Budget Meal Prep: 15 Meals for $120 — Full Transcript & Summ

[00:00] All right, guys. Today is a big day. One

[00:02] of the most common questions I get is,

[00:03] "How do I stay in shape when I cook all

[00:06] this delicious food each and every week

[00:08] for you guys?" So, today I'm letting the

[00:10] cat out of the bag. Most people want to

[00:12] eat healthier, but they don't know how

[00:13] to. So, I'm going to show you my most

[00:16] common weekly meal prep, how much I

[00:18] spent, everything I eat in a given week.

[00:21] Meet me in the kitchen. Let's make it

[00:23] happen. I hate the term meal prep

[00:24] because if we're being honest, meal prep

[00:26] usually sucks. And there's a common

[00:28] misconception that eating healthy is

[00:31] expensive. What if I told you guys that

[00:33] I got over 15 meals here for just $120?

[00:37] That's less than $8 per meal. And I'm

[00:39] going to show you guys how to make it

[00:41] happen right in your own kitchen, nice

[00:43] and healthy and delicious. Let's talk

[00:45] veggies. One of the first things that

[00:46] people mess up on meal prep is they

[00:48] overcommit. They make a big batch of

[00:51] something that they plan to eat for 5

[00:52] days straight and it sits in the fridge

[00:54] and by day two it ends up in the trash

[00:56] and you're ordering Door Dash. Today I'm

[00:59] going to show you my technique. What

[01:00] we're going to do is blanch our

[01:01] vegetables. Now, this week I'm going

[01:03] with green beans and broccolini and then

[01:05] whatever else I have in the fridge. This

[01:07] is interchangeable. You use Brussels

[01:09] sprouts, whatever your favorite veggies

[01:10] are. Spinach, kale, uh green peppers,

[01:13] mushrooms, whatever you like. Today,

[01:15] green beans, broccolini, two of my

[01:17] favorite veggies. We're going to blanch

[01:19] these, which basically means just put

[01:20] them in some boiling with salted water

[01:22] and then shock them in some ice cold

[01:24] water. Then they go in the fridge. No

[01:27] sauces, no extra uh components. They're

[01:30] just a blank canvas for whatever you

[01:32] decide you want on a Tuesday or

[01:33] Wednesday night. The key to the veggie

[01:35] prep here is to par cook or blanch them.

[01:38] Shock them in cold water to stop the

[01:40] cooking process. That way, when it's

[01:42] time to cook them and you sauté them, it

[01:44] only takes two or three minutes to cook.

[01:45] Saves you a ton of time. And then you

[01:47] could pair these veggies with whatever

[01:49] protein, starch, carbohydrates you want

[01:51] to. Moving on to carbohydrates. Now, my

[01:54] favorite is sweet potato. I eat sweet

[01:56] potatoes almost every day. Second

[01:58] favorite would be rice. White rice is

[02:00] what I tend to go for. I make a big

[02:02] batch, keep it in the fridge. My

[02:04] 2-year-old son loves white rice, and I

[02:07] eat about 120 grams or so with each

[02:10] meal. Um, if I'm not eating sweet

[02:12] potatoes, another option that I go with

[02:14] often is oats. I'll go with a half a cup

[02:17] of oats, two scoops of whey protein,

[02:19] giving me tons of protein, good fuel

[02:21] right before the gym or right after the

[02:23] gym. Last but not least, one of my go-to

[02:26] options is the low carb wraps. If I'm in

[02:29] the mood for a burrito or a taco of some

[02:31] sort, this is what I reach for. You can

[02:33] use ground beef, chicken, whatever

[02:35] protein you like, your veggies, wrap it

[02:38] up, got yourself something quick and

[02:40] easy to eat for lunch or dinner. Another

[02:42] pro tip I want to mention is grabbing a

[02:45] food scale. This is a great investment.

[02:46] That way, you're not guessing as to what

[02:48] you're eating. I use a food scale. I

[02:50] also track most of my meals with My

[02:52] Fitness Pal. There's a ton of different

[02:54] options out there. So, use the one that

[02:56] suits you best. But the scale, some sort

[02:59] of way to track what you're eating. Best

[03:02] way to make sure that you're hitting

[03:03] your calories and your macronutrients.

[03:05] Now, for me, I'm going with 170 grams of

[03:09] Greek yogurt. This is the brand that I

[03:11] typically typically use. We're going to

[03:14] get that in there. It's unsweetened. I'm

[03:15] going to sweeten it with stevia, which

[03:17] is a zerocalorie

[03:18] plant-based sweetener. So, we're

[03:21] basically making like a parfait here.

[03:23] 170 g of uh Greek yogurt. We're going to

[03:25] go in with a few tablespoons of walnuts.

