As I started writing this post, I was thinking “brown rice” which should have translated into typing “brown rice” but instead, and why am I surprised, I type “brownies.”
One-track mind people, one track.
We are not scheduled to talk about brownies today but I did enjoy the most incredible brownie sundae Friday night at Andreas 25 and really, if you ever feel the need to discuss brownies please contact me. I am always ready to talk (or eat) dessert.
Back to the brown rice. Rather, to the topic of stir fry bowls, loaded with brown rice, sweet potatoes, vegetables and meatless proteins of your choice!
Stir fry bowls are where it is at in our house lately which is making my life so much easier!
It’s not always possible to create one meal for the two of us because I live the meatless life but do not enforce my diet on my son so I am usually preparing some sort of chicken dish for him and something separate for myself.
Stir fry bowls are not only super easy, healthy and quick to create but completely customizable which means I can prepare the base for both of us and get creative on the proteins and vegetables without much hassle.
We have a new favorite base combination: diced sweet potato and brown rice.
Do not fear the complex carbs, do you hear me? Do not fear! It’s perfectly okay and acceptable to eat both sweet potatoes and brown rice in one meal!
Your muscles and energy levels will thank you, as will your taste buds.
Once I have the sweet potato and brown rice base combination which is cooked with a drop of soy sauce and sweet chili sauce, I then add in some veggies and pick our proteins (plus avocado of course!)
My son does not love the same vegetables as I do so usually I set aside a portion of the stir fry base for him, add in his protein and then proceed with adding in my veggies and protein of choice.
While I am a lover of a plant-based stir fry bowl which typically involves chick peas as my protein source, we do agree upon shrimp (which is meatless but not vegetarian or plant-based)…
Before we get to the simple stir fry recipe (which by the way doesn’t actually involve frying or even much stirring so I should probably call this recipe something else but just go with it for now, okay?), here are some other tips and tricks for creating your meatless stir fry bowls:
- I make life easy by using the frozen brown rice medley from Trader Joe’s
- If you don’t want to use brown rice, how about quinoa?
- In order to save some time, roast your sweet potatoes (and vegetables too) on the weekend when you do your food prep for the week.
- Not in the mood for sweet potato? How about roasted butternut squash?
- Keep things plant-based by using chick peas (mashed, roasted or straight from the can)
- Tofu is another meatless/plant-based option which I seem to forget about!
- While shrimp is an awesome addition to a meatless stir-fry bowl; make sure you buy wild shrimp and not farm-raised to avoid those toxins and chemicals as much as possible.
- If you don’t want to roast fresh veggies, use frozen steamfresh bags for the microwave or just saute them in a pan.
- Any vegetable will work nice in a stir fry but if you need assistance figuring out combinations, try buying a stir fry veggie mix (fresh or frozen)
- If you are avoiding soy yet want the flavor of soy sauce, try Coconut Liquid Aminos (I know Whole Foods sells it)
- Don’t forget the avocado!
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:29]
[bctt tweet=”Try making this stir fry bowl for Meatless Monday! #meatlessmonday #recipe”]
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If you had to pick one: brownies or cookies?
Are fresh berries cheap by you yet? I can’t get blueberries for a decent price!!!!
Did you buy anything new this week at the grocery store?
- 1 large sweet potato (diced up and roasted)
- 1 package of Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Medley (from the frozen section)
- 2 tbps. Soy Sauce – divided*
- 2 tbps. Sweet Chili Sauce – divided*
- Veggies of choice (steam fresh or fresh roasted)
- Protein source of choice (I used shrimp for this recipe which is meatless but not vegetarian) – use the amount you desire
- Avocado
- Wash and dice sweet potato into small little chunks.*
- Roast in 450 degree oven for 20 minutes until soft and slightly crispy around the edges.
- Prepare vegetables either by microwaving or roasting in 450 degree oven.
- Cook shrimp in a lightly greased skillet according to package instructions, adding in 1 tbsp. each of soy sauce and sweet chili sauce.
- In the meantime, heat rice in the microwave and then add to a large bowl.
- Add in diced sweet potato, mixing to combine with rice..
- Add in vegetables, remaining soy sauce and sweet chili sauce, mixing to combine.
- Add shrimp to the bowl OR add veggie sweet potato rice mixture to the pan of shrimp and mix to combine.
