My meal prep this week was soooo good you guys! It’s just two recipes, but totally delicious and with tons of flavor (and fiber, lol). I made a video for my Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles this week, so I decided to make that the base for my weekly meal prep, and I paired it with my Roasted Broccoli Salad with Almonds and Simple Sesame Dressing. This Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodle Meal Prep is one that I will definitely be looking forward to eating allll four days of the week. ☺️
The recipe for the Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles only makes about three servings, but since it’s so very rich and has a decent amount of sugar, I decided to divide it up into four smaller servings and I made a double batch of my broccoli salad. So, each of my “lunch boxes” is about 2/3 broccoli salad and 1/3 noodles. I think that’s a pretty good balance between healthy and indulgent. :D
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 my entire Budget-Friendly Meal Prep Archive.
Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodle Meal Prep
This Meal Prep Includes:
Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles: $3.75
Double Batch of Roasted Broccoli Salad with Almonds and Simple Sesame Dressing: $7.82
Total cost: $11.57
Cost per meal: $2.89
Leftovers: NONE! yay!
The glass meal prep containers pictured can be found here. And the small metal dressing cups here.
Notes:
- Okay, so this meal prep presents a couple of issues for people who are very texture sensitive, but you have a few options. I am not very picky when it comes to leftovers, so honestly I just poured my dressing right on my broccoli salad after taking the photos and am storing it with the dressing on the vegetables. You can, as pictured, keep the dressing separate until just before you eat, if preferred. You can also keep those crunchy lo mein noodles out of your salad and just add them on top before eating if you want them to stay super crunchy.
- The broccoli salad can be eaten cold, luke warm, or heated. So it’s up to you whether you’d prefer to eat the salad cold before reheating the noodles, or just heat them both together.
- The pork can be substituted with ground turkey or even fried tofu!
This was SO, SO good. I used thinly sliced pork tenderloin since that’s what I had on hand and just mixed blanched broccoli in the sauce during the last minute or so of simmering. Seriously delicious! Great recipe!
I loved the noodle and pork dish the first time I made it, so I decided to make this meal prep. I reheated it in the microwave and it gave my pork a bad taste to it. Do you use any special settings or tips for reheating your meal preps? Love your site!
Hmm, nope, I don’t do anything special. Unfortunately I’ve never experienced a bad taste to it after reheating, so I’m not sure what could cause it or what a possible solution might be. :(
I don’t know if you’re still reading/replying to comments, but just in case… Ground turkey was cheaper than ground pork (surprisingly) at the store. Could it be subbed for the ground pork or should I make one of your recipes that call for ground turkey and save this one for another time? In other words, is the pork the star or is the sauce sufficiently strong that the turkey wouldn’t be noticeable? Thanks so much! SUCH A PHENOMENAL WEBSITE!!!
While I do think you could use ground turkey in this recipe, I think I would definitely prefer ground pork. The fatty flavor of the pork helps make the sauce really delicious. :)
Hi. I am planning to start meal prepping lunches for myself and my husband. So far we have been taking dinner leftover for lunches, but the idea of prepping looks great to me. However, I have a question. If you grow tired of eating the same food for three or four days in the row, is it possible to freeze some of them? I am fairly new to your blog, but I have not noticed you mentioning anything about freezing?
Yes, but it depends on what recipes you’ve made. I often make freezer-friendly recipes and freeze them in single portions so that I always have a rotating stock of options in my freezer for those days when I’ve gotten tired of what I prepped fresh that week. :) Recipes that freeze well are soups, stews, saucy pasta dishes, and rice dishes. Just stay away from dishes that have creamy sauces. Here is a round up of some of my favorite freezer friendly meals: Top 10 Recipes for Freezer Leftovers
This meal prep is amazing! My sister and I meal prep every Sunday together and I have to say this one is a hit! We cut back on the chili sauce as my sister can’t handle too much spice but it still turned out amazing! Love your site and we are huge fans! Thank you!
Hi Beth, love your site, but I had difficulty with this one. I tripled the noodle recipe hoping I’d have enough for my dinner, but I found only made enough for 4 portions (I’m a big guy). I’m wondering if I used the wrong Ramen Noodles. Also when I doubled the broccoli salad I made the mistake of putting it all on one tray at once. The result is the broccoli didn’t grill, but instead it boiled in its own moisture and took so much longer to cook and didn’t get the tasty browning. So anyone trying this, do the double broccoli salad in separate batches.
Hi Jeremy, serving sizes are always going to be subjective. But just to make sure, when you say you tripled the noodles, that means you used 6 “bricks” of ramen? Each brick of ramen (the basic cheap kind you can get at any store) are 3oz. each, so for the 6oz. in the original recipe you’d be using two.
My guy is a real penny pincher and has been THRILLED with the lack of food waste since I started following your site. Also, SO many of the dishes are things I can make with what I already have in my cupboards. Fortunately my pantry is already stocked with things like chickpeas, various spices/oils/vinegars, nuts, organic canned goods, etc. Now on a night where I am feeling uninspired, I just look through food photos on here and see what catches my eye. If I don’t have exactly what your recipe calls for, I can usually make a simple variation of it… also LOVE that most of these recipes seem to pull together in well under an hour.
Thank you, Nichole! I’m so glad the recipes are working so well for you! :)
This has become one of our favorite lunch prep plans. It’s hard to resist making this for our lunches every single week! However, my husband and I have made some alterations in the types of noodles we use for both recipes. For the broccoli salad, we found that the crunchy noodles lost their crunch by the second or third day. To solve this problem, we instead use ready-to-serve soba stir-fry noodles, stir-fried in a few tablespoons of sesame oil. We found that the sesame flavoring perfectly compliments the salad, and the softer noodles are great all week long. For the dragon noodles, we actually use thin Chinese noodles that really soak up and boost the flavor of the spicy sauce.
This recipe was incredibly delicious and a great introduction to meal prep for myself (1st recipe). I used udon noodles with the recipe which worked great too.
Had the noodles for dinner last week, they were a hit with the family. Making them this week for my lunches along with the salad. Thanks for the ideas and inspiration you always provide!
Will this one be added to the app? Can’t find it.
We don’t have the ability to add the meal preps yet because we can’t link between recipes in the app, but the individual recipes are on there. :) The broccoli salad is one of the 500 that the app comes with, so just search for “broccoli salad” and it will come up. The Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles can be found in the marketplace. Just tap on the marketplace (the little shopping bag icon), click on “recipes” instead of “bundles” then type “Dragon Noodles” in the search box at the top.
I was skeptical that this would fill me up, but it turned out great and I am sitting here satisfied after eating the first one! The noodles weren’t soggy at all, and keeping the chow mein noodles separate made the texture prefect for me.
It’s already in the mid-70s and air conditioning on in the afternoons in SE Texas, so beef and cabbage did not ring the bell. However, we prepared the Peanut-Pork-Pasta when you first posted it — and it’s a keeper. Thanks so much for the weekly ideas and inspiration.
These noodles look deliciously chewy. What brand do you use?
They’re some brand that I picked up at the Asian market. The wording on the package is not English, so I’m not sure what the name is. :P
Could you maybe add a photo of them somewhere? The brand i used ruined the recipe.
This meal prep looks amazing! I’m putting it on the menu for next week and I’m already looking forward to it!