Quick and Easy "Bento Boxes"

I’m not the kind of trainer who likes to spend hours and hours in the kitchen meal prepping for the week. Like my clients, I don’t have the time and frankly, I hate cooking. But I LOVE eating and I LOVE having healthy and delicious meals ready to grab and go for the week. This is one of my go-to meal prep hacks that’s my take on a bento box. Start to finish it takes about 20 minutes to prep and clean up.

What You’ll Need

  1. Frozen brown rice. Of course you can use any kind of rice you like (Basmati is also yummy). Fresh is fine too, but ain’t nobody got time for that. Soba noodles are also perfect for this because they are meant to be eaten cold.

  2. Protein. I like to make 6 meals at a time so I use two different kinds of protein to mix it up. I’ve been using Brat Hans grilled chicken breasts for years. And frozen shrimp are my favorite.

  3. Veggies. I use whatever frozen stir fry veggies look good in the freezer that week.

  4. Sauce. A low sodium teriyaki is perfect.

What to Do

  1. Make sure your shrimp are defrosted (just put them in the fridge the day before you prep). Dump them in a bowl and add a few tablespoons of your sauce and stir. Heat your skillet to medium heat and dump in the shrimp. Cook ~3 minutes. Grab some tongs and flip them over and cook for 3 more minutes. Once cooked, pour everything (shrimp and the juice) into a clean bowl and set aside.

  2. While the shrimp are cooking grab two bags of rice and heat per the instructions on the bag (you’ll want 1/3-1/2 cups per meal depending on your caloric needs).

  3. Grab your frozen veggies, dump into a bowl and microwave per the instructions on the bag (~ 4 minutes).

  4. Grab a cutting board and dump out your chicken and chop it up.

  5. Assemble your boxes by adding a scoop of rice, veggies and protein. I pour the juice from the shrimp over my shrimp boxes and I add a little teriyaki sauce to my chicken boxes.

  6. Pop them in the fridge and grab and go as need during the week. I heat mine up for ~90 seconds before I eat but they are also yummy cold.

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