- Serve topped with avocado.
The Cookie ChRUNicles 
I have an obsession with bowl meals. Brownies will always win 🙂
I love a good fudgy brownie, especially if it iced with chocolate fudge on top 🙂
Brownies or Cookies? uhhh BROOKIES. 😉
Love the idea of potatoes and rice together- One of my favourite rice dishes uses both (it’s a curry flavour!).
Totally love the rice with sweet potatoes. Such a great combo.
Love bowl meals like this! Do I have to choose between cookies and brownies? Can I have both!? 🙂
It really wasn’t fair of me to ask you to pick one, I certainly can’t!
Ha, I am so ignorant. I had no idea people would fear rice with potatoes because the total carb factor. I almost always put my veggie stir fry on top of brown rice or quinoa because it’s delicious and nutritious.
I love the idea of using sweet potatoes and chickpeas, neither of which I have tried….although that will change now. Thanks for the ideas and the recipe.
Definitely try it with chick peas and sweet potato. It is so so good! I always add chick peas to stir frys – either straight from the can or mashed with avocado. so delicious.
I tried all sorts of new things this weekend, + I went to Target (which I never do) so sooooo many things (on the blog, so you’re just going to have to wait lol)
I have to get to your post today! Ugh lately I can’t get to reading all of the posts in the morning which is the way I like it! I will get to it later for sure 🙂
I love bowls like this that you can customize to suit your tastes, and heck yes for brown rice + sweet potatoes going together! So good.
Such a great combo, isn’t it?! We love it!
brown rice or brownies same thing! I love a great stir fry and eat it often. You are right we need good carbs and we should not fear them. We love having you for Meatless Monday but please be careful next time that your recipes is completely vegetarian-oops! You can put something like option to add shrimp or something? Thanks!! Have a great day
I am so sorry! I didn’t realize it couldn’t involve fish – I tweaked the wording a bit in the post, I hope it is okay now. Thanks for letting me know 🙂
I also love big bowls of food all mixed up! I think I’d pick brownies over cookies, with no nuts and chocolate chips mixed in and super fudgey 🙂 I’ve also been annoyed by the price of blueberries! We all love them too so they disappear so quickly.
Absolutely no nuts in the brownies! Always ruined it for me.
I was out of town this weekend so Rob did the grocery shopping…we are still getting used to where to find everything around our new place so he ended up going to a million different stores. I feel bad but we ended up with everything we need for the week!
I am not a fan of shrimp but I love everything else about this recipe! I’m thinking I would just use chicken instead…obviously its no longer meatless but I feel like I would need to add protein somehow.
It definitely works with chicken too! So versatile.
I looooove warm homemade chocolate chip cookies over brownies, but just barely. And I’ve always roasted my sweet potato chunks in a 400 degree oven and they always turn out smushy! I’ll have to try them at 450 for a shorter time. THANKS!
I do notice that sweet potatoes will get mushier than a regular baking potato but at 450 degrees I find they can crisp up! Soak them in water first too, if you have the patience….I LOVE warm chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven but I adore a fudge iced brownie too!
Yum! Stir fry, and veggie bowls in general, always hit the spot for me! Brownie cookies for me! 😉 The berries were ok here but they shot up a couple weeks ago and have either been really bad or really good. This week they were good but expensive, we love them so I still them but I try to get them to eat a lot of other fruits too so I’m not restocking midweek.
I just really need my fresh blueberries! The prices are still a bit insane here. Ugh!
Stir fry bowls are the love of my life… probably because they’re so simple to whip up and so.freaking.GOOD. I’ve actually been going the burrito bowl route with my rice lately, but I think it’s time to bring back the stir fries. And it’s been a while since I bought tofu, too! I seriously need to get my butt to the grocery store.
I never think of tofu. We should discuss it.
Thanks for encouraging us these meatless Mondays with your recipe 😀 Wouldn’t change it for any meat dish!
So delicious, definitely don’t miss the meat proteins!
I don’t know how I haven’t thought to add sweet potato and brown rice together! Apparently, I’m behind. I love a good veggie bowl 🙂
Definitely try combining the two- it’s a great combo!
This looks so pretty! And tasty as well 🙂 I’m definitely a fan of brownies as well, much more than cookies.
Love fudgy brownies!