Simple High Protein Meal Prep on a Budget **Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner under £20**

Summary

In this budget-friendly meal prep video, the host demonstrates how to prepare five portions of breakfast, lunch, and dinner with ease, nutritional value, and flavor in mind. Breakfast features overnight oats with various toppings, lunch is a sticky honey soy chicken with rice and broccoli, and dinner is a creamy meatball oo. The video includes ingredient breakdowns, preparation tips, and storage advice for a week's worth of meals, all sourced from Aldi for cost-effectiveness.

Takeaways

• 🍽️ The video focuses on creating budget-friendly meal prep for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, emphasizing affordability, ease of preparation, nutritional value, and flavor.
• 🥣 For breakfast, the recipe is overnight oats made with oats, protein powder, natural yogurt, chia seeds, and almond milk, with various topping options.
• 🛒 Most ingredients are sourced from Aldi, and the cost of each meal is calculated with consideration for realistic use of leftovers.
• 📏 Rolled oats are recommended for overnight oats due to their texture, and instant oats can be used but may result in a mushier consistency.
• 🌾 Chia seeds are optional but enhance texture by absorbing liquid and thickening the oats.
• 🥛 Any milk can be used in place of almond milk, and protein powder flavor can be varied to personal preference.
• 🍗 Lunch features sticky honey soy chicken thighs with rice and broccoli, highlighting the use of chicken thighs for their flavor and tenderness.
• 🍚 The rice is cooked simply, and the broccoli is steamed to be slightly underdone to prevent it from becoming mushy when reheated.
• 🍖 The dinner recipe is a creamy meatball stew made with minced meat, Italian hard cheese, chicken stock, and crème fraîche, along with frozen peas.
• 🧀 Grana Padano cheese is suggested as a cost-effective alternative to Parmesan for the meatball stew.
• 🍲 The meatballs are pan-seared before being added to a sauce made from chicken stock, cheese, and crème fraîche, simmered until cooked through.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the meal prep described in the script?

The main focus of the meal prep is to create budget-friendly, easy-to-prepare, nutritional, and flavorful breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals for five portions.

Where were most of the ingredients purchased for the meal prep?

Most of the ingredients were purchased from Aldi.

What is the base recipe for breakfast in the meal prep?

The base recipe for breakfast is overnight oats, which includes oats, protein powder, natural yogurt, chia seeds, and almond milk.

Why are rolled oats recommended for overnight oats?

Rolled oats are recommended for overnight oats because they have more texture compared to instant oats, which can make the oats mushy.

What is the significance of using chia seeds in the overnight oats recipe?

Chia seeds are used to improve the texture of the oats by absorbing liquid and helping to thicken the mixture.

What are some topping options suggested for the overnight oats?

Suggested toppings for the overnight oats include peanut butter, banana, apple, cinnamon, sultanas, blueberry, and lemon zest.

What is the lunch meal prep recipe described in the script?

The lunch meal prep recipe is sticky honey soy chicken with rice and broccoli.

Why is chicken thigh used instead of chicken breast in the lunch recipe?

Chicken thigh is used because it is considered a superior culinary choice, especially for meal prepping, as the extra fat content helps keep it tender and enjoyable after being refrigerated or frozen.

What are the key ingredients in the marinade for the sticky honey soy chicken?

The key ingredients in the marinade for the sticky honey soy chicken are soy sauce, corn flour, honey, garlic, chili, and sesame oil.

How long can the prepared meals be stored in the fridge before they need to be consumed or frozen?

The breakfast oats can be stored for about 5 days in the fridge, while the lunch and dinner meals can be stored for 3 days before they need to be consumed or frozen.

What is the dinner meal prep recipe described in the script?

The dinner meal prep recipe is a creamy meatball oo, which includes minced meat, Italian hard cheese, lemon, egg, garlic, chicken stock, and creme fraiche, served with frozen peas.

What are some considerations for the cheese used in the creamy meatball oo recipe?

