30-Minute Meal Prep for a Week: Chicken, Beef and Rice

Nikkiey: Is it even possible to meal prep an entire week's worth of food in under 30 minutes? In this video, I'm going to try my best to make that happen. But before we dive into it, we're going to go to the grocery store, get all the groceries I need, come back here, hit start on the timer, and find out if it can be done in under 30 minutes.

So we just got to the grocery store. We're going to do a little bonus challenge: get everything I need in under 20 minutes. Let's find out.

Before we get started, here's exactly what we came for: chicken breasts, 90% lean beef, tortillas, sweet potatoes, asparagus, shredded lettuce, tomato, bagged rice, regular rice, some seasoning, and also something for Maverick, because he's important too. He needs some food. And the timer for the grocery store challenge starts now.

Chicken. We'll be fancy and go for the 93% lean. I was going to go for 90, but I don't see it. So, 93% lean ground beef. Let's go. Let's just keep going around the outskirts. That's the strategy. Where are the bags? Asparagus, tomatoes, sweet potatoes. These look nice.

I should preface this too: I'm not a cook, so there should be a disclaimer on me getting tomatoes right now. I haven't meal prepped for myself in the last year and a half, because I've been using Trifecta, a meal prep company that gives me my meals on a weekly basis. So there's that.

Is there such a thing as shredded lettuce in a bag? Oh, that's really nice. Let's go. Okay, spices. Lemon pepper sounds good for the chicken. Onion powder. We'll just go with 365. Great. Okay, where are we time-wise? Six minutes. Now something for Maverick, because he's important too.

Rice. This is a game changer: if you just get the bagged rice, all you need to do is microwave it. I'm going to snag some of these because they're great, and I'm also still going to meal prep this long grain brown rice. Solid. This is where things can eat up some minutes.

Thank you. Also to note, that was $106. Now, I know I'm prepping for one person, but this is Whole Foods, all that stuff, about $100. So think about it. This is going to get me through a week for sure. $100 divided by 7 is about $14, and it's going to cover at least two to three of my meals. So it's $14 per day. Think about what someone spends out at lunch: $14 on the meal alone. And if they go out to dinner, double that. It's like $30 a head at that point. So it's not expensive. It just takes time and effort to make it happen.

All right, let's go. Now let's set the timer and see if we can do this meal prep in under 30.

We're just about to start the timer, but before we do, I wanted to show you what's on my menu for the week. I'm planning to have chicken tortillas. That's what the shredded lettuce and the tomatoes are for. And then I'm planning to have beef and sweet potatoes. In between those meals, I have eggs for breakfast, I have my oatmeal pre-workout that I always have, and I have my protein shake after I work out. That's what I normally have in my day, and these two meals are the fillers that go around the ones I have every single day.

I want to preface really quickly, before we dive into it, that I have two sources of protein. For me, for one person, that's enough for a full week. But if you're meal prepping for two, go grab a third protein source, like ground turkey.

An important part of this video is meal prepping all of your protein. You don't necessarily have to prep the shredded lettuce and the tomatoes or the other things that go into the meal, but as long as you at least have your protein planned ahead of time, it's easy to throw it into your meals every single day and let the carbs and the fats fluctuate as you go.

All right, let's get into it. The challenge starts now.

Okay. Oh my god, how do you open this thing? Not a good start. Ew, I hate raw chicken. I should have done something different already. Forget the opening.

I'm turning on the stove and getting the ground beef in to start cooking. I just put the chicken together as well, but I know this will take a little longer to cook through on the stove, so I wanted to start with it first. Wow, that's a lot of ground beef. I'm going to eventually add seasoning to everything. I'm slightly panicking right now. I don't cook. Do you cover it? Do you not cover it?

Okay, onion powder. Some lemon pepper seasoning. Guys, seriously, I don't cook, so this sounds good: lemon pepper, onion powder. Give it some flavor. Maybe add some salt and pepper next. I'm just thinking, don't cut off a finger. Don't cut off a finger. Don't cut off a finger.

Okay, let's pop the chicken in. I want it to be in there for at least 20 minutes. Hey Alexa, set a timer for 20 minutes.

I'm going to season this up as well and add some taco seasoning to this bad boy. That's a lot of taco seasoning. So my strategy right now: proteins are the longest to cook, so I had to get them in and started first. I know the rice and the asparagus take the least amount of time, so they can start cooking while all the other stuff is cooking. And I think the sweet potatoes are going to take the longest. I didn't really think that through. I have no idea, and I also don't know how to cut these things, so we'll just go for it.

I joke about it all the time on my Instagram: if I'm going to burn anything down, it's going to happen today. Or I might take off a finger.

I just want you guys to know that it really doesn't take that much time to do all this. Focus. Don't mess around. Don't be on your phone. Watch Netflix, put a movie on, but get it done.

Nope, still missing it. Maverick? I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good.

I'm one person. I'm going to have to go knock on my neighbors' doors and say, do you guys want some meal prep? Here you go. It's possible.

Let's drizzle on some olive oil. The beef is almost done. The chicken's looking good. Okay, it's okay. Chicken, beef. I pressure cooked my rice. I think the beef is about to explode. The chicken looks pretty good.

Alexa, how much time do I have left? This is scaring me now. The pressure cooker is just giving me the circle of death, which I forgot to consider. That's what happens with pressure cooking: it needs to build the pressure inside first, and then it counts down the four minutes. Who knows how long it's going to take to pressurize.

Come on. Oh yeah, let's go. Meal prep under 30 minutes. Yes. 28 minutes and 45 seconds. All of this is going to come out at once. Yeah buddy. Three, I mean that's four. I don't have room for... I just touched the pan. I can't take it.

And I'm done. I just have to wait for the pressure cooker to release its pressure, and then I can take the rice out and put it in there. But 30 minutes. Let's go.

That deserves a subscribe, a like, all of the things. Thanks for being here, and thanks for being on the ride today. I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I did. If you want help with your nutrition and your workout programming, and you want a coach to do all of the planning for you so all you need to do is execute, our programs are below. Check it out.