Tonight on Mind Over Munch Investigates:
Slim Dins.
Clean Cuisine.
Wholesome Choice?
What’s really in that Slim Din?
How “clean” is your frozen cuisine?
Is it a “wholesome” choice?
We’re exposing the latest and greatest in
fuel-filled freezer meals:
DIY Frozen Dinners,
Tonight, on Mind Over Munch Investigates.
Stay with us.
Hey, Munchies!
Welcome if you’re new,
I’m Alyssia, and I’m so excited because
summer is here!
One of my favorite things about summer is
how many great seasonal ingredients we have available,
so I thought I’d do a summer seasonal themed
meal prep video—
but today we’re switching things up because
I’m actually going to share three FROZEN DINNERS!
The beauty of these is we use seasonal ingredients
and freeze them,
so you can enjoy those ingredients later even
when they aren’t in season!
All you have to do is heat up the meals and
you’ve got your meal ready to go!
Let’s get to it.
The first meal is a BBQ Berry Chicken with
Bacon Potatoes & Roasted Veggies
and it is a SHEET PAN dish, which I know you
guys like
from the episode of all one pan dinners I
shared not too long ago!
I tried to compose each dinner with a protein,
grain or starch and vegetable.
For the protein we’re making a BBQ Berry
Chicken.
I’m starting off with some fresh blackberries
and blueberries in a pot.
We’re pretty much going to make a jam, which
if you’ve never done before is REALLY easy.
I’m adding a bit of lemon juice, and then
really you’re just going to let that reduce down.
Once the berries start to pop, you can mash
them up, and then allow it to thicken!
Then we can add our other ingredients for
the barbecue sauce:
ketchup,
coconut or brown sugar,
red wine vinegar,
mustard powder,
and an optional pinch of cayenne pepper.
Stir 2 to 3 minutes to integrate.
Now we can assemble our sheet pan!
I’m laying my chicken breast and baby potatoes
on one pan lined with parchment paper.
I brush the chicken with with olive oil and
add some to the potatoes,
along with some chopped garlic,
and season it all with salt and pepper before
tossing the potatoes.
On the other pan, I’m adding asparagus and
broccoli.
I add olive oil, garlic, paprika,
garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and
pep.
You can season yours however you’d like!
Toss to coat.
Both trays go into one oven preheated to 400
degrees Fahrenheit.
At about 20 minutes we’ll add some chopped
turkey bacon (you could of course use regular),
and fresh parsley to the potatoes.
One tip for summer seasonal cooking is to
use tons of herbs!
They are so flavorful and fresh right now.
Remember that seasonal ingredients are generally
more affordable, too.
We’ll also add some of our BBQ berry sauce
all over the chicken breast.
It all goes back into the oven for another
10-15 minutes,
until the potatoes are crisp, veggies are
roasted,
and chicken is completely cooked through to
165 degrees Fahrenheit.
And there you go!
A sheet pan dinner.
This would be delicious now, but I’m saving
it for later.
I transfer it to my freezer-safe, microwave-safe,
BPA-free container and we’re good to go!
Freeze it for up to 3 months!
When you’re ready to enjoy, thaw it out
in the fridge the day before you’re going
to eat it,
and then microwave for 3 to 4 minutes until
heated through.
So good, couldn’t have been easier really,
and I love all of the seasonal ingredients
we were able to incorporate!
Thumbs up if you want more ONE PAN dinners!
Next up: a vegan meal inspired by Mexican
flavors—
Jalapeño Black Beans, Mexican Farro, and
Cilantro Corn, Peas & Tomato Sauté!
For the beans, we’re adding oil to a pan
and sautéing some onions until tender.
Then we can add in our garlic,
Jalapeño, which you can remove the seeds
if you want LESS heat,
and cumin.
Sauté 1 minute, until fragrant.
Then we can add our drained and rinsed beans
and stir for about 2 minutes,
until heated through and integrated.
Season to taste!
For the Mexican Farro, we’re sautéing some
garlic in olive oil until fragrant,
just about a minute.
Then we can add our farro, broth, water,
diced tomatoes, chili powder, cumin,
and salt and pep.
Bring that to a boil and reduce heat to a
simmer, and then cook for about 40 minutes.
If you haven’t heard of Farro, it’s an ancient wheat grain that has some great nutritional benefits.
It’s high in protein, fiber, it’s heart
healthy,
and it’s high and nutrients like magnesium
zinc, and iron.
It has a bit of a nutty taste and is a nice
way to switch up the more common healthy grains,
like brown rice or quinoa!
