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| Grain bowl ready for lunch. |
A recent article* in the Dining Section of the NY Times featured grain bowls as a one-dish adventure. Melissa Clark promoted a number of ideas for grain bowls from different restaurants, but the one thing all grain bowls seem to have in common are the three layers: the grain, the vegetable layer, and the protein topped with some kind of sauce. Left-overs are great for building a grain bowl for a quick breakfast or lunch. With this in mind I checked out the left-overs in our fridge and made bowls for our lunch today.
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| Frozen quinoa and kale from Costco. |
Since I discovered the frozen quinoa and kale at Costco, I almost always have some of that in the freezer. The little individual bag that is a perfect serving for two or three cooks in 4 minutes. I used this as the base for the first layer, about a third of a bowl. (Yes I know quinoa isn't a grain, it's a seed but it's a good substitute.)
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| Pop this bag of frozen quinoa and kale in microwave for 4 minutes. |
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| First third in bowl, a layer of quinoa and kale. |
In the fridge I had a package of Trader Joe's peeled and cooked baby beets. Dan and I both love beets, so these became the vegetable layer---the next third of the bowl on top of the quinoa and kale.
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| Trader Joe's baby beets ready to eat. |
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| These go in the microwave for 1 minutes. |
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| Layer sliced beets over the quinoa. |
I didn't seem to have any sauce on hand that would work,
and I didn't want to make one, so I topped the bowl with a spoonful of
three-bean salad (another left-over) This added a little more protein
and a lot of flavor. I spread a bit of the pickling juice over the top.
Trader Joe's to the rescue again. There was part of a roll of goat cheese from TJ's---that became the protein layer.
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| Trader Joe's goat cheese. |
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| Protein layer of chevre on top and ready to eat in less than 10 minutes. |
This was so easy and so quickly made and nutritious. This can be eaten warm or cold. We will eat it cold so I have it ready now for lunch. I'll keep grain bowls in mind when I need to use left-overs or when I just want something a bit different and something that can be whipped up in short order.
*Check out Melissa Clark's
link in the NY Times for more ideas about preparing grain bowls.
p.s. If Rachel Ray can have a TV show called "30 Minute Meals", perhaps I could have one called "Meals in Less Than 10 Minutes". Are you listening Food Network?
