We’re always looking for really simple meals that deliver tons of flavour and nutrition, without a lot of extra fuss. You guys loved my breakfast bowl ideas, so I thought I’d share three lunch bowls to add into your weekly menu options.
When we have a plan for eating well – you can make it part of your lifestyle with ease. I’m offering you 3 smart cooking ideas to help you do just that!
Black Bean Burrito Bowl
This is all of your food groups in one bowl! The brighter and more colourful you make it, the better – so get creative and add in the ingredients that you love. What I do at home is, I fill my fridge with the ingredients that I’d choose at a salad bar. That way I can add in lots of fun flavours into all my lunch bowls.For this burrito bowl, we’re using brown rice and black beans, plus a salad with fresh veggies and cilantro. Don’t feel bad about using canned beans, if it makes your life easier and means that you’ll eat more of the good stuff. Just choose a better brand, with low or no sodium and zero preservatives or additives. If you want to sprinkle a little cheese on it – go for it!Go ahead and make a big batch of rice, to keep for quick dinners throughout the week.tip: you can make your own stock, but I always keep a jar of stock base handy for busy weeks. I love this brand: Better Than Bouillon (go for low sodium stocks so that you can control the salt)
Ingredients
Tasty Brown Rice Recipe
- 2 cups brown rice
- 4 cups veggie or chicken stock
Sriracha Sauce Recipe: this dressing is a dreamy, creamy sauce with a spicy kick. It takes exactly 10 seconds to make, I’ve timed it!
- 2 tbsp greek yogurt
- 1 tsp Sriracha sauce
Instructions
- In a pot, pour in the rice and stock
- cover the pot and bring to a boil and then turn it down to simmer
- cook until the rice is soft.
- turn off the fire, but leave the rice in the pot to release the steam and get fluffy
Sundried Tomato Hummus Recipe
If you’re looking for something fresh but still substantial – you’ll love this humus bowl. Sun-dried tomato packs in extra flavour and butterhead lettuce makes a perfect little bowl. If you can’t find butterhead, go for romaine and make it a wrap :) For the toppings, I go with feta and fresh tomato – but you are the captain of your bowl – so go for what makes you happy!
Ingredients
this recipe makes a big batch to keep all week for snacks and lunches
- 2 cans chickpeas
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice about 1 large lemon
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil use the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/4 cup tahini
Instructions
- in a food processor, blend the chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice, salt and oil
- blend until smooth
- add in the tahini
- continue blending until fully incorporated and smooth
Roast Pumpkin and Veggie Soup Recipe
Make a big batch of soup and you’ll eat well all week! You can pack in so much nutrition – full of hearty veggies, it’s light on the body and it’s easy on the budget! Personally, I love a good smooth pumpkin soup, but it needs a bit of crunch. Savoury granola will be perfect for this soup – and use it as salad topping too.
Ingredients
- 4 carrots peeled and quartered lengthwise
- 1/2 kg pumpkin cut in slivers (you can leave the skin on)
- 1 large red onion quartered
- 3 cloves garlic in their casing
- sprigs rosemary
- 4 cups homemade stock or from a stock base
Instructions
- pre-heat oven to 180c
- place all of your ingredients in a large bowl
- pour in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season well with salt
- toss until well coated
- place veggies on a roasting tray
- roast for 45 minutes to an hour – until golden and soft
- scoop the pumpkin away from the skin and into a pot. Pop out the soft roasted garlic from its casing
- add in all the veggies into the pot, you can de-stem and add in the rosemary too
- add in 4 cups of stock
- cook on the stove for 15 minutes to meld the flavours.
- Using a immersion stick blender, blend the soup
- or – you can just transfer into a blender and blend until smooth
- taste for salt and add if needed
Spicy Granola Topping Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup nuts – almonds, cashew, walnuts or a mix
- 1/2 cup seeds – pumpkin, sesame and sunflower
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp cayenne powder
Instructions
- pre-heat oven to 175c
- in a bowl, combine the dried ingredients. save the cranberries until the end
- in a another bowl, mix the olive oil, maple syrup, salt and cayenne powder
- combine the two and mix until incorporated
- place flat on a cookie sheet and into the oven
- bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, flipping it a few times throughout not to burn
- take out of the oven and then add in your cranberries
- store in an airtight glass jar
Hope these lunch bowls gave you some good ideas and inspiration for making healthy eating easy and delicious! Know someone that could use a little lunchtime lift? Make sure to share these recipes with them.
p.s. Meal planning and batch cooking are both amazing time-savers, unlocking hours in your week with just a little forward planning. I’ll be sharing more about this in my upcoming (free) How to Become a Morning Person email course. More than 900 readers have already joined. Are you in?
