, here’s all of our meal prep. We have our stir fry. We have our barbecue chicken for sandwiches. And then we have our ramen soup. This looks so good. I’ve never made anything like it. So, this will be very nice to have a wide variety of foods this week. Okay. Of course, the sun went behind the clouds, but we did it. We have all the meals prepped for this week. This is my favorite way to get ahead for the week because now we can just eat leftovers and then once we get to that like 3-day mark, I will put anything else in the freezer and then we’ll have individual little freezer meals. So, so not only did we save time this week by meal prepping everything at once, we also likely got quite a few freezer meals. So, that is fantastic. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you’re new here and haven’t yet, please subscribe. I’d love to see you. If you’re interested in some other weekly meal prep videos, I’ll link some here. And I’ll see you next time.
