OMG you guys, I think I may have just cooked for the last time in my kitchen. 😢 If you haven’t heard, we’re about to move from New Orleans to Nashville and later this week I’ll begin packing up my kitchen. New recipes have been slow on the blog the past couple of weeks as we prepare everything for the move and scramble to fix everything that seems to be breaking last minute, but I still made time for my meal prep this week. For this Portobello Fajita Meal Prep I combined the filling for my favorite Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas with some Cowboy Caviar, and a big fat slice of my Sweet Potato Cornbread. It’s a unique combo, but so full of flavor and I promise you won’t leave lunch hungry.
I was really craving Sweet Potato Cornbread this week so I worked it into my meal prep by skipping the tortilla on the fajitas and just serving the portobello vegetable mix on its own. I felt that the tortilla plus that huge slice of cornbread would be a little too carb-heavy for me. Unfortunately I don’t have vegan substitutions for the ingredients in the cornbread, so if you want to make this box vegan I suggest going to the tortilla route.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m an “eat everything in one bite” type of person so it doesn’t bother me to have all my food touching like this, but if you’re particular about serving food at certain temperatures or don’t like juices mingling together, scroll to the bottom of the post where I’ll outline some tips for storing the meals.
For more information about meal prepping, how it works, and why I do it, check out Meal Prep 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Prepping and Portioning Meals, or check out our Vegetarian Meal Prep Ideas, or the entire Budget-Friendly Meal Prep Archive.
Portobello Fajita Meal Prep
This Portobello Fajita Meal Prep Includes:
Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas (sans-tortillas): $9.58
Sweet Potato Cornbread: $4.00
Cowboy Caviar: $5.80
4 meals + leftover cornbread & cowboy caviar!
Total: $19.38
Cost per Box: $4.06
Cost of Leftovers: $3.16
About that avocado…
The fajita recipe includes avocado, which is totally optional, but people always ask how I store avocado with my leftovers without them turning “black.” The answer is that I just let them get a little brown and don’t worry about it. Sliced avocado doesn’t turn completely black like mashed avocado does, it just turns a little darker and browns around the edges like apple slices. It still tastes the same to me.
BUT I know it creeps a lot of people out and can be a real turn off, so here’s a tip. Take a little of the lime (there is a lime included in both the fajita and the cowboy caviar recipes) and squeeze the juice over the avocado slices. Toss the slices until they’re really well covered the juice. The juice helps prevent the oxidization that causes the avocado to darken. Or you can just leave the avocado out and avoid the situation all together. A little sour cream would be awesome in its place.
Tips:
- You don’t have to store your meal prep all in one container. If you don’t like foods touching, juices mingling, or food being served at all one temperature, feel free to store your items in separate containers or in a divided, bento-style container. For this meal, forinstance, I’m sure a lot of people would rather wrap their cornbread in a sandwich bag to keep it from absorbing juices from the fajita mix and the bean salad. The important part is that everything is pre-portioned, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be in one container.
- If you want to eat your cowboy caviar cold and your fajita vegetables hot, either eat the cowboy caviar as a first course before reheating your box, or store them in separate containers.
- You’ll have four pieces of leftover Sweet Potato Cornbread after making this meal. Luckily the sweet potato cornbread freezes great! Just make sure it cools completely at room temperature before wrapping each piece and then placing them in a freezer bag. I also love eating the sweet potato cornbread with an egg for breakfast. It’s pretty much good any time of day.
- The original Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas recipe makes about 5 servings of two small fajitas each, so I just used it to make four slightly larger servings to avoid straggler servings.
- You may have a little extra cowboy caviar as well. This makes a great dip for chips, if you need a snack during the week. Or you can do a breakfast taco with some scrambled eggs, cheese, and the cowboy caviar on top.
This is my second week using my new glass containers and while they’re great, I think I want a slightly different shape. These containers are deep and not very long or wide, and I think I’d rather have a larger, more shallow rectangle to avoid having to pile items on top of one another. Meal prep pro’s, what is your favorite container? Leave the link the comments below. Thanks!
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This was amazing! I followed the directions as closely as possible for all 3 recipes and it turned out wonderful. Very happy I found this page.
We’re happy you’re here Bridget!
I really love this series! So helpful to get some meal prep ideas
Welcome to Nashville! I’m so happy to hear you’ll be here. I hope you love it. If you ever need anything reach out. I sell beer for dogfish head around town and can give you some pointers on some cool spots. Good luck with the move! Kaitlin@dogfish.com
Thank you, Kaitlin!!