Parmesan or Pecorino Romano could be used, but Grana Padano is suggested due to its lower cost. Grating some of the cheese into the meatball mixture is recommended, especially if using lean meat.

Outlines

00:00

🍲 Meal Prep on a Budget: Breakfast Edition

The video segment focuses on preparing budget-friendly meals, starting with breakfast. The chosen recipe is overnight oats, which is easy to prepare and offers nutritional value and flavor. The base ingredients include oats, protein powder, natural yogurt, chia seeds, and almond milk. The presenter suggests variations with different toppings like peanut butter, banana, apple, cinnamon, sultanas, blueberry, and lemon zest. The oats are stored in containers and can last in the fridge for about 5 days. The presenter also discusses the proportional cost of ingredients, emphasizing the practicality of using leftovers.

05:01

🍗 Lunch Prep: Sticky Honey Soy Chicken with Rice and Broccoli

For lunch, the video presents a recipe for sticky honey soy chicken served with rice and broccoli. The chicken thighs are marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, corn flour, honey, garlic, chili, and sesame oil. The presenter advises on the importance of not overcooking the broccoli to avoid it becoming mushy. The chicken is cooked in an air fryer, with additional sauce applied during the cooking process. The final dish is recommended to be stored in containers and can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, with the option to freeze leftovers. The presenter also provides tips on enhancing the meal with sesame oil or chili oil and shares personal preferences for the recipe.

Keywords

💡Meal Prep

Meal prep refers to the practice of preparing meals in advance, typically for the week, to save time and ensure healthy eating habits. In the video, the concept is central as the host demonstrates how to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for five portions ahead of time on a budget, emphasizing ease, nutritional value, and flavor.

💡Budget

A budget is a financial plan that outlines income and expenses. In the context of the video, the host is focused on creating meal prep recipes that are not only nutritious and flavorful but also cost-effective. The script mentions calculating the cost of each meal and using proportional costs for ingredients that can be used beyond the recipe.

💡Nutritional Value

Nutritional value pertains to the nutrients provided by food that are essential for health. The video emphasizes the importance of nutritional value in meal prep, ensuring that the recipes are not only tasty but also contribute to a balanced diet. The host discusses ingredients like oats, protein powder, and natural yogurt, which are chosen for their health benefits.

💡Flavor

Flavor refers to the taste and aroma of food, which is a key consideration in meal prep to ensure meals are enjoyable. The video script mentions flavor as one of the host's considerations, with various ingredients like honey, soy sauce, and spices used to enhance the taste of the meals being prepared.

💡Ease of Preparation

Ease of preparation is the simplicity and quickness with which a meal can be made. The video script highlights the host's aim to score well in this area, showcasing recipes that are straightforward to prepare, such as overnight oats and sticky honey soy chicken, which are easy to assemble and cook.

💡Overnight Oats

Overnight oats are a type of breakfast dish made by soaking oats in liquid overnight to create a soft, creamy texture. In the video, the host uses rolled oats, protein powder, natural yogurt, chia seeds, and almond milk to create a base recipe for overnight oats, which can be topped with various ingredients for variety.

💡Protein Powder

Protein powder is a dietary supplement that provides additional protein, often used in meal prep for muscle building and satiety. The script mentions using vanilla protein powder in the overnight oats recipe to provide a neutral flavor and a source of protein to start the day.

💡Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are small seeds that are rich in nutrients and can absorb liquid, making them ideal for thickening dishes like overnight oats. The video script explains that chia seeds improve the texture of the oats by absorbing liquid and helping to create a thicker consistency.

💡Sticky Honey Soy Chicken

Sticky honey soy chicken is a dish where chicken is marinated in a sauce made from honey, soy sauce, and other ingredients, then cooked until it has a sticky glaze. The video script describes the preparation of this dish for lunch, including marinating the chicken thighs and cooking them in an air fryer with a honey soy sauce for a flavorful and tender result.

💡Meal Portioning

Meal portioning is the practice of dividing food into individual servings to control the amount of food consumed and ensure balanced meals. The video script discusses preparing five portions of each meal, which can be stored and consumed throughout the week, helping with portion control and meal planning.

