bbq cauli bowl

I've been trying to come up with meals that fit a tough criteria:

  1. 20 minutes from ideation to eating
  2. calorically light (under 600c)
  3. balanced (fibrous vegetables, protein, carbs)
  4. reasonable amount of sodium (less than 30% of DV)
  5. tastes good (i look forward to eating it)
Quick usually means packaged; packaged usually means salty; tastes good often means not calorically light. It's a struggle.

We're moving this week, meaning that my pots and pans are packed up and I have a desire to clean out the freezer/fridge. I assembled a meal based on those parameters and came up with a stupidly simple yet surprisingly tasty meal.

amount of forethought required: enough time to go to grocery store and buy a few easy to get things

stuff yll need

  • solids
    • bag of cauliflower rice, preferably with other vegetables mixed in
    • some kind of vegetarian chicken chunk (gardein, quorn, seitan) thing
  • liquids
    • good ass bbq sauce
    • some water or oil
  • spices yo
    • nutritional yeast
    • sage
    • black pepper

stuff yll do

  1. heat up cauliflower rice however you'd like
  2. in a bowl, combine chicken chunks with
    • if you want to microwave: some water, like 2 tbs
    • if you want to sautee: some oil, like 2 teaspoons
    • sage
    • black pepper
    • nutrional yeast
  3. heat up chunks however you'd like.
  4. combine veg, chunks, and bbq sauce (like 2-3 tbs worth depending on how caloric it is)

yeah maybe it's too obvious to even write down but I often overcomplicate and overthink food. I tend to assume good tasting food requires a ton of effort and while this little bowl is not going to taste as good as, say, adobo or mapo it's not at all something I would dread eating and it meets all of my tough criteria above.