Healthy Waists, Healthy Wallets: Mediterranean-style Bowls

We love bowl-based eating in our house. If you put a bunch of stuff in a bowl, my kids (and husband) will happily devour it.

We do burrito bowls. We do “Buddha bowls.” (Can we come up with a less-sacrilegious name for these, please?) We do a lot of bowls. My favorite swings between Asian-inspired and Mediterranean-inspired. Both are full of fresh vegetables, and both are easy on the wallet. Today, I’ve put together my Mediterranean bowl “recipe,” although calling it a recipe is sort of ridiculous. It’s just a list of thing we like. I’ll do the Asian-inspired bowl in another post!

So without further ado, the Mediterranean bowl!

Ingredients for four people

½ cup cooked brown rice, farro, quinoa or other whole grain per person (I usually cook these with dried herbs to give a bit more flavor – try Italian seasoning or herbes de Provence for “authenticity”)
¼ cup homemade or store-bought hummus per person (for store-bought, I usually add more garlic and lemon juice; for homemade, check out this recipe – it’s delicious!)
¼ hothouse or English cucumber, diced, per person (more or less – my husband doesn’t particularly like cucumbers, the poor man)
Handful grape tomatoes per person
½ medium carrot, thinly sliced, per person
1 or 2 baby sweet peppers, thinly sliced, per person
1 green onion, thinly sliced, or some chopped red onion per person
Handful baby spinach or super greens per person
Dollop of plain Greek yogurt or tzatziki per person
3 or 4 olives per person
A bit of crumbled feta per person
Drizzle of good olive oil and a squeeze of lemon per person

These are the basics. If we have other things in the fridge, we throw them in the bowl! For example:

• Leftover protein – roasted or grilled chicken, pork, roast beef or steak, seafood, etc.
• Leftover or canned chickpeas, beans, or lentils
• Roasted beets
• Sliced fennel
• Capers
• Artichoke hearts
• Hearts of palm (not cheap, but my younger kidlet adores them as a special treat)
• Roasted or grilled vegetables – broccoli, green beans, onions, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, squash, sweet potatoes, eggplant, etc.
• Fresh herbs
• Pickled vegetables
• Sauces – pesto, harissa, piri piri, chimichurri, etc.
• Hardboiled eggs
• Avocados
• Whatever you have in the fridge or pantry that you like!

Directions

Put the ingredients in a bowl. Drizzle with a little bit of good olive oil and some fresh lemon juice. Eat.