💡Crockery and Storage

Crockery and storage refer to the containers and utensils used to hold and preserve food. The video script mentions using tumblers and cling film or old jars for storing overnight oats, emphasizing the practicality and cost-effectiveness of using everyday items for meal prep storage.

Highlights

Meal prep on a budget with five portions of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Considerations include ease of preparation, nutritional value, and flavor.

Most ingredients purchased from Aldi for cost-effectiveness.

Proportional costs used for ingredients that can be reused realistically.

Breakfast consists of overnight oats with various toppings for variety.

Oats, protein powder, natural yogurt, chia seeds, and almond milk are the base for overnight oats.

Chia seeds improve texture by absorbing liquid and thickening the oats.

Greek or natural yogurt can be used, with or without fat.

Protein powder provides sweetness, so additional sweeteners may not be needed.

Instructions for mixing the overnight oats to avoid over or under mixing.

Storage tips for overnight oats to maintain freshness and prevent soggy toppings.

Lunch is sticky honey soy chicken with rice and broccoli for a balanced meal.

Chicken thighs are used over breasts for better flavor and tenderness in meal prep.

Marinade includes soy, honey, sesame oil, and optional extras for depth of flavor.

Rice is cooked gently to avoid overcooking, which can happen with reheating.

Broccoli is steamed to be slightly undercooked to account for reheating in the microwave.

Chicken is cooked in an air fryer for a crispy texture and even cooking.

Dinner features a creamy meatball oo with hard Italian cheese and chicken stock for a hearty dish.

Minced meat, egg, and seasonings are the base for the meatballs, with cheese added for flavor.

Searing meatballs on high heat ensures an even and crispy exterior.

Creme fresh and chicken stock are combined with cheese for a creamy sauce.

Instructions for portioning meatballs to ensure equal distribution among meal containers.

Final meal prep includes adding peas and allowing the dish to cool before storage.

Meals are designed to be prepared on Sunday and eaten from Monday through Friday.

