The Meal Plan #10
Full week of easy high-protein recipes that you'll actually want to eat!
Hi everyone! Welcome to the tenth edition of The Meal Plan series. Your weekly source for delicious high-protein meal ideas.
It’s been a while since I’ve made one of these meal plans because I wanted to mix it up with some new kinds of content. I’ll continue to bring you these meal plans along with additional content like my essential high-protein grocery list and high-protein recipes for the lazy cook. Stay tuned for that!
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Breakfast
Kimchi Fried Rice
32G Protein Per Bowl | 473 Calories | 15 Minutes
Our gut is such an important aspect of good health. You could be doing everything right in terms of exercise, drinking water, and such but if your gut microbiome is completely off well then you’re in deep doo-doo, my friend. If you don’t know what that means like me, check out this article. From the little I know, though, it’s a good idea to eat gut-friendly foods occasionally, which brings us to the topic of kimchi.
Kimchi is basically the food mascot of Korea. Everyone there’s got a recipe they swear by and they eat it with everything. It just so happens that Kimchi is one of those gut-friendly foods and also a staple for Korean celebrities. Not sure if you’ve ever seen their skin or hair, but I think it’s safe to say that they look amazing. That’s enough evidence for me to start eating Kimchi once a week. Makes 1 Serving.
Ingredient List
1 1/4 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup of kimchi, chopped
2 slices turkey bacon, chopped
1 slice pork bacon, chopped
1 egg
1 egg white
1 garlic clove
1 tsp soy sauce
Kimchi juice from container
Green onions for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Instructions
Cook The Bacon 🐖
Preheat a pan over medium heat. Add the chopped pork and turkey bacon.
Cook until the pork bacon is 50% cooked and fat renders some. Add kimchi.
Fry everything together for a few minutes then add in the garlic. Cook for another minute.
Fry Rice 🍚
Add the cooked rice to the pan. Break it up into individual grains and mix well with the kimchi and bacon.
Pour soy sauce and some juice from the kimchi container over the rice. Fry for 2-3 minutes.
Season with salt, pepper, and a small drizzle of sesame oil.
Fry the egg and egg white together. Add on top of the fried rice. Bon appetit!
Lunch
Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings
44G Protein Per Serving | 540 Calories | 30 Minutes
When I think of chicken I don’t want to eat, chicken breast always comes to mind. It’s way too easy to overcook, which many food establishments seem to have turned into an art at this point. Looking at you Sweetgreen O_O. Even the dang USDA recommends cooking chicken breast until it’s dead again. Despite how easy it is to make chicken breast unpalatable, I still eat it even when I don’t want to. When I think of chicken I do want to eat however, chicken wings skip to the front car in my train of thought.
Of course, like many of you, I normally eat the super fried variety which is great for my soul but not my cholesterol. Therefore, I decided to make some wings that wouldn’t break the calorie bank. It’s fairly simple to make lower-calorie versions with an air fryer, but it gets trickier with an oven although it’s very possible. Makes 4-5 Servings.
Ingredient List
3 lbs chicken wings
2 tbsp non-gmo cornstarch
2-3 tbsp sea salt
Lawry’s lemon pepper seasoning
Light or whipped butter
Avocado oil spray
Cooking Instructions
Marinate Wings 🐔
Sprinkle sea salt and cornstarch over the wings in a mixing bowl. Marinate for an hour.
Preheat an air fryer to 400 degrees for 5 minutes.
Spray each wing lightly with avocado oil and season with lemon pepper on both sides.
Add about 8 wings to the air fryer and cook for 10 - 15 minutes. Flip halfway.
Melt 1 tbsp of light/whipped butter in the microwave. Sprinkle in lemon pepper seasoning.
Add the cooked wings and lemon pepper butter to a big bowl and toss.
Cook the rest of the wings using steps 4-6.
Serve with a side of celery and a low-calorie ranch. Enjoy!
Dinner
Japanese Curry
32G Protein Per Bowl | 450 Calories | 20 Minutes
Did you know that there are hundreds, if not thousands of forms of stews out there in the world? Take a look at this list and you’ll be blown away by just how many of them you probably haven’t tried. I’ve had one in particular a lot of my life though, beef stew. It was never something I looked forward to eating as a kid because it often came slopping out of a can and looked like it was something a dog might enjoy. Whenever I did have to eat it, all I really tasted was salt and boiled beyond belief beef. If you’ve not had a beef stew in a long time, there’s an alternative I love that just might make you actually want it more than never.
