30 minutes of time and minimal dishes is all you need to make lunch for the week. These flavorful Meal Prep Burrito Bowls are something to look forward to every day.
I will say it until I’m blue in the face: Meal prep is a gazillion times more effective than willpower alone when you want to stick to a healthy diet! How likely are you to order in or go through the drive-through or eat cereal for lunch when you’re hangry and have little time during lunch time?
If you have something delicious ready-made and waiting for you in the fridge the temptation of eating unhealthy is practically gone. It feels so good to nourish your body. I have dozens of meal prep recipes to choose from on my website to keep it interesting. Find all healthy meal prep recipes here.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Romaine Lettuce – it doesn’t have to be Romaine but choose a leafy green that holds its shape for a while in the fridge. No baby lettuce or soft-leaf lettuce like butter lettuce. They will wilt and start tasting like grass after only a day or two. Your best options are Romaine, Kale, and Iceberg. You could also use shredded cabbage or some sort of ready-made slaw mix.
Ground Meat – Any ground meat works in this recipe. Beef, lamb, pork, turkey, chicken. Choose your favorite. If you want to make it vegetarian you can use lentils instead.
Black Beans – My favorite in these meal prep burrito bowls are black beans but pinto beans or kidney beans work perfectly as well of course. You can either use canned or home-cooked. My favorite way to cook beans is in the Instant Pot.
Corn – The sweetness the corn provides to the dish is unbeatable but if you don’t like corn you can simply omit it or add green peas.
Tomatoes – tomatoes are nice and refreshing but red bell pepper works fantastic, too. Roma tomatoes or tomatoes on the vine work best.
Toppings – great toppings are red onion, jalapeño, and cilantro because they offer great color contrast, crunch, and flavor. You can use any other type of onion, chili, and herb as well or omit any or all of them.
Spices – the spices used for the meat are the ones typically used in spice mixes labeled taco seasoning. You can either use 2 teaspoons of taco seasoning or make your own mix. I make my own because I can control how spicy I like it.
Dressing – The meal prep bowls need a dressing or else the lettuce will be pretty dry. Make sure you keep the dressing separate until right before serving though. Dressed lettuce will wilt. I like to keep it simple with just oil, lime, salt and pepper but you can make a fancier dressing if you like. Here are 6 healthy salad dressings that would be an alternative.
How To Make Meal Prep Burrito Bowls
Wash, dry, and chop all of your veggies. Make sure your lettuce is super super dry after washing. If you add it fairly wet to a meal prep container it will wilt much faster.
Cook the meat with all spices and then let it cool to room temperature. If you add hot ingredients to lettuce, the lettuce will wilt and become all soggy.
Make a dressing but keep it separate, again so your lettuce doesn’t wilt.
Build your burrito bowl. You can keep the ingredient separate and mix before eating or you can also simply mix them all in a big bowl and then add 1/4 to each container.
Frequently Asked Questions
All animal and plant protein lasts safely in the fridge for up to 4 days. That’s why you will mostly find meal prep recipes for 4 servings only. This does not mean that your meal prep burrito bowls will be poisonous on day 5, however, the risk of food poisoning simply increases.
If you only have one day a week to prepare all of your lunches for the whole week, I recommend making 4 bowls that stay in the fridge and 3-4 bowls that are freezer friendly so you can freeze them. These Chipotle Chickpea Meal Prep Bowls are perfect for freezing.
Burrito bowls are nutritionally balanced because they contain protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, and plenty of fiber. A fabulous lunch that will keep you full and nourished.
My meal prep burrito bowls are made with all clean ingredients. If clean eating is your jam, check out my clean eating for beginners guide.
Meal Prep Burrito Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 head Romaine lettuce
- 4 tomatoes on the vine
- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 1 Jalapeño pepper
- 2 cups cooked black beans
- 1 1/3 cup cooked corn
- 1 lbs lean ground meat
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 cup avocado oil
- 2 limes
- sea salt
- pepper
- cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat a large pan over medium heat and once hot add a drizzle of avocado oil and then brown the ground meat in it. Break the meat apart with a wooden spatula and add sea salt and pepper to taste as well as all spices. Make sure you constantly stir and break apart so no steam gets trapped or else your meat will cook in its own juices instead of browning nicely. Once the meat is cooked through, set it aside to cool down.
- Finely slice, wash, and spin dry lettuce. Cut tomatoes into dice. Finely chop red onion. Deseed Jalapeño and finely chop. Set aside.
- Prepare the dressing by whisking 1/4 cup avocado oil the juice of both limes and sea salt and pepper until the dressing becomes pale and creamy.
- Build your burrito bowl by adding 1/4 of the sliced lettuce, 1 diced tomato, 1/2 cup black beans, 1/3 cup corn, 1/4 of the cooked and cooled ground meat, and top it all with a little chopped red onion, chopped Jalapeño and a few leaves of cilantro.
- Store the bowls and dressing separately in the fridge for up to 4 days. To serve, add 1/4 of the dressing to your bowl and mix it all up.
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Lekha Das says
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Michèle Martin says
What size and type of bowls do you use please for fridge storage of lunches and sauces?
Lorena Grater says
I use glass for my lunches that stay home for me and don’t travel. I send my kids to school with stainless steel so the glass doesn’t shatter. If you want to reheat though you can’t put stainless steel in the microwave so for that glass or plastic is better. Most of my meal prep containers are either 3-cup or 4-cup volume.