This time of year can be a little challenging for healthy eating with holiday work parties, neighborhood potlucks and family get-togethers. Even with the very best of intentions, your usual healthy eating routine can get derailed FAST! Add shopping, decorating, wrapping gifts, and staging the perfect Christmas card pic to the mix and you’ve got a recipe for disaster when it comes to maintaining your cool around mealtime. That’s what makes this fail-proof formula for building a perfect plant-based meal-in-a-bowl so fantastic!
Get ready —cause this easy to remember formula may just become your go-to meal…even after the holidays are long gone. All credit to Matt Frazier at No Meat Athlete for this powerful combo. Without further adieu, here you go:
Beans + Greens + Grains = MEALTIME SUCCESS!
Simple, right? Nothing fancy. Just real, whole food plant-based components combined together for a satisfying, delicious, and nutritious meal in no time, especially if you have the grains already cooked (such a time-saver)! Want another time-saving tip? Stock up on organic, low-sodium canned beans at the grocery store. With cans of black beans, garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), pinto beans, lentils, and great northern beans in your pantry, the most time-consuming part of making this meal will be operating the can opener! Add some organic greens that come pre-washed and ready to eat, throw it all into a bowl (because there’s just something extra fun about eating out of a bowl) and voila —a perfect meal!
If you really want to kick it up a notch, feel free to add some extras to your bowl. For example, check the produce drawer in your fridge for carrots, bell peppers, beets, red onion, or alfalfa sprouts. Got any leftover roasted potatoes? Throw ‘em in your bowl too! Need something a little creamy and dreamy to serve as a “dressing?” Top it off with a nice-sized scoop of hummus and/or some ripe avocado slices. Is your mouth watering yet?
So, no formal recipe to follow here. Just three core components and limitless options. Use your imagination, your creativity and let your taste buds dictate the ingredients.
Here are a few suggestions just to get the wheels turning:
wheat berries, kale, chickpeas
whole wheat pasta, spinach, lentils
brown rice, black beans, swiss chard (don’t forget the pico de gallo and avocado!)
quinoa, pinto beans, chopped collards
If you'd like more detailed instructions, including a bowl-making video and menu options to choose your bowl ingredients then visit purely planted's Bowl-Making Course. It's FREE!
Feel free to comment and share some of your favorite combinations!
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Hey y’all! My name is LuAnn Parker and I am a graduate student in the Coordinated Program in Dietetics, Department of Nutrition at Georgia State University, on my way to becoming a Registered Dietitian. I am super excited about this opportunity to learn more about helping and educating others on improving their health through nutrition. I am especially interested in working with those affected by cancer, as I have experienced this in my own family. Jesus follower, wife to Greg, mama to 3 beautiful girls, plant-based lover of food! “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” – Benjamin Franklin