This week I decided to make one of my favourite chicken breast recipes, and see how well it does as a meal prep item. I also decided to pair it with brown rice and asparagus, as I have never made brown rice before. This week was only a four day week, so I made four portions of food and separated them equally into meal prep containers I bought from Walmart. These containers were the cheapest option I could find on a student budget. However, I broke one within the first week so if you can afford a better option, I recommend doing so. The chicken breast recipe I made this week was one I discovered from a TikTok I saw back in February, which is linked below. As discussed in this weeks course material, social media can be a good learning tool in today’s society, considering many people use it in their day-to-day lives.

@gooseygains

#chicken

♬ original sound – mmu.99

I had a lot of fun making this meal prep recipe. Organizing things is really satisfying for me and putting all the food into containers for the week made me feel ready for a fresh new week. I also really enjoy cooking and find that I don’t have as much time for it since I’ve gone back to school. This gave me an opportunity to do what I enjoy, while not feeling so bad about the time it’s consuming (since it’s technically “schoolwork”). I have also been putting off learning how to cook brown rice as I figured it would take longer than white rice, but it actually wasn’t too bad. I used the internet to find a recipe on how to cook the rice, and was a little frustrated by the results. Some recipes said 1 cup of rice to 6 cups of water, others said 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water, and many variations in between. I decided to go with a recipe that sounded like a reasonable amount of water to rice ratio. The link is provided below:

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_cook_brown_rice/

Feta and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Asparagus and Rice

Ingredients

(portioning dependent on your taste)

  • Spinach
  • Feta Cheese
  • Chicken breast(s)
  • Asparagus
  • Brown rice
  • Soy sauce
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Dried basil
  • Dried chive
  • Dried rosemary
  • Dried parsley
  • Chilli flakes
  • Garlic Plus

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Put 1 cup of rice into a fine mesh sieve and run it under cold water for 10 seconds.
  • Combine the rice and 1 3/4 cup water into a sauce pan. Add a pinch of salt, cover, turn the heat to medium-high and bring the rice to a boil.
  • Once boiling, lower the heat to just above low (enough to keep the water simmering) and set a timer for 35 minutes.
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Pat dry your chicken breast(s) with paper towel and lay them on the baking sheet.
  • Cut 3/4 deep slits into your chicken breast(s), making sure each slit is half an inch apart.
  • Put some feta cheese into a pan over medium-low heat (however much cheese you want in between the chicken breast slits).
  • Once the cheese is melted, add as many handfuls of spinach as you want.
  • If you feel that there is not enough spinach or cheese to fill your chicken breast(s), just add more at any time. Remove from the heat when you have enough, and give it 3 minutes to cool down.
  • Stuff the cheese and spinach mixture into the slits in the chicken, and top the chicken with spices and herbs of your choice (I use basil, chive, thyme, rosemary, parsley, chilli flakes, salt, pepper, and garlic plus).
  • Put the chicken breasts in the oven and set a timer for 30 minutes.
  • If you have another one, line another baking sheet with parchment paper. If you don’t, wait for your chicken breast(s) to finish, and then put them in the warming tray of your oven. Use that baking sheet to cook your asparagus.
  • Cut the white ends off of the asparagus and wash the asparagus with cold water.
  • Pat dry the asparagus with paper towel and put it on the lined baking sheet.
  • Toss and rub the asparagus with olive oil, and then sprinkle with spices of your choice (I use garlic plus, salt, and pepper). Add to the oven with the chicken and start a timer for 15 minutes.
  • By this time, your rice timer should be close to going off. When it does, open the lid to check the doneness of the rice. There should be no water in the bottom of the pot, and the rice should be a little bit crunchy (but not too much).
  • Put the lid on the rice, remove from the heat, and let steam for 10 minutes.
  • By this time, your chicken timer should be close to going off. When it does, remove the chicken from the oven and let cool.
  • When you asparagus timer goes off, remove from the oven and let cool.
  • When the rice timer goes off, open the lid and check that the rice is cooked through. If it is, fluff with a fork and mix in some soy sauce.
  • Put a bed of rice into each meal prep container, then some asparagus, and then top with the chicken breast.
  • Refrigerate and heat in the microwave when ready to eat.

At the end of the school week, this recipe was still fairly good. I think my only complaints were that the chicken was a little dry and the asparagus was soggy, but it was still very tasty when Thursday rolled around. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in saving time and money, and taking on meal prepping for the week. There were a few things I did wrong that I have learned from and will do differently next time. One was that I started the chicken first, before the rice. I didn’t realize how long the rice would take, and by the time it was done, the chicken was almost cold and the asparagus was completely cold. This was okay in the instance of meal prepping since everything gets cold when stored in the fridge, but if someone was to make this to eat right away, they should follow the order of instructions listed above. I have written the recipe with my mistakes in mind, and have edited the steps accordingly. I hope whoever tries this enjoys it as much as I did!