Meal Prepping Perfection

I have a secret… this recipe has been a staple in my weekly meal prep rotation for a while now, and I feel guilty for not sharing it sooner.  I originally found this recipe on my favorite site: Pinchofyum.com and I made a few alterations to suit my taste.  Lindsay talked about getting back to cooking for herself in her post; like just cooking for the food, rather than some extravagant tablescape or photoshoot.  What resulted was a fantastically simple, flavorful, and even healthy meal prep recipe that (at least for me) doesn’t get old.  What really sold this recipe was how well it reheated, everything seems to heat evenly and doesn’t get mushy.  Speaking of mushy… I have never considered myself a fan of sweet potatoes; however, I do love sweet potato fries!  What you get in this dish is much closer to sweet potato fries rather than your stereotypical marshmallow-covered thanksgiving staple.

Even though this is a simple recipe, requiring very few ingredients and not that much prep-time, I still managed to get quite a few photos, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

The key to this recipe is to cut everything down to little pieces so that it will all cook evenly in the oven, but don’t worry, you don’t have to be as precise as I was.  One tool that helped speed things up with the potatoes was this peeler, it works phenomenally and creates a textured surface that is easier to grab hold of as opposed to the normally slick surface created by standard peelers.

When chopping up your broccoli, remember smaller is better.  Brittany isn’t a fan of the stems, so I make sure to cut most of those off, but if you enjoy that part leave it on there!

You can tell those potatoes are done with the edges start to brown and get nice and crispy.    Watching them is sort of required, since they cook a bit slower than everything else and can get mushy if you let them cook for too long.  I usually place them on the top rack, so I can hit the broil button if they seem to be taking too long.

I usually use chicken breast when making this, but if you have some boneless, skinless thighs in the freezer they will do in a pinch.  If your baking sheet isn’t non-stick, I would recommend spraying the one you use for the chicken with a shot of Pam, as it tends to get a bit sticky when the olive oil and spices start to caramelize.

At this point I ran out of sheet pans… So what else did I have that would be right at home in the oven?  My Lodge cast iron skillet of course!  What seemed like a compromise at first, resulted in a perfect fit for my broccoli.  I am a sucker for char-broiled broccoli, and the cast iron skillet delivered!

Now time to put it all together, I usually serve it with a small container of hummus on the side, or just a dollop placed right in the middle (don’t worry, hummus tastes great heated up too).  Alternatively, Lindsay recommended sliced up avocados on the side as well, but I’m not a huge fan of avocados as of late.  Whatever you decide, make it your own!

Yum