Whether you’re struggling to stay full or you’re just bored with your current meals, these taco meal prep bowls are a must try. They’re loaded with veggies that you’ll never know are there and tons of flavor. And each 380-calorie serving weighs almost one pound!
If you’re unfamiliar with the term high volume when it comes to food, that’s exactly what it means—eating tons of food without consuming many calories. Typically you’d think of a salad as being a high volume meal, but those are kinda boring. These taco bowls are far from boring.
Ingredients for Taco Meal Prep Bowls
Before you get to the recipe, I’ll warn you that the ingredient list looks longer than a typical recipe on my blog. Have no fear, most are spices that you could swap out for taco seasoning if you’re working with a minimally stocked pantry.
Regardless of ingredient count, I promise these taco meal prep bowls are easy to make. And like the taco seasoning, most of the ingredients have even more convenient options if you don’t want to pull out your cutting board for veggie prep.
The Veggie Stir Fry
This is the golden ticket for making these meal prep bowls high volume. Here’s what you’ll need with a quick note about substitutions:
- frozen cauliflower rice (fresh works fine)
- can of black beans
- can of corn
- 2 bell peppers and a jalapeño (optional – you can also find these pre-diced)
- chili powder
- olive oil (optional)
All these ingredients are flexible. Add what you want and take what you don’t want away. There’s really no messing this up! Also, if you’re a rice lover, you can use the real deal or a blend of the two like in my Tex-Mex ground beef and rice skillet.
And if you have the carbs, you could include something like my Mexican potatoes or the chopped corn tortillas in my beef enchilada skillet.
The Beef Taco Mixture
If you’ve made my oven baked beef tacos, these meal prep bowls use the exact beef mixture with diced green chiles added. In that recipe, I dubbed it the best taco meat this side of the Mississippi. Seriously, it’s good stuff.
Again, if you’d like to simplify the ingredient list, you could use pre-mixed taco seasoning, pre-diced onion, and pre-peeled garlic. Just don’t use pre-minced garlic. There’s a big difference! Simmer sauces like I used to make ground beef birria are other great alternatives.
You can also use any type of meat for these taco meal prep bowls—everything from ground turkey or chicken to meat alternatives like Beyond Meat crumbles. The 97/3 ground chicken I used for my chicken breakfast sausage patties would be great here.
Update for more protein ideas: Healthy Mexican Chorizo, Traeger Smoked Mexican Chicken, Mexican Grilled Chicken Breast, Shredded Mexican Chicken Thighs
Toppings and Extras for Your Taco Meal Prep Bowls
My favorite topping for Tex-Mex style dishes has to be Greek yogurt and salsa. You can use traditional salsa like I used with my cheesy black bean quesadillas or mix things up with avocado salsa like I used for my creamy chicken enchiladas.
You may also like my Greek yogurt jalapeño ranch or creamy avocado salsa on these bowls.
Aside from the creamy salsa topping, freshly sliced jalapeño, cilantro, and lime juice are never a wrong move. They can add a bit of freshness and zest to the meal prep bowls, especially after 3-4 days in the fridge. And cheese, let’s not forget about the cheese.
Check out my crockpot Mexican chicken burrito bowls for more garnish inspiration. Those things are loaded!
Assembling the Meal Prep Bowls
If you follow the recipe as stated, the veggie stir fry and taco mixture should both weigh around 800 grams each. When combined, that’s 1,600 grams and about 8 cups worth of food.
I decided to split the recipe into 4 servings, but you could divide it up even further and still have large serving sizes. This would be ideal if you need to stretch the recipe to fill an entire week or use them for lunch and prefer a smaller portion.
I’ve included the total macros in the recipe card’s notes section below to save you a bit of math. I hope you enjoy these taco meal prep bowls! If you do, be sure to let me know on the ‘gram @mason_woodruff.
High Volume Taco Meal Prep Bowls
Highly customizable taco bowls with tons of veggies and spicy ground beef.
Ingredients
Veggie Stir Fry
- 12 oz bag Frozen Cauliflower Rice
- 15 oz can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
- 15 oz can Whole Kernel Corn, drained and rinsed
- 2 medium Bell Peppers, I used a red and green
- 1-2 Jalapeño Peppers, optional
- 1/2-1 Tbsp Chili Powder, (to spice preference)
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil, optional
Beef Taco Mixture
- 1 lb Ground Beef, I used 96/4 from HEB
- 1 medium (200g) Yellow Onion, diced
- 5 cloves (25g) Peeled Garlic, minced
- 2 tsp Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Cumin
- 1/4-1 tsp Crushed or Ground Chipotle Pepper, or chili powder (to spice preference)
- 1/2 C (120g) Enchilada Sauce , or salsa
- 4 oz can Diced Green Chiles
Instructions
- Microwave the cauliflower rice for 4-5 minutes while you prep the bell pepper, jalapeño, onion, garlic, black beans, and corn.
- When all your vegetables are prepped, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cauliflower rice, beans, corn, and peppers to the skillet. Briefly stir and then leave untouched for about 4-5 minutes to develop a bit of char on the bottom. Add the chili powder after 5 minutes and stir everything together. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes or so.
- Add the beef, onion, and garlic to a separate large skillet over medium-high heat and break the beef apart. Cook until no pink remains before reducing the heat to medium-low, adding the dry spices, enchilada sauce, and diced chiles. Simmer for about 5 minutes to let all the flavors get acquainted.
- To make the 4 meal prep bowls, add 1 cup or 200 grams of each mixture to a bowl or container. Squeeze a bit of fresh lime juice, garnish with cilantro, and add any other toppings you'd like when serving.
Notes
- One meal prep bowl has 4 Smart Points.
- Each bowl is comprised of 1 C (200g) of each mixture for a total of 2 C (400g) per bowl.
- Total nutrition info for both mixtures:
- If you wanted to save some extra fat, it's possible to cook the veggies without the olive oil.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Bowls Serving Size: 1 BowlAmount Per Serving: Calories: 380Total Fat: 9gCarbohydrates: 38gProtein: 35g
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Traci
Monday 27th of December 2021
This was really good!! Used ground chicken. Added cheese, avocado, lime juice and sour cream. Hubby didn't even miss not having rice!
Karissa
Monday 27th of December 2021
This was a winner. It was more like a chili than a taco bowl, but that's fine by me. I didn't even notice that it was mostly veggies. I will make this again and again.
Moira Winstanley
Wednesday 26th of August 2020
Hey Mason! Amazing recipe!!!! Quick question ..... how does it freeze?????
Mason Woodruff
Tuesday 8th of September 2020
I don't do much freezer testing, but I have a large group of freezer preppers in my Facebook group. So far I don't think I've seen anything that fails the freezer test from them.
Elizabeth Watson
Wednesday 15th of April 2020
This is such a good meal prep option. I stumbled on Mason and his yummy creations when I started my meal prep journey and always fall back on this because it is SO easy and I almost always have the ingredients on hand ready to go!
Lauren H
Wednesday 29th of January 2020
My new favorite meal to prep for lunches at work during the week. So easy to make and so much food per serving size. It was terrific as bowl and I added salsa on top. My husband added the meat to a flour tortilla then topped it with the veggie stir fry for a yummy taco. I'm usually not a fan of riced cauliflower (eat it, but don't love it), but this combination was so tasty. I will definitely be making this one again and again!