Laura and I began this week under the assumption that our recipe challenge for today would involve trying a new to us Power Bowl recipe.
I am no stranger to eating Power Bowls. Power Bowls (or Buddha Bowls, the terms are often used interchangeably) have been my favorite go-to meals ever since switching to a meatless diet well over four years ago now.
Why I love Power Bowls:
Great plant-based and vegetarian meal options
Easy to prepare
Minimal cook time
Portable (perfect for bringing to work!)
Can be prepared in advance
Delicious hot or cold
Power Bowls give me just enough variety while allowing me to stick to my usual favorite foods. As a runner, these Power Bowls give me my complex carbohydrates (sweet potatoes, brown rice or quinoa), good sources of plant-based proteins (beans, lentils and quinoa) and combined quality nutrition when you add in the veggies and healthy fats to support my mileage and recovery.
I even wrote a great Build Your Own Plant Based Power Bowl post which is one of my most popular posts each week ever since sharing it last year!
I highly recommend you check out the post so that you can read in detail how I go about building a plant-based power bowl.
Laura and I quickly encountered an issue though when trying to locate a new Power Bowl recipe to try this week.
We realized that recipe pins on Pinterest always look different, new and exciting yet after close inspection, many of the pins are all the same recipes just with different authors and pictures.
Pinterest can be an overwhelming place.
You come across so many wonderful images that get paired with recipes and each time, you think you found a new recipe when really, it’s the same recipe you have already pinned just with different images from a different pinner. We often don’t realize this until we go to make the recipe!
This is not at all to say that the Power Bowl recipes we found on Pinterest aren’t terrific because they are, it’s just that Laura and I didn’t see anything that we personally hadn’t made yet.
Instead of showing you a new recipe that we tried this week, we have chosen to discuss our findings with you (since we like to be honest) and share with you some of the recipe we do think are of interest should you be interested in trying a new to you Power Bowl idea.
Power Bowls of interest:
Roasted Veggie & Wild Rice Buddha Bowl
Build Your Own Plant Based Power Bowl
Worth mentioning again is the Power Salad that I made on Monday.
I want to formally share the recipe for the Power Salad since it closely relates to a Power Bowl. If you skip the lettuce and up the amounts of sweet potatoes, quinoa and roasted veggies, you can in fact create a more traditional Power Bowl. Leave out the feta cheese if you want to keep things plant-based!
This power salad is packed with nutrition and flavor leaving you satisfied and full of energy. Perfect for vegetarians and meatless eaters who are looking for something different to eat!
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato
- half head of cauliflower
- 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 pint grape tomatoes
- Chopped romaine lettuce
- Crumbled feta cheese
- avocado (diced)
- Dijon Mustard*
- Maple Syrup*
- Coconut Oil cooking spray or melted coconut oil
- optional:
- walnuts, almond, pecans for crunch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Wash and dice sweet potatoes and cauliflower, placing on greased oven safe pan.
- Spritz sweet potatoes and cauliflower with coconut oil cooking spray (or melted coconut oil).
- Drizzle small amount of pure maple syrup over the veggies along with a small amount of Dijon mustard, shaking pan so that all veggies are evenly coated.
- Roast in oven for 30 - 40 minutes (longer the better to achieve true crispiness).
- Add grape tomatoes to the oven half way through the roasting time.
- Place chopped romaine lettuce in a salad bowl.
- When veggies are fully roasted, add them to the salad bowl along with quinoa, diced avocado and feta cheese.
- Toss salad to ensure all ingredients are spread evenly throughout the bowl.
- You can add a dressing of your choice but it honestly doesn't need the additional flavor!
Notes
*You can season your veggies however you wish. I like the maple Dijon combination but you can certainly skip this step, using spices that you like or even roasted the veggies plain.
Previous Recipe Challenge Posts:
Sweet Potato, Black Bean & Quinoa Burgers
Make sure to check out Laura’s Vegetarian Power Bowl post today too!
How to make a great power bowl plus recipes #powerbowl #plantbased #vegetarian #recipechallenge Click To TweetAre you a fan of Power Bowls? What’s your favorite combination?
Do you find the pins on Pinterest to be overwhelming sometimes?
What are you up to this weekend?!
I was telling Laura that I struggle with finding vegetarian proteins that I like, but this reminded me that quinoa has protein in it. I definitely get overwhelmed by pinterest. Now I kind of have my go-to recipes pinned on there and stick with those. Power bowls are so perfect for weekday lunches and i love that I can prep them over the weekend.
Lisa @ Running Out Of Wine recently posted…5 Reasons Foot Injuries are the Worst
and quinoa is a complete protein so it’s a good option! if you don’t love lentils or beans (although mashing chick peas with avocado may help with that) eggs and cheese are nice meatless proteins too.
Looks delicious! Thanks for sharing. Just wondering, what benefits have you realized since switching to a vegetarian diet? I’m trying to incorporate more meatless meals and would love your insights. Thanks!
Hi! Yes, I definitely experienced many health benefits basically immediately after switching my diet. I recommend you read the link to my meatless diet post since it gives in-depth details on why I switched and what I noticed. If you have any other questions, just let me know!my meatless diet
I grew up eating these vegetarian bowls(sometimes served on a plate). Sweet potatoe, lentils, kasha, broccoli and sometimes other additions. My mom had so many variations. We’ve been eating quinoa for 35 years. It’s funny how our regular diet became such a fad.
Btw, do you use a B12 spray to subsidize your plant-based diet?
Lesq recently posted…August beauty must haves you must have
I actually didn’t even know such a thing existed! I haven’t experienced vitamin deficiency symptoms so I haven’t needed to think about this but I do eat a lot of nutritional yeast and eggs which both contain vitamin b 12. You may want to ask laura about this – she may not be a nutritionist but as a running coach, she is extremely knowledgeable on nutrition subjects and the nutrients we need. She may be able to help more than I can!
Since we texted about power bowls all week my comment will be tangential, but Ryan started using Pinterest for business and is both excited by and overwhelmed by all the content on there. Like there’s almost too much on Pinterest!
Laura @ This Runner’s Recipes recently posted…How to Make Vegetarian Power Bowls
for sure there’s a ton of information on pinterest but it can certainly be overwhelming!
Well… I think the closest thing I’ve ever eaten to a power bowl is a bowl of macaroni topped with crushed Doritos. Or I’ll mix birthday cake ice cream into my morning oatmeal. Ha ha! I’m not the greatest example…
Suzy recently posted…Potty Training for Adults
lol so funny, as usual!
Have you ever been to Laughing Planet? They are in Oregon and the west coast! SO yum and they have dinosaurs to play with on the tables! ha look it up
I haven’t! we don’t have that here in ny but sounds really fun!
Pretty much anything tastes better in a bowl – but the more bowl recipes I try to find, the more I have the same discovery as you. They’re very similar! Especially when I try to find any variation on my yummy brunch bowl (sweet or white sweet potatoes, eggs, sauteed veggies, sometimes chicken sausage since I do eat poultry) I realize there really aren’t any other than mixing up the veggies since I don’t like beans much. It does make it more fun t think of it as a build-your-own each time though.
Alyssa @ Renaissancerunnergirl recently posted…Weekly Workouts and Updates 7/25-7/31
yeah, as versatile as the bowls are, the more often you make them, the more you realize a lot of them are the same, or extremely similar
I loved your power bowl post. I still remember it.
Also pinterest is a bunch of shenanigans too. 🙂
Meghan@CleanEatsFastFeets recently posted…Cucumber Tomato Salad with Feta and Chickpeas