Transcripts

today we are doing meal prep on a budget

and I'm making five portions of a

breakfast lunch and dinner along with

price my other considerations were ease

of preparation nutritional value and

flavor and I think I've scored quite

well in all areas almost all ingredients

were purchased from Aldi and when

calculating the cost of each meal I have

sometimes used proportional costs but

only where it's realistic for you to

keep and use whatever isn't required in

the recipes for example if six eggs cost

£168 and we use one I'd say that cost

You2 88 P because you get to keep the

rest of the eggs however for items where

you might not be likely to use whatever

remains I've added the total cost just

for furnace all right let's do it let's

start with breakfast and most certainly

the easiest of our meals to prepare

overnight oats for our base recipe we're

using oats protein powder natural yogurt

chia seeds and almond milk then you can

top those however you like but I will

show you a few different variants quick

out on some ingredients rolled oats are

probably the best for overnight oats

because they have a bit more texture

instant oats will work fine but things

will just end up a bit more mushy cheer

seeds aren't entirely necessary but

again they will improve the texture

because they'll absorb a lot of liquid

and help thicken things up yogurt can be

Greek or natural with or without fat I

just grabb the cheapest one almond milk

can be swapped for any milk and I'm

using vanilla protein powder because

it's the most neutral that I have but

really use any flavor you like this is

going to be providing the sweetness so

if you do use unflavored you might want

to add some honey step one of a total of

one steps mix everything together you

shouldn't need to premix your protein

powder because the oats and seeds will

help break up any lumps so the only

thing you need to remember for this is

you can always add more milk but you

can't take it away nobody wants to be

out here distilling overnight o mixtures

right so just add a little to start with

and then gradually add more until you

reach desired consistency don't forget

your oats and seeds are going to absorb

a fair bit of liquid so you do want it

to be considerably more runny than you

like it when you consume it something

like this is about where it should be so

by the following day it will be thick

enough to stay on a spoon which is

probably the the minimum level of

consistency you're looking for to be

quite honest anyway when you're done

just dish it out into your containers

definitely don't use a ladle for this

that's a ridiculous utensil choice but I

could not locate my big spoon obviously

you also don't need to buy specific

overnight oats containers with stupid

little spoons that aren't even long

enough to reach the bottom you can just

use tumblers and cover them with cling

film or any old jars that you've got

lying around you know cuz we've all got

loads of jars lying around anyway my

advice would to store the oats as is and

then top them before consuming each

morning if you start chopping fruit up

it's not going to last very long and

it'll just end up soggy and generally

undesirable provided the date on your

yogurt was okay these will actually be

fine in the fridge for about 5 days but

I probably wouldn't go longer than that

so you can just take one out each

morning and add whatever toppings you

feel like I went with peanut butter and

banana apple cinnamon sultanas and

blueberry and lemon zest all solid and

offer something a little bit different

on the pal palette but you can get as

creative as you desire I all these are a

very typical go-to breakfast meal prep

and you've probably seen them in a

million other videos but I think they

are popular for a reason I've tried

quite a few different breakfast meal

prep ideas and I think when all things

are considered these do come out on top

next up for lunch we're making some

sticky honey soy chicken with rice and

broccoli so we're starting out with the

bodybuilder Holy Trinity of chicken rice

and broccoli however I'm going to use

some chicken thigh instead of the usual

breast now when you buy skinless and

boneless these aren't really any cheaper

than chicken breast but anyone with a

tongue knows that the thigh is the

superior culinary choice and especially

when meal prepping that extra little bit

of fat content is going to help keep it

tender and enjoyable after it's been in

the fridge or freezer for our marinade

you can do the really simple version

using just soy honey and sesame oil but

I think it's worth using the added

extras shown here and let's start with

that marinade so I'm going to go in with

some soy first I did add a splash of

dark soy later but it's not necessary

then you want to mix in your corn flour

before adding anything else that's corn

starch to Americans I went for two

spoons like that and this is going to

thicken up your marinade so that it

sticks to the chicken but don't expect

it to do much yet because it doesn't

start gelatinizing until it's heated

then for some honey which you could swap

for brown sugar if you like I'm adding

some garlic because I'm using it in the

next recipe but you could also add

Ginger or both and then some chili again

really optional I was lazy so I just

micro PL this instead of finally

chopping finally a drop of sesame oil

just for flavor and then we're going to

make sure it's well mixed before placing

some off to one side in a bowl that

we'll use to brush the chicken with

whilst cooking then for the Grim job of

chopping our chicken I'll spare you too

many close-ups just cut them into

roughly equal sized pieces and place in

your bowl to marinate now I'll put the

rice on and as in previous videos I'm

not going to go through a breakdown of

cooking rice if you find it difficult

get a rice cooker because that's a very

gentle method of cooking rice which

makes it pretty hard to get wrong

broccoli needs chopping up and steaming

so let's do that doesn't really matter

which order you do all these steps in