It also cooks just like most other grains.
Once the liquid has reduced, stir in your
green onions and fresh cilantro!
Such a tasty dish!
The fresh jalapeño adds SO much flavor, and
it doesn’t NEED to be a spicy dish, either!
For our final component of this meal: our
veggie sauté.
I’m sautéing some onion until tender, and
then adding garlic until fragrant.
Then we can add our corn—
now, you could use canned, but there’s so
much wonderful FRESH corn this time of year,
why not try it out?
All you have to do is shuck the cob and remove
the kernels.
My favorite way is to put a small bowl upside
down inside of a larger bowl,
and use the bottom of that small bowl as stability
to hold my corn.
Then I can just run the knife down the side
and let the kernels fall into the larger bowl!
So easy.
Add your fresh corn, fresh peas—
which you COULD admittedly spend time removing
individual peas from fresh pods,
but I bought these peas already removed to
make life easier,
but they are still fresh.
Cook that for about 3 to 5 minutes, until
tender.
Stir in some wonderful cherry and heirloom
tomatoes,
fresh basil,
and season with salt and pep.
Cook for another 3 minutes or so, until the
tomatoes begin to soften.
Then we can assemble our frozen dinner!
So colorful, and perfect for meatless Monday!
Remember, when produce is frozen it maintains
it’s flavor and nutrition,
so you don’t have to worry about losing
out by making this sustainable!
If you’re enjoying these DIY Frozen Dinners
I hope you’ll subscribe and hit the bell
for more content every week!
Our last meal is another easy one:
a ONE POT Hamburger Rice Pilaf with Grilled
Zucchini!
I’ve combined our grain and protein into
one here!
In a pot, I’m sautéing some onion and garlic.
Then I add bell pepper and allow that to soften
a bit.
Add your ground beef, and season with salt
and pep.
Once that’s about cooked through, add in
your long grain brown rice
and cook it for just a few minutes, until
the rice starts to turn translucent.
In a “pilaf,” the rice is often sautéed
lightly before adding broth,
so that’s what we’re doing here.
Also, I should note that you can use any rice
you prefer,
just check out the package directions and
adjust the time and amount of liquid.
Then we can add our broth of choice, cover,
bring to a boil, and simmer until rice is
tender and liquid is absorbed,
about 20 minutes.
To add some “hamburger” toppings, I’m
stirring in some chopped spinach as lettuce,
which will wilt right down so be liberal,
as well as some amazing heirloom tomatoes.
Fun fact: Heirloom tomatoes can provide more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than
commercially-grown tomatoes
because commercially-grown are bred for size,
color and hardiness
rather than flavor and nutrition!
They are also environmentally friendly because
they are naturally pollinated
and they have many varieties of bold, ripe
flavors!
I allow the heat to wilt the spinach and tomatoes
to soften a bit.
For the grilled zucchini, you can of course
use a grill,
but I’m sharing a fun way to grill IF you
don’t have a grill or simply don’t want
to use it.
Slice your zucchini around a quarter to a
third of an inch thick.
Combine olive oil, garlic paste, dried oregano,
fresh dill, and salt and pep.
Add it to your zucchini and toss to coat.
You can use immediately, or marinate for a
few hours or overnight if you want more flavor.
Now the cool part—preheat a panini press
to medium heat.
Place the slices on the press, lower the top,
and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes,
until the zucchini have softened and you have
your nice grill marks.
Add your final meal to your preppable container,
and I’ve linked all of the containers and
equipment I used in the description, by the way.
and you’re good to go!
This dish also uses so many seasonal ingredients,
but requires only 2 super simple recipes,
which is the way I have to do healthy to keep
it sustainable.
These DIY Frozen Dinners are a really fun
way to meal prep, and remember,
meal prepping doesn’t have to be prepping
meals for the whole week
or eating the same thing every day.
You can make it suit YOUR lifestyle and preferences.
I give a ton of information for efficient
and effective meal prep in my meal prep eBook,
and you can get 10% off any eBook or package
of your choice this week only
with the code “SUMMER” at mindovermunch.com/ebooks.
Also, if you want to see me in a more casual setting, check out my second channel:
Eat The Pizza!
Where I make crazy-flavored pizzas and pizza-flavored things. It is not a health channel,
but we do have some fun summer projects coming soon.
I hope you enjoyed this seasonal episode!
Let me know your favorite summer ingredients
in the comments below!
I’ll see you next week, and remember,
it’s all a matter of Mind Over Munch!!
