Meal prep — making ready a bunch of meals altogether forward of time — is a useful method to improve your probabilities of maintaining a healthy diet throughout the week, lower your expenses on shopping for takeout, and save time and bandwidth by batching your cooking.
We’ve beforehand coated learn how to make simple, high-protein meal-prep breakfast casseroles.
However what about lunch? Are you uninterested in shopping for expensive frozen entrees or getting quick meals burgers in your mid-day meal?
Effectively, I’ve received a recipe for a lunchtime (or dinnertime) meat that’s silly simple. Actually, you’ve received to have each one in every of your final marbles free to mess this up.
Crockpot Italian shredded beef is what’s on the menu at this time, and I’m going to fill you in on learn how to make it and why it’s the final word lunchtime meal-prep meat.
Why Italian Shredded Beef Makes for an Superior Go-to Lunchtime Meal-Prep Meat
It’s low cost. This recipe requires a chuck roast. As of 2024, a pound of chuck roast goes for ~$7.50 a pound. Let’s say you purchase a 3-pound chuck roast for $22.50, and also you divvy that 3-pound chuck roast into per week’s value of seven 150-gram servings of shredded beef. You’re about $3 per meal (plus the small price of including a carb like rice). That’s fairly dang good.
It’s excessive in protein. A-150 gram serving of chuck roast provides you with about 37 grams of protein together with important micronutrients. The one draw back of chuck roast shredded beef is that it’s excessive in fats. A 150-gram serving contains 23 grams of fats. However the fats makes it tasty and satiating.
It’s simple to make. It takes lower than 5 minutes to make Italian shredded beef. You simply put the chuck roast in a crock pot, dump in three different components, after which let it prepare dinner for six to eight hours. Stupidly simple!
It’s versatile. You’ll be able to eat Italian shredded beef for lunchtime or dinnertime and accompany it with quite a lot of sides. It’s scrumptious on a sandwich roll, however I usually eat mine with some rice or roasted potatoes, or put it in a tortilla.
It’s tasty. It’s slow-cooked beef. After all it’s tasty and savory.
Easy methods to Make Meal-Prep Italian Shredded Beef
Right here’s learn how to make simple Italian shredded beef. You’ll naturally want a gradual cooker/crockpot.

Collect the Components
3 lbs of chuck roast. The most effective lower of beef for this, attributable to its marbling, which helps in creating tender, simply shreddable meat. Alternatively, spherical or rump roast may also be used.1 cup beef broth. Go for low sodium if you wish to cut back the saltiness of this dish.1 16 oz jar of pepperoncinis, liquid included. (For much less spiciness, use much less of the liquid.)2 packets of Italian dressing combine
Add Components to Crockpot

Like I mentioned, that is silly simple. Simply put all your components within the gradual cooker. Set to prepare dinner on low warmth for 7-9 hours. Set it and overlook it. Cooking on low ensures the meat turns into completely tender and shreddable.
Shred the Meat
As soon as the meat is tender and simply falls aside, it’s time to shred. Seize two forks and shred the meat within the pot. After shredding, let the meat sit within the juices for a couple of minutes to reinforce its taste and moisture.
Utilizing Your Crockpot Shredded Beef
Three kilos of chuck roast provides you with about seven 150-gram servings of shredded beef. Every week’s value of lunchtime meat.
I put all of the meat into one container and retailer it within the fridge. When it’s lunchtime, I simply portion out 150 grams of the shredded beef and pair it with no matter starch I’ve on the prepared or really feel like consuming that day. That could possibly be rice, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, or a sandwich roll. The chances are many.
Alternatively, as soon as your shredded beef has been ready, dole it out into seven separate dishes alongside together with your most popular starch. For instance, you may put 150 grams of beef into seven meal prep containers together with a scoop of rice. Now they’re all utterly able to go. This makes it simple to seize within the morning and take to the workplace in case you don’t do business from home. Even in case you do do business from home, it’s good to have the ability to merely seize one thing from the fridge, warmth it, and eat it.
Should you’re on the lookout for an inexpensive, simple, high-protein meal-prep lunch, make your self a batch of slow-cooked Italian shredded beef, and also you’ll by no means have to achieve for a Scorching Pocket once more.