Ha, ha, ha.
We have here some tri-color quinoa first. Next, a vegetable stir fry with spring onions, mushrooms, green garlic, zucchini, mushrooms, oregano, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, diced fresh tomatoes, a can of black beans, and lime juice. Then, avocado, naturally, and shredded purple cabbage. The final touch: toasted pumpkin seeds.
You may have observed that all my food ends up as a “bowl.” It’s not that I never do anything more elaborate; weeknights just don’t lend themselves to it, in my experience. It’s enough to throw things in a pot/pan/oven and give it a little sauce to pull it together. That’s more than a lot of people bother with, I think. It’s just not terribly photogenic.
The red beans and rice started with minced onion, red bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper, then a little red pepper flakes and oregano. Added three cups of water and one and a half cups of germinated brown rice, cooked it down a while. Added some hot sauce, coriander, and a can of kidney beans. Cooked until the water was absorbed; seasoned with a pinch of salt.
Steamed greens…self explanatory. Collard greens and a little purple cabbage, chopped and thrown in a steamer basket. Because I gotta.
Salsa is also fairly basic. The following ingredients entered a small plastic container with a screw-top lid, suitable for shake-mixing:
I just wish I had an avocado. This cries out for avocado.
The suggestion request via text was kale with black beans and rice in lettuce cups. We don’t have any more lettuce, and, well, I don’t think kale necessarily goes with black beans (I’m weird about that kind of thing). So the final plan was brown rice cooked with black beans, veggie fajitas, and a standard assortment of accoutrements to make this bowl happy.
The beans and rice were straightforward, unadulterated. Cooked the rice, added the beans near the end, mixed. Probably could’ve done it pilaf-style and it would’ve been tastier, but eh. Effort.
Fajitas–or really, a Southwestern-inspired vegetable stir fry–included:
I cooked them in my giant cast iron skillet, adding new items slowly in hopes of bringing out their best flavor and texture. It did sit around a bit long at the end, though, so the colors were lost. Ah well.
Then there’s the fixins: shredded cabbage, leftover homemade salsa from Sunday night, fresh avocado, toasted pumpkin seeds.
Verdict: could use more spice and salt. But filling and tasty.
