I’m a pretty new vegetarian and my husband eats meat, so figuring out our meals has been interesting at times. Meal prepping this way, where each part of the meal is kept separate, has been really convenient for us. We can both eat the same basic meal and each add the things we like, and skip the things we don’t. Keeps things simple and doesn’t take a ton of extra time, which is always a good thing!
So I decided to prep burrito bowls for the rest of this week’s lunches. I didn’t originally plan on doing a post on this, so there are no measurements and only one in-process shot since I grabbed my camera right before I popped the potatoes into the oven. You should still be able to get the gist of it though!
So first up, the potatoes… I sliced some red potatoes and sweet potatoes in half. I also had an extra sweet potato left, so I just peeled that one and diced it up to bake in a separate pan.
I used Mrs. Dash seasoning and a bit of fresh lemon juice to season the red potatoes and a few sprinkles of Mrs. Dash for the chopped sweet potato. I sprinkled some cumin, cinnamon, salt, pepper and stevia over the sweet potato halves. Then popped them all in the oven at 425F – the chopped sweet potato and red potatoes were done in about 30 minutes, the sweet potato halves took about 45 minutes.
Now for the kale, which I won’t even tell you how I made, because I totally screwed it up. I accidentally made kale chips because I wasn’t paying close enough attention. I do like kale chips, but they’re kind of weird on burrito bowls, so they only made it onto one or two bowls. Still pretty good on their own though!
While that was all baking in the oven, I started a big pot of Jasmine rice and let that cook while I worked on the star of the burrito bowls – the black bean salsa. If you make anything from this post, let it be this. I got the black bean salsa recipe from here. It’s amazing and it MADE the burrito bowls.
After about an hour, everything was done and we had this… Well this was everything the next morning because the sun was no longer out by the time I finished.
By the way, I chose to make sweet potato halves instead of chopping them all up so I could have some flexibility with also using them for other meals. When I added these to my burrito bowls, I cubed them while they were still in the skin and scooped the insides into my bowl. They’re super tender so it only takes a few seconds.
This is what a “fully assembled” burrito bowl looks like. I still had some homemade tzatziki sauce in the fridge, and it went SO WELL with the burrito bowls!
My husband’s burrito bowls looked very similar to mine, except no avocado and he added some shredded cheese and pre-cooked chicken to his before taking it to work in the morning.
You can add ANYTHING you want into these! I do wish I had added a little more variety into ours and made them more Chipotle-esque, but I was working with what I had in the kitchen at the time. Next time they’ll be a bit more exciting!
Need more make ahead meal ideas? Once a Month Meals has lots of ready-to-go freezer menu plans (Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Paleo, Instant Pot and more) and lets you customize your own menu plan.
More Meal Prepping Posts
Make-Ahead Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches
Make-Ahead Freezer Pasta Packets
Packing lunches has saved me sooo much money over the years. Making the taste good is an ongoing challenge though. Hopefully I can improve that with the tips I’ve gotten from this blog. One thing that really saved me some time, was discovering that I can make lunches and dinners in bullk on the weekend to save time during the week when I’m busier. My food saver is an awesome tool for freezing bulk meals that still preserve the flavor and taste fresh.
Something that you may want to try if you’re finding that the prepped meals aren’t exciting day after day is making different sauces that you can use throughout the week. You’re still eating the same thing every day, but you can completely change the flavor of a meal by serving it with a different sauce on top, especially with things like burrito bowls. 🙂 Also the food saver is awesome for bulk cooking!
My husband is the only meat eater in my house also. Yes prepping ahead of time really makes meals easier. I always have some type of meat item prepared ahead of time that I can add for his meal.