That alternative is Japanese curry. It’s a stew-like dish that brings a flavor boost to the traditional American beef stew with a curry spice mix. On the surface, it may look just as unappetizing as its Western counterpart, however, it is anything but. Once you put this over some freshly made white rice, you’re going to be surprised by how much you’re enjoying eating something that looks like stew again. Makes 6 servings.
Ingredient List
1.5 lbs lean beef stew meat
1 large onion
1 large carrot
1 large gold potato
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger
2 1/2 cups of water
1 box S&B golden curry cubes
Ghee
Cooked rice
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Instructions
Build Curry Base 🍲
Chop the carrot, potatoes, and onion into chunks.
Preheat a pan with 1 tsp ghee over medium-high heat. Add the beef stew meat.
Season with salt and pepper. Stir fry the beef until it develops some color.
Add in the onion and stir fry with the beef until they soften. Then add the ginger and garlic to cook for 30 seconds.
Add in the vegetables and pour in the water. Stir everything together.
Simmer Curry 🍛
Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat and add in the curry cubes. Let it simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Taste for salt.
Add cooked rice to a bowl and spoon in the curry right next to it. Enjoy!
Alternate Meal
Turkey Tacos
37G Protein Per Burger | 535 Calories | 15 Minutes
Ahhhh, remember the good old days when we all went to Taco Bell on the regular?That was a wild time. It’s like we didn’t even care whether it was real Mexican food or even real food for that matter. Those crunch wrap supremes and quesaritos were just so tasty that nothing else mattered when we were sinking our teeth into them. Fast forward to today, we’re all probably a little more conscious of what Taco Bell really is. Is that really beef inside my taco or is it a surprise? Did the people in the back accidentally drop my taco and put it in the bag anyway? The world may never know the answers to these questions, but we can know what goes in our taco by making it ourselves.
Ingredient List
2 lbs 93/7 lean ground turkey
1/2 large white onion, finely chopped
3 tsp cumin
2 tsp non-gmo cornstarch
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp beef bouillon powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 cup water
Chipotle tabasco
Olive oil
Salt to taste
Stone ground corn taco shells
Shredded lettuce
Salsa
Light sour cream
Light Mexican cheese
Cooking Instructions
Cook Taco Meat 🥘
Mix the cornstarch, cumin, garlic, chili, paprika, beef bouillon, onion powder, and oregano in a bowl.
Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large skillet or pan over medium-high heat.
Add a pound of ground turkey to the hot oil and sear on one side for a minute.
Start breaking up the meat and cook until it fully browns.
Add half of the chopped onion to the pan and cook until translucent.
Sprinkle half of the taco seasoning over the ground turkey and onions. Stir well to evenly coat the meat. Cook for an additional minute.
Pour in 1/4 cup of water and stir to combine. Allow the mixture to simmer for a few minutes until the flavors meld and the liquid is absorbed.
Add Chipotle Tabasco sauce to the ground turkey mixture based on your desired level of spiciness. Stir well to incorporate. Taste for salt.
Repeat steps 2 - 7 with the rest of the ground turkey.
Make The Tacos 🌮
Warm up the taco shells according to package instructions.
Take out some of the warm taco meat from the pan and mix it together with some light cheese.
Spoon the ground turkey mixture into each shell.
Top with light sour cream, shredded lettuce, and salsa. Enjoy!
Dessert
Nick’s Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream Bars
50 Calories Per Bar
Never been super crazy about ice cream for dessert. I’m much more of a pie guy myself, but I do love a good strawberry ice cream. That’s why I was more than happy to have found these strawberry ice cream bars by Nick’s at the store. They really give me that creamy, strawberry taste I want for just 50 calories a bar. While they’re not jumbo-sized ice cream bars, they’re also not bird feeder servings either. If you crave ice cream during the week, I’d certainly give these a try!
If you’ve made it this far, you’re the best! Thanks for being here. I hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Share it with a friend or family member if you did! See you next week!
Eat Well,
Marcus Matkins
P.S. Trying to take a picture of tacos is way harder than expected.