[03:29] You can use pecans, whatever you know

[03:31] your favorite is. Better than granola.

[03:34] Granola is laced with sugar. It's

[03:36] delicious, but it's not good for you.

[03:38] Walnuts or pecans are my two go-tos.

[03:40] Better than granola. A lot healthier for

[03:42] you. And then a handful of blueberries.

[03:45] Hit it with some stevia to sweeten it

[03:46] up. Give it a mix. And you have

[03:48] yourselves a nice little breakfast or a

[03:50] snack post-workout pre-workout

[03:53] whatever you're into. Little squirt of

[03:55] stevia.

[03:59] Then we're going to mix that together.

[04:01] One of my favorite snacks. I even eat

[04:03] this as dessert sometimes. If I find

[04:04] myself with a sweet tooth late at night

[04:06] and I need a little bit more protein,

[04:09] I go for this.

[04:12] Can't go wrong.

[04:15] Got a little crunch for texture from the

[04:17] nuts.

[04:21] It's always good.

[04:23] Now, when it comes to proteins, ground

[04:25] beef is one of those things that I could

[04:27] eat pretty much every day. And honestly,

[04:29] I don't mind it being meal prepped. Now,

[04:32] if you got chicken breast in the

[04:33] refrigerator for two or three days, I'd

[04:35] rather starve. But ground beef, I can

[04:37] eat that a day or two later. So, it's

[04:40] really up to you. You can make this

[04:41] fresh every day. That's going to be

[04:42] best. But ground beef is pretty good the

[04:45] next day, unlike chicken breast, in my

[04:47] opinion. So, we're going to go ahead and

[04:50] flatten this out. This is lean ground

[04:52] beef. 9010 or 937 is kind of what I look

[04:55] for. Want to make sure that it's making

[04:57] good surface area contact with the

[04:58] skillet to get some char. We're going to

[05:00] season this up with salt, AP seasoning,

[05:03] smoked paprika, cumin, and a little

[05:05] Italian seasoning. All right, guys.

[05:06] Today's episode is sponsored by Nourish.

[05:08] Look, I cook for a living. I know food

[05:11] better than most people. But here's what

[05:12] I realized recently. Knowing how to cook

[05:15] and knowing how to actually fuel your

[05:16] body are two completely different

[05:18] things. Recently, I found myself

[05:20] dragging by 300 p.m. every day. I

[05:23] thought I was eating healthy, but I was

[05:24] skipping meals because I'm so busy. And

[05:26] then I was crashing hard. My RD told me

[05:29] that was my issue. My body was running

[05:30] on empty and I didn't even know it.

[05:32] That's when I started using Nourish. I

[05:34] got matched with a registered dietician,

[05:36] signed up in under five minutes, and my

[05:38] first session was on Zoom. She looked at

[05:40] all my actual data, the app that syncs

[05:42] with my Apple Health, tracks my macros,

[05:45] hydration, sleep, workouts, so she could

[05:48] see exactly what was going on. She even

[05:50] ordered labs so we have real numbers to

[05:52] talk about. No guesswork. and having

[05:55] someone in my corner who's actually

[05:56] accountable to my results. That's the

[05:58] piece most people are missing. Here's

[06:00] the part that got me. Nourish is covered

[06:02] by most insurance plans. 94% of patients

[06:05] pay nothing out of pocket. Zero. And

[06:08] they back it with the Nourish guarantee.

[06:09] If you're not completely satisfied,

[06:11] they'll work with you until you are. Go

[06:12] to nourish.com/mrmake

[06:14] it happen. The link is at the top of the

[06:16] description box. First month is on them.

[06:18] Now, my friends, it's time to make the

[06:20] green beans. Like I said, we already

[06:21] blanched them. pretty much 75% of the

[06:23] way cooked. This is going to take two or

[06:25] three minutes max and you can make

[06:27] whatever flavor you want with whatever

[06:29] meal you want. I'm going to go in with a

[06:30] little soy sauce. This is my special soy

[06:34] sauce right here.

[06:36] Few tablespoons of that. One tablespoon

[06:38] of garlic paste.

[06:41] And then some chili oil. This is uh Mama

[06:45] Fuku black truffle chili crunch. Good

[06:48] option.

[06:50] Just going to add a little spicy

[06:51] element. About a tablespoon of that.

[06:53] Going to give that a mix.

[06:57] And then we're going to put a little

[06:58] olive oil or avocado oil into our

[07:00] skillet. Toss our green beans in this

[07:03] sauce. 2 minutes is done. It's going to

[07:06] be absolutely delicious. Perfectly

[07:08] cooked. It's going to pair it with your

[07:10] ground beef or my ground beef that I

[07:11] just made. Serve it with some white rice

[07:13] or sweet potato, whatever you're

[07:14] feeling. And there you have it. Dinner

[07:16] in 10 minutes. This was about 550

[07:20] calories, 52 grams of protein, very

[07:23] little effort, delicious. You can eat it

[07:25] with a little side of fruit if you want

[07:26] to. If you want to up the protein, you

[07:28] could do a little cottage cheese on top.

