Weekly Meal Prep with Tessemae Organic Dressings

Especially at the end of the year, our days get hectic. I work at the High School and my son is in 2nd grade at the school I am PTA President at. We have end of year class parties, school water carnival, work shut down for summer and flag football tournaments. Our middle son graduates High School and is college bound and my husband travels a lot for work. Long ago I found easy ways to plan ahead for dinners. I try to find all natural and organic products for my prep and I can get that with Tessemae dressings and condiments.

I am not the full-on menu planner, but what I do is stop at the grocery store or farm (now that it’s summer I can farm shop) and pick up fresh veggies. I come home and chop them all to keep in separate containers and grab from for meals. I find we incorporate veggies more in our menu when they are chopped and sitting on the fridge shelf ready to go. I also grab some chicken breast or steaks and pre-cook on Sunday nights. Once cooked I chop or slice and they keep for the week to grab for soups, salads and pastas. Having meat and veggies ready to go makes my weeks so much easier.

I learned a while back in a recipe I cannot remember where I found, how to best prepare chicken for the week. I began researching other chicken prep methods after I kept throwing the breasts in a crockpot and they would only shred. It’s hard to get sliced or cubed meat from the slow cooker method. Now I bake or blanche my chicken. This method keeps the chicken from drying out as it cooks. There is very little fat in chicken breast so it is easy to dry the meat out. This baked method has been a winner and allowed me chicken that is still great by next weekends breakfast burritos if there is any left.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Olive oil is the key to not having your chicken stick. Oil the baking dish and one side of the parchment paper. Cut chicken breast into reasonable slices and lay flat with minor gap between each piece. Rub chicken with dressing and add S&P. I use a pink himalayan salt. Place parchment paper-oil side to chicken-around the chicken tucking all sides between chicken and inner sides of baking dish so all chicken is covered. You can garnish with lemon and herbs before covering if you choose also. I used sliced lemons in this recipe. Bake 20-40 minutes. Start checking at 20 minutes for a proper internal temp. Typically takes about 25-30 minutes but can take up to 40. As long as you cover back up correctly after temp check it will still cook moist. Let cool.

Now you are ready to slice and chop the cooled chicken and have it ready all week long for meals.

Tessemae is an organic brand or dressings and marinades based out of Annapolis, Maryland. They use real ingredients without any preservatives and their products are USDA organic, gluten free, non-GMO, vegan and Whole30 approved. You can find the brand at retailers near you. I find my dressings at Whole Foods, Safeway, Kroger and Target stores near me. You can also purchase from  http://www.tessemaes.com/