Today was a 360° meal prep day. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry. It’s not a thing; I just made it up. This is my new term to describe a prep day where I go into it with one plan and then totally switch gears and have to make it up as I go.
I came up with this week’s meal list days ago, and bought the groceries to match. My plan was:
- Italian sausage and tortellini soup
- Irish skillet
- Chicken & Broccoli Quinoa Casserole
- Shredded barbacoa tacos
- Egg casserole
Then I decided that one of the meals had to go (an Irish skillet with ground beef, apple juice, bacon and cabbage) because hubby hates cabbage and thought it sounded gross. So with that one meal that had to change, another had to go with it.
So, now what do I do with the ground beef? Take the quinoa from the Chicken, Broccoli and Quinoa recipe that I was going to make and use it with the beef instead. So, we did a 360° and I cooked up some seasoned rice to combine with the chicken and broccoli, and instead created this delicious (and RIDICULOUSLY EASY) one pot dish.
If I had thought of this ahead of time, I would have added more deliciousness like diced green chiles or diced tomatoes. But this was a cabinet dump, and I just had to use what I hand on hand. The result turned out flavorful and delicious, so whose complaining? But the great thing is that you can make this with whatever “Mexican” style ingredients are in your cabinets and/or vegetable drawer (that’s probably not very PC of me, my bad.) I think it’s less about the ingredients, more about the seasoning. The seasoning is always the star.
So with this dish, I am happy to say that the 360° meal prep was a success! The rice casserole was really delicious too. But it involved ingredients I’m not proud of (cream of mushroom soup and cheese). So though I did track my measurements, I don’t know if I’ll be sharing that one. C’mon, we had ONE can of cream of mushroom soup leftover from Christmas and EVERYTHING MUST GO! Stop your judging and just try this delicious and nutritious recipe!
mexican quinoa bowls
What You Need
1lb ground beef
1 cup quinoa of choice (I used a garlic quinoa)
1 ½ cup chicken broth
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
½ red onion, diced
1 cup corn
1 tbs cumin
Juice from ½ lime
½ tbs chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp pre-made taco seasoning (if you have any in your pantry, if not, skip)
Sea salt + pepper, to taste
For Garnish
Cilantro
Halved cherry tomatoes
Avocado
Squeeze of lime juice
What To Do
- In a medium saucepan, cook ground beef in 1tbs olive oil. When the meat is cooked halfway through, add red onion and bell pepper.
- When cooked through, add corn and seasonings. Stir well.
- Add chicken broth and quinoa, bring to a boil. Then cover, and turn heat down to low. Let simmer for about 20-25 minutes until quinoa has soaked up all of the broth.
- Garnish and enjoy!
