Happy first day of Spring! My heart is happy!
What better way to welcome the first day of spring then to do some healthy meal prep with this Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken! This is an easy, simple, and delicious way to not complicate eating healthy. With just a few ingredients you can have meals for the week, which means plenty of time to get outside and enjoy the Spring weather!
Truth: Everyone can meal prep. EVERYONE. You don’t need to be a super healthy, fitness guru to meal prep. You can be a Mommy like me who is tired of eating your children’s leftovers for lunch. You could also be a working 20-something who is sick and tired of spending so much money on eating out. Or a middle aged man who takes lunch to the office. There are a million scenarios here, and the bottom line is everyone can meal prep to make their lives easier.
For me personally, I need structure to my eating habits to maintain my healthy eating goals. If I have an open-ended day with no plan, sure enough I find myself snacking on everything in sight. I’m not “dieting,” rather I’m just trying to find a nice balance between foods I really love, and foods I should be eating more of.
Should be eating more of = greens, lean protein, fruits
Foods I love = Mac n cheese, cheese fries, cheeseburgers, anything with sugar
See how this could turn into a serious problem!?! Creating a balance for me is just making plans, like this Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken. It took me less than 45 minutes from start to finish. 45 minutes! Now I have lunch for the rest of the week. That means no reaching snacks to fill me up. I am armed and ready with a plan of filling half of my plate with these beautiful greens and fruit, and the other with a protein.
LunchBots for Storing Meals
I mentioned on my Planetbox vs. LunchBots review that I love these little boxes! What I love the most is that they are not plastic. Secondly, they are super easy to load your food in, and stack up in the refrigerator to store without taking up a ton of space. For this meal I would suggest using the uno or duo. I used both and they worked like a charm! Amazon has a nice variety of their products, so here is the link to the uno that I used. For a larger portion, they also have their Bento line, which is fabulous too! If you don’t have any reservations about plastics, there are also a ton of meal prep containers on Amazon that work just like the LunchBots.
The Recipe
The best part of this recipe by far is the balsamic glaze! It is simply just balsamic vinegar and a bit of sugar reduced to a thick glaze. This takes about 15 minutes and will make your entire house smell like vinegar (warning). It is so good though, I didn’t even care!
When the chicken was just about done grilling, I brushed each piece with the glaze, then removed from the heat. The glaze will run off of the chicken when it is piping hot, but after it cooled a bit, I re-brushed with glaze to make sure it was nice and glaze-y.
Each container contains:
- 1 grilled chicken breast
- 2 cups dark leafy greens
- 1/2-1 cup strawberries/grapes
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- additional balsamic glaze for drizzling
If I were packing this to-go, I would use a LunchBots dips container for dressing or additional glaze.
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Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken
By March 21, 2017
Published:- Yield: 5 Servings
- Cook: 45 mins
Happy first day of Spring! My heart is happy! What better way to welcome the first day of spring then to do some healthy meal …
Ingredients
- 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tsp course kosher salt more to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper more to taste
- 1/2 tsp fresh thyme (optional, { to taste)
- 16 ounces balsamic vinegar or one standard size bottle
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 10 cups (divided) field greens or any dark, leafy greens
- 2 1/2 cups (divided) strawberries/grapes
- 1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- Place balsamic vinegar and sugar in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Glaze should coat the back of a spoon, and will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Toss chicken in 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Season with a generous amount of course kosher salt, black pepper, and fresh thyme (optional). Place on grill over medium heat. When your chicken is almost done, brush with balsamic glaze and remove.
- After chicken has cooled, brush with glaze again. To assemble, divide all ingredients into separate containers to store and enjoy the rest of the week.
[…] into consideration what I was eating, and I found myself mostly snacking on carbs all day. In my Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken recipe, I discussed prepping meals ahead of time to try to balance my diet a bit more. So far it is […]