Recipe: $11.68 | Per Serving: $2.92 | Yield: 4
We are kicking things off today with one of my favorite frozen meal prep dinners.
I introduced this frozen meal prep concept on Sunday, and now I’m breaking down my favorite meals from the last year of preparing frozen dinners.
This post is part of a series about homemade frozen dinners. Please see How to Make Homemade Frozen Meals for more information.
Again, these are not major prep meals. There’s almost no prep. You’re basically just tossing frozen foods into containers to make a balanced meal for your freezer.
This dish may seem weird at first – mashed sweet potatoes in frozen little pucks? I was also suspicious, but it’s not weird at all. They don’t have anything added at all, not even salt! For the sake of time, I also used Trader Joe’s pre-cooked carnitas, but you could definitely make your own delicious slow cooker pork with higher quality meat.
Ingredients for Burrito Bowl Frozen Meal Prep (all ingredients found at Trader Joe’s)
- 12 oz Pre-cooked Carnitas OR 2 cans Black beans for vegetarian (use all the carnitas or 2 cans black beans)
- 12-16 oz Frozen Cauliflower Rice (use the whole bag)
- 10-12 oz Frozen Spinach (use half the bag)
- 16-18 lbs Frozen Mashed Sweet Potatoes (use about 2/3 of the bag)
- Trader Joe’s Salsa Autentica (use about 1/2 the jar)
How to Make Pork & Sweet Potato Burrito Bowl Frozen Meal Prep
- First, shred the pork. It’s already cooked, but it needs to be shredded. You can do this with two forks or with your hands.
- Next, dump the bag of cauliflower rice and half the spinach into a large bowl. Stir to combine. If these items were frozen poorly, they might have huge chunks. You can choose to nuke it for 20-30 seconds so you can break up the chunks, or if they’re small enough, you can leave them. Add about 1/2 cup of salsa and stir completely.
- Divide the cauliflower rice mixture among 4 containers. It should take up about half the container. Top with 1-2 Tablespoons of additional salsa.
- Divide the shredded pork among the 4 containers.
- Add about 4-6 mashed sweet potato cubes to each container.
- Close, seal, and toss them in the freezer! How long did that take? 6 minutes?
Does this frozen meal get soggy?
No! Not at all – starting with mostly frozen ingredients helps a lot. It’s a good starting point for your frozen meal options.
How Long Will Frozen Meals Last in the Freezer?
In general, all frozen meals will keep their quality for 2-4 weeks. If you use a completely airtight container, like one of the glass containers listed above, it will keep for much longer. This frozen meal, packed in a plastic container, lasted about 6 weeks in the freezer without any sign of freezer burn.
Beans do get freezer burn easier than most of the other ingredients here. If you plan to use black beans and will be freezing this for longer than 4 weeks, I’d recommend mixing them with the cauliflower to help keep them covered and hydrated to minimize the risk of freezer burn.
Paleo: Yep!
Vegetarian: Not with pork, but yes with Black Beans!
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Carnitas & Sweet Potato Frozen Meal Prep (Whole30, Paleo)
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This easy frozen meal prep comes together in just a couple of minutes – and makes enough for four servings!
Ingredients
- 12 oz cooked pork carnitas or shredded pork (use 2 cans black beans for vegetarian/vegan)
- 12 oz frozen riced cauliflower
- 16 oz frozen chopped spinach
- 12 oz frozen mashed sweet potato (or fresh)
- 3/4 cup salsa
Instructions
- First, shred the pork with two forks or with your hands.
- Next, pour the riced cauliflower and spinach into a large bowl. Stir to combine. If these items were frozen poorly, they might have huge chunks. You can choose to nuke the mixture for 20-30 seconds so you can break up the chunks, or if they’re small enough, you can just leave them.
- Add about 1/2 cup of salsa and stir completely.
- Divide the cauliflower rice mixture among 4 containers. It should take up about half the container. Top with 1-2 Tablespoons of additional salsa.
- Divide the shredded pork among the 4 containers.
- Add about 4-6 mashed sweet potato cubes to each container. (Approximately 2-3 oz. each container)
- Close, seal, and toss them in the freezer!
Notes
For vegetarian/vegan, use 2 cups black beans.
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