[07:30] That'll give you another 15 to 20 grams

[07:32] depending on how much cottage cheese you

[07:33] use. But this right here, filling, only

[07:36] 550 calories, 52 grams of protein, 10

[07:39] minutes work. Now, when it comes to

[07:40] chicken, I got three options that I tend

[07:42] to go with, and two I use more often

[07:44] than the than the third option. We go

[07:46] with chicken thighs, boneless, skinless,

[07:48] and chicken breast. Those are my top

[07:50] two. Occasionally, I'll mix in some

[07:52] ground chicken in replace of the ground

[07:53] beef. Today, we're going with chicken

[07:55] thighs and chicken breast. Now, you have

[07:58] options when it comes to flavor cuz this

[07:59] all of these recipes cook in 15 minutes

[08:02] max. We're going to do a jerk chicken

[08:04] thigh and a Cajun chicken thigh today.

[08:06] For that, we need about a tablespoon or

[08:08] so of jerk paste, some seasoning, a

[08:11] little lime juice. That's all you need

[08:13] for your jerk flavor. Keeping it real

[08:16] simple. This is my wife's favorite way

[08:18] to do her chicken thighs. And I like the

[08:21] Cajun version. I like the jerk version,

[08:23] too. But the Cajun just gets nice and

[08:25] crispy. It kind of reminds me of like

[08:26] chicken wings almost.

[08:29] And the jerk uh method makes the air

[08:33] fryer a lot harder to clean. And I'm big

[08:36] on speed and efficiency. So, I'm not

[08:39] trying to scrub jerk seasoning off my

[08:41] air fryer every day, but my wife don't

[08:44] mind doing it. So, we're going to make

[08:45] this today. Get that in there. Next up,

[08:48] probably the protein that has the worst

[08:50] reputation, the chicken breast. I'm

[08:52] going to show you guys how to cook this.

[08:54] This is very simple, very easy, and

[08:56] delicious if done right. We're going to

[08:58] season this with the allpurpose

[09:00] seasoning and my lemon bay. If you

[09:01] haven't tried that yet, you can grab

[09:03] that from my website, mritab.shop. We're

[09:05] going to go down first and foremost with

[09:07] a layer of allpurpose. Now, I seasoned

[09:09] my presentation side last. So, we're

[09:11] going to flip this over, hit it with

[09:13] some AP Lemon Bay. We're going to pan

[09:16] sear it, get some color, and then finish

[09:18] it in a 400°ree oven. Total cook time,

[09:21] 10, 15 minutes max, depending on the

[09:24] size of your chicken breast. This one's

[09:26] kind of big, so this probably be closer

[09:27] to 15 minutes total.

[09:29] Real simple. I only eat chicken breast

[09:31] fresh. I do not meal prep chicken breast

[09:33] and put it in the fridge for two, three,

[09:35] four days. I just can't do it. I've

[09:37] tried it. It's not for me. There you

[09:40] have it, people. You got plenty of

[09:41] options. The chicken breast with a side

[09:43] salad. You can even chop that up all

[09:44] together. Wrap it in a low carb tortilla

[09:47] and you got yourself a nice little

[09:48] chicken wrap. Either way you go, you

[09:50] can't miss. That's about 50 to 60 grams

[09:52] of protein depending on the size of your

[09:54] chicken breast for less than 400

[09:56] calories. Probably the healthiest or

[09:58] leanest uh option of the day.

[10:02] Can't go wrong. You got two different

[10:03] variations of chicken thighs. You can

[10:05] make it whatever flavor you want. 15

[10:06] minutes in the oven. Sweet potatoes,

[10:08] prepped veggies. This is how I eat

[10:11] pretty much 75 to 80% of the time. And

[10:14] then I occasionally indulge in one of

[10:16] these delicious meals that I make it for

[10:17] you guys on the regular. But if you

[10:19] stick to this 80% of the time and then

[10:21] 20% of the time, you eat whatever you

[10:22] want, you can stay in shape, stay

[10:24] active. This is how I do it. That's to

[10:27] answer your question. I've been getting

[10:28] the question for about five or six years

[10:30] now. So, the cat is officially out of

[10:32] the bag. If you want more YouTube

[10:33] content like this, let me know down in

[10:35] the comments. All of my recipes can be

[10:37] found at mr make it happen.com. And I'll

[10:39] see you next week.