Working for home means a lot more cooking at home. But who has time to take breaks to cook thrughout the work day? I know I don’t, and that is why I am still meal prepping. In fact my meal plan this weekend was actually all freezer meals that way if I don’t get to them I dont have to worry about them going bad. Additional, it allowed me to stock up on extra meals in the event I get sick. This keto Mexican one pot meal is a fantastic meal prep/freezer friendly recipe. It is also great for anyone counting macros as the ingredients are super easy to adjust!
Keto Mexican Skillet Meal
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Yellow Onion diced, (about 150 grams, or ½ onion)
- 1 cup Yellow Bell Pepper sliced, (about 175 grams, or 1 an pepper)
- ½ cup Pablano Pepper sliced, (about 65 grams, or 1 an pepper)
- ¼ cup Serrano Pepper sliced, (about 15 grams, or 1 an pepper)
- 1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1½ cups Reduced Sodium Black beans (about 400 grams, or 1 15oz can)
- 1½ cups Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes (about 400 grams, or 1 15oz can)
- 20 oz 93% Lean Ground Beef
- 1 Package Taco Seasoning Mccormicks, but any brand will do
- 1 cup Cream Cheese (8 oz)
- 1 tbsp Cilantro (optional)
Instructions
- Heat a large saute pan to medium heat.
- Once the pan is hot add the oil, onion and all peppers to the pan. Cook the peppers and onions for 5 minutes, stirring often. Unitl they begin to soften.
- Then add the ground beef and taco seasoning to the pan. Using a heavy spoon or spatula break up the ground beef into small bite sized chunks.
- Once the beef is broken up, add the black beans and dieced tomatoes.
- Cook the beef with the peppers, onions, bean and tomatoes for about 6-8 minutes, stirring often.
- Once the beef is cooked thru add the cream cheese to the mixture. Stir until the cream cheese has melted and is well combined. This will only take a few minutes.
- Once the cream cheese is melted the dish is finished.
- Serve with a sprinkle of cilantro and enjoy. Or portion out into meal prep containers to enjoy later.
Nutrition
QUESTION:
- Are you trying to get better at meal planning?
- Do you find yourself eating the same recipes every few weeks?
- Are you having trouble finding recipes for meal prep?
- Or are you counting macros?
If you are bored of eating the same recipes every week and answered yes to any of these question, then you are going to want to check out my notes below. Tips on how you can incorporate this keto mexican one pot meal into your meal plan and meal prep. If you are counting macros I have also included notes on how you can easily adjust the protein, carbs, and fats to meet your macro requirements.
NOTES FOR MEAL PLANNING:
Meal planning doesn’t have to be hard or take a lot of time. In fact, meal planning can be fun when you are provided with easy new recipes each week. Meal Planning can also help save money, prevent food waste, and save you time.
The best things about this one pot meal is: it’s easy to clean up, simple to make, tastes phenomenal reheated, and can be adjusted to fit just about any macro goals.
NOTES FOR MEAL PREP:
When meal prepping recipes it is important to think about the best way to store your finished meals:
FRIDGE STORAGE:
Storing this creamy chicken with peas and asparagus in the fridge will last 5-7 days.
There are a few ways you can choose to store this recipe in your fridge:
- You can store as one large meal or as individual servings. I always prefer individual servings. This allows me to only reheat the number of servings that will be eaten.
- However, if you know you will eat the entire recipe when it is time to be reheated, go ahead and store it as one large serving.
For fridge storage you can use zip lock bags, plastic containers, or glass food containers. I prefer to use glass container, as this allows me to reheat and eat the recipe right out of the same container. Which in turn saves me time, dirty dishes, and makes clean up easier. It also save on waste, either tossing out the used zip lock bags, or eventually having to replace the plastic containers.
Be sure to allow the recipe to cool completely before closing the container or placing in the fridge. If you close the container or place the recipe in the fridge before it has cooled you could have built up condensation within your container, thus watering down the recipe.
TIPS FOR RE-HEATING AFTER BEING IN THE FRIDGE:
- If reheating as an individual serving, microwave for 90-120seconds, stirring half way thru.
- If reheating as a one large meal, I recommend reheating on the stove, in a large pan, at medium low heat. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the recipe is warmed thru. This will ensure the best flavor, consistency, and really bring the recipe back to life. You may want to add a tiny bit of water to help loosen up the sauce and ingredients. Adding 1/4 tablespoon at a time, you don’t want to water down the recipe.
