Grain Bowls or an Easy, Healthy Lunch

These have been my go-to lunch and sometimes dinner for awhile now.  Back in the beginning of the year when I was on my super healthy kick (it lasted about 12 days) I started eating these and they are delicious and easy to prep.  Basically you start with any grain, top with a cooked vegetable, add some greens, half an avocado and whatever dressing you have around. 

Here’s the recipe:

1 cup cooked grain

1 cup cooked veg

1 bunch greens

½ avocado

Dressing to taste

Salt & pepper

Combine the grain and veg in a bowl.  If you are cold, heat it up in the microwave for 45 seconds.

Tear spinach or cut with kitchen shears and add to bowl

Chop half an avocado in its shell and add to bowl

Add dressing and s&p, enjoy!

Healthy, filling, and fast.  YUM!

Regarding the recipe, you can proportion each bowl however you want.  Clearly I don't actually measure when I am putting these together. If I have a cup and a half of quinoa left you can bet it's all going in the bowl. Likewise I usually use half a sweet potato, but with a really big one I'd probably still use half.  I like getting a mix of everything in every bite so measure by sight as I am putting it together.   

Grain options:

Black rice

Brown rice

Quinoa

Barley

These are the ones I usually use, I think you could probably use any grain so when I expand my repertoire to include millet or amaranth I’ll update you on the results.

Lately I have been using a mix of brown and black rice.  I got the black rice (aka wild rice) at Trader Joes and then could not figure out what to do with it.  Every wild rice recipe calls for a mix of rice’s not just straight up black rice.  Initially I would cook a pan of brown rice and another pan of black rice but the last time I made it I was trying to use up the last of the brown rice, barely a quarter cup and didn’t have a pan small enough to cook it in.  I was concerned too much surface area would cause it to not come out right.  I went ahead and combined it with a quarter cup of black rice and 2 cups of water and cooked it on low for 40 minutes.  It came out perfect, or close enough. 

Vegetables: 

Sweet potato

Butternut squash

Kabocha squash

Acorn Squash

I have tried all of the above but I usually opt for baked sweet potato because I can never get enough of it.  Occasionally I spice it up with butternut squash roasted with tons of garlic.  The others I used because I had them around and needed to use them before they went bad.  You could definitely use mushrooms or eggplant or whatever your favorite is. 

Greens:

Spinach

Kale

I always use either spinach or kale, whichever one I have in the refrigerator and/or is closest to going bad.  Feel free to use your favorite green or whatever you have on hand

Avocado

The avocado really makes it for me.  This is another vegetable (fruit?) that I cannot get enough of.  I put them in just about everything and eat them plain too.  Well, with salt and lime juice, so good!  Ideally my bowls will be so perfectly proportioned that I get a piece of creamy, yummy avocado in each bite. 

Dressing…To be continued because this is a whole post in and of itself