because everything has to cool down

before you put it in the fridge or

freezer anyway only thing I'd say about

your broccoli is air on the side of

alente I don't know if you can say Al

Dente about things that aren't pasta but

you know what I mean a little under

because it will cook a little when you

reheat your meals in the microwave and

there's not really much worse in life

than mushy broccoli I'm using the air

fryer to cook my chicken and I'm just

going to start that on 180° but ignore

the time because I'm going to add to

that later the broccoli is done so let's

take that off right is done so let's

take the lid off give that a little

floof and then after 10 or 12 minutes

I'm going to brush my chicken with some

of that extra sauce we put aside earlier

and give it a little mix around because

there's a lot of chicken in a small air

fryer and it's not all being exposed to

the heat evenly little Shake of some

toasted sesame seeds and back in for

another 10 or 12 minutes might as well

start dishing things out in the meantime

and then we'll go in for another sauce

application and I wasn't really happy

with the level of crisp so I upped the

temperature to 200 for the final five 5

or 6 minutes after which we had some

really delightful chicken thigh final

step this is a difficult one put stuff

in boxes these will be fine in the

fridge for 3 days so anything that you

won't eat in that time can go in the

freezer when you do come to eat them

obviously do what you want but I'd

recommend a little bit of sesame oil

maybe a bit of chili oil on the rice

just for a bit of extra lubrication and

check that chicken out really Pleasant

stuff I know I'm literally a walking

cliche doing chicken rice and broccoli

but I'm aware that it's a cliche and

doing it anyway so that makes me a

Maverick contrarian for my dinner meal

I'm going to make a creamy meatball oo

for which we will need some form of

minced meat oo a hard Italian cheese

lemon egg garlic chicken stock and creme

fresh and then some frozen peas okay a

couple of quick notes on ingredients I'm

using 5% fat beef mints but honestly I'd

go 10% or more if I were you they just

didn't have it in the denomination that

I needed in Aldi I actually think

flavor-wise turkey even chicken

meatballs might be better but again and

I just couldn't find anything

appropriate whilst keeping the cost down

I use the phrase Italian hard cheese

because you could use parmesan or even

peino but I'm using Gran pedano because

it tends to be cheaper and before

someone's non comes at me I'm not saying

that there aren't differences between

these cheeses there are I'm just saying

that they'd all work in this dish all

right let's do it first up we're making

meatballs so you can go as extravagant

as you like with these but I'm keeping

things simple so just meat egg and some

seasoning breadcrumbs aren't necessary

and I don't think they add much to a

meatball so I'm not using any but I do

think a good move would have been to

grate some of your cheese into the

meatball mixture especially if you're

using a len of meat I'm only using a bit

of salt because the dish will be salty

enough and then quite a lot of pepper

and then I randomly just pulled some

dried herbs at the cupboard honestly Chu

anything you have available or nothing

extra in at this stage a good tip for

even meatballs is to place your ball on

the scales so that you know the size of

each is roughly equal I'm using this

dish so something roughly those

proportions will work well although it

doesn't need to be quite that deep

little glog of olive oil in the pan on a

high heat but depending on your pan and

also the fat content of your meatballs

that's not always necessary then we're

going to give these meatballs a good

sear on each side so place them all in

resist the temptation to move them

around for 3 to 5 minutes then have a

look to see what that sear is looking

like give them all a flip to do the

other side if there even is another side

of a sphere probably not but you know

what I'm saying anyway we might as well

great some cheese whilst we're waiting

for those this is how much I've used not

loads and next we'll prepare our chicken

stock which is already quite salty hence

why we didn't add too much to the

meatballs earlier once we have a good

color on those meatballs we can remove

them from the pan and add our garlic if

you use fresh chopped garlic you might

want to give this a minute before adding

everything else but turn the heat down

and let the pan cool a little bit first

because there is no return from burnt

garlic next we'll add the oo the chicken

stock about half this tub of creme fresh

all of our cheese and an optional juice

of a half a lemon does that make sense

probably not let's carry on next we're

going to mix everything until evenly

distributed and then read add our

meatballs to cook through you want this

at a gentle simmer and I'm keeping the

lid on because I don't want it to dry

out you can check on it and add more

boiling water if you need to I'd give

this about 15 minutes before then

finally adding your peas and replacing

the lid for a final 5 minutes I'm going

to Dish this out let it cool in the

containers because that's just going to

be much faster than leaving it in the

pan I probably should have mentioned

this earlier but just make sure your

number of Meatballs is divisible by the

number of portions you're making you

know you don't want to be getting your

protractor out to evenly divide

individual meatballs do you that just

sounds like a hassle we could all live

without so there we have it we have

breakfast lunch and dinner that we can

prepare on a Sunday then eat Monday

through Friday it's all tasty stuff and

for the current climate I'd say that's

relatively budget friendly to be honest

hopefully you try these out yourself as

usual tag me in your IG stories if you

do because I do enjoy seeing you all

butcher the very simplest of recipes all

right love you guys see you

y Jord Lenny is my

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