- However, you can also microwave the entire recipe, this will take about the same time as the stove top, and might dry the recipe out a little. Microwave for 5-7 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
FREEZER STORAGE:
There are two ways that you can choose to freeze this one pot meal:
- Freeze as individual portions, one serving per each freezer safe zip lock bag. Be sure to remove all of the air from the bag. Storing individullly allows you to reheat as many servings as you wish.
- However, you can also store the entire recipe. To do this you would simply use a larger freezer safe zip lock bag.
- Or, my favorite way to freeze meals is in souper cubes. These cubes are reusable, freezer safe, and store the perfect serving size.
Be sure to remove all the air from the zip lock bags and allow the recipe to cool completely before placing in the freezer. Failing to allow the recipe to cool completely could result in freezer burn.
When frozen this keto mexican one pot meal it will keep for 3-6 months. Be sure label your frozen meal with the name of the recipe and the date you cooked it. I like to use a piece of masking tape to write on. You don’t want to forget about the delicious recipe you have on hand!
TIPS FOR RE-HEATING AFTER BEING FROZEN:
Going straight from the freezer to the microwave or oven you will want to remove the recipe from the frozen container. You can not microwave zip lock bags, a glass container could crack going from such cold temps to such warm temps, and super cubes are not microwave or oven safe.
- As individual servings, I recommend reheating on the stove and not the microwave. Frozen recipes always defrost better this way. Cook in a medium pot or pan at medium heat for 7-10 minutes until the recipe has defrosted and is warmed thru. You may want to add a tiny bit of water to help loosen up the sauce and ingredients. Adding 1 tablespoon at a time, you don’t want to water down the recipe.
- However, you can microwave for 3-5 minutes, stirring half way through.
- Or pull the number of servings you are looking to eat from the freezer. the night before, and store in the fridge to defrost overnight. Then microwave for 90 seconds, again stirring half way through.
- If frozen as an entire recipe, I recommend pulling from the freezer the night before to allow the meal to defrost. Then re-heat on the stove in a large pan at medium low heat for about 6 minutes, enough to warm thru.
NOTES FOR COUNTING MACROS:
PROTEIN:
- You can be adjust the amount of protein based on the amount and percentage of lean ground beef you use.
- 90% lean: 1 oz, has 5.8 grams of protein and 2.8 grams of fat.
- 93% lean: 1 oz, has 5.8 grams of protein and 2 grams fat.
- 95% lean: 1 oz, has 6 grams of protein and only 1 gram of fat.
- Because ground beef also contains fat, there is no way around the fat also changing. So you will want to keep that in mind when calculating your marcos.
CARBOHYDRATE:
The veggies and the beans in this recipe is what provides most of the carbohydrates. Again, easy ingredients to adjust. Although, the carbs that the veggies provides would require a large adjustment to really have any impact on the amount of carbs in this recipe. Therefore, if an adjustment to the carbs needs to be made I would recommend adjusting the amount of black beans.
Every 1/3 cup (100 grams) of black beans contains 17.7 grams of carbs. However, you will want to keep in mind that this will also reduce the protein by 5.25 grams.
- If you are looking for a low carb meal, the easiest way would be to remove beans altogether. Not adding the beans would adjust the macros in this recipe to Cals: 374 / 27.7g P / 16.3g C / 23.4g F.
- On the other hand, if you are in fact looking to increase the carbs, increasing the amount of beans would be the way to go. Increase as much as your carb macro allows!
FAT:
The fat in this recipe comes from the ground beef and the cream cheese. However, fat in this recipe is on the higher end, therefore I would assume anyone looking to make changes to the fat in this recipe would be looking to decrease the amount of fat. The easiest way to do so would be to adjust the cream cheese.
- In this recipe I used a full fat cream cheese: for every 1 ounce there is 9 grams of fat. You could choose to use a low fat or a non- fat cream cheese:
- Non-Fat cream cheese has 0 grams of fat per every 1 ounce, therefore you would be reducing the fat in this recipe by 72 grams or 18 grams per serving.
- Low Fat cream cheese has 4.5 grams of fat per every 1 ounce, reducing the fat by 36 grams or 9 grams per servings.
- Adjusting the type of cream will allow you to have as much or as little fat content in this recipe as your macros will allow.
When making adjustments to the macros in this keto mexican one pot meal, you will want to keep in mind the number of servings you are making.
Looking for another freezer friendly one pot meal?
Check out my Cajun Sausage One Pot Meal
Looking for new food storage or meal prep containers? Here are just a few of my favorites:
- Glass 16 oz Mason Jars
- Juicing 16 oz Glass Jars
- Single compartment glass containers
- Two compartment glass containers
- Three compartment glass containers
- Souper Cubes 1 Cup Portion
