10 Blue WW Points per Serving
And the winner for longest name of a food dish goes to …! I know, it’s a bit excessive. But honestly, I struggled for quite sometime on what on earth to actually call this. Here… have a bowl of food. That’s what my girlfriend Janae has become known for. And honestly, it’s what become really popular on the quick service food scene as well as on Pinterest, Instagram, Tik Tok and more. A little bit of everything rolled up into one simple bowl. This random mix of ingredients wasn’t actually from my brain. It was my take on a dish that a local restaurant has that I’ve become quite a fan of. Except they use chicken instead of shrimp, and there is a reason why I made that switch, more on that later. But this was fun, delicious, healthy and super filling!
So back to my girlfriend Janae. She’s a power lifter and an incredibly impressive one. I have watched her grow from doing crossfit to now lifting the comparable weight to Randy and myself. Her health and food journey has been an impressive one. She knows what she has to eat to be in great shape and maintain a healthy routine, as well as a good mental state. That girl impresses me to no end. But she has become known for putting all of her needed meals into one bowl for easy consumption. Therefore: a bowl of food was born. Now while I am not in the running to become a power lifter of any kind, I am a fan of the idea of a balanced meal in one easy to eat set up. I’m a huge fan of Poke bowls, which is basically the ingredients of sushi put into a bowl instead of rolled up in rice.
A few months back, I wanted to try this local place and liked it immediately. They focused on grain and salad bowls with a mix of all different ingredients. Grilled vegetables, wholesome grains or rice, various proteins, fresh produce options and many sauces to choose from. Generally in a place like this, I’m a create my own kinda gal. However, to be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed with the options. So I tried one of their creations. It was sooooo good! Griddled chicken, brown rice, sweet potatoes, feta cheese, pita chips, avocado, pickled red onion, grilled corn and topped with a tahini Caesar. I realize in WW world, this is a LOT of points. It is a beast of a meal from a food pyramid point of view.
Protein, fat (healthy fat!), carbs and veggies… the perfect balance. Now granted, you could lower that fat intake with another sauce. And you could choose one carb or the other. But truth be told, the combination of ingredients is a great one for meal prepping. Make each of these items up and they can be incorporated in lunches, dinners and even breakfasts. This is a fantastic lunch option as it’s a bigger meal that will keep you full and give your body time to process all of the ingredients. This is an awesome option for athletes who need to “carb up” before an event or fuel themselves.
First things first, let’s get those red onions pickling. Yes, we are pickling. If it scares you or you aren’t a fan, you can certainly use raw. But pickling is so much easier then people think it is. And you can do a quick pickle that will give you big flavor and results in as little as an hour. Plus, if you are like me and have digestive issues, pickled or fermented items actually help your digestive tract.
Combine your pickling ingredients and then pour it over your sliced red onions. Send it right to the fridge and let them hang out in there until you are ready to use them.
Next up is get those sweet potatoes roasting. I used the purple ones that we had left from our Misfit Markets order. They taste just like normal sweet potatoes but are just a gorgeous purple color.
Why sweet potatoes? They have so many more health benefits for you then white or regular potatoes. To start, they are an excellent source of fiber as well as being high in Vitamins & Minerals, as long as you don’t cover them with butter and marshmallows. They can help manage Diabetes, boost your immune system, enhance your memory, manage your weight loss, help your vision, improve your skin and hair and are good for digestion just to name a few!
I cubed mine after peeling them, sprayed them with the smallest amount of oil, seasoned with salt & pepper and air fried them for 10-12 minutes.
Let’s get that brown rice going. Obviously, this can easily be done on the stove. I lately have gotten into a kick of using my Instant Pot/Pressure Cooker for my rice. You can thank not having a kitchen for 2 months for that. It just takes the guess work out of it and leaves you free to focus on other ingredients. I cook mine with some low sodium chicken stock for extra flavor. Brown rice is a better option then white rice as it has more vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber.
Now, let’s talk about the chicken switch up. Have you noticed lately that some of your boneless, skinless chicken breasts have a funky, tough texture? When you cut them, you see the grain is thicker and more noticeable? If you try to eat them, they have a firm, undesirable texture. We came across this many times over the Pandemic and finally looked it up to see why. Wooden Breast Syndrome is a new disorder that is affecting broiler chickens where the meat of breasts become hard and touch, with the texture being most like wood. I had never seen this until last year. And while it will cause no problems to us as humans, the consistency is very tough and undesirable. While I was slicing the chicken down for this recipe, we came across 5 chicken breasts out of 6 that were purchased that had this issue. It was very disheartening. We’ve tried several different brands and stores but it seems no one can escape this issue in the poultry community right now.
So we threw out the chicken and made the game time call to switch to shrimp. Another WW 0 point food for Blues, it was an easy choice as we always keep a bag of frozen ones in our freezer. If you are not a shrimp fan, you can switch it out for turkey breast, pork tenderloin, fish or even more veggies or beans.
We sauteed the shrimp and seasoned it. My recommendation is to always cook shrimp whole and then cut it down to what you want or need afterwards. If you dice it ahead of time, it will dry out a lot faster when cooking and lose a lot of it’s nutrients as well as flavors.
Next up, frozen corn kernels were heated up in a pan and kept warm. I went to work next on the sauce.
Can you buy bottled Caesar dressing and add tahini to it for this sauce? Absolutely! Is it easier to do? Sure is. But I like knowing what’s going into my sauce, especially when I am counting WW points. Caesar dressing is mayonnaise based, so grab some mayo, full fat, low fat or even miracle whip, whatever you’d like. Add in parmesan cheese, lemon juice, black pepper, Dijon Mustard and then a drizzle of the tahini. So what’s tahini? It’s ground sesame seeds that form a puree and smell just like peanut butter. They are a main ingredient in Hummus as well.
So at this point, we’re about ready to assemble. Grab a bowl, and start adding in your brown rice, sweet potatoes, shrimp and corn. Grab your cold items which includes your crumbled feta cheese, avocado and pickled red onions. Crumble that feta in and cube up that avocado. Now, you can make this look all cute like I did and give everyone their own little section. Or you can mix it all up, that’s what I did after I took the photos! Drizzle that sauce across the top and you are ready to go!
This is such a fun mixture of ingredients. The flavors really play off each other well and keep things interesting for your taste buds. If this is too much of a hit WW points wise, with it being 10 points per serving, then make up a big batch and just eat smaller portions at a time. The best part about this dish is that these foods are all super healthy for you. There’s nothing processed. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just clean, wholesome food that is all good for you and has lots of benefits to your health and your body. This is also a great template to be about to switch out. Don’t like corn? Replace it with another veggie? Don’t like feta cheese? No problem! Use another one then. Have fun with it and make it your own!
The Balanced Bowl: Shrimp with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Avocado, Brown Rice & Tahini Caesar Dressing
Serves 6
9 Blue WW points per serving
- 1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup lime juice
- 1 Tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp fresh ground pepper
- 1 1/2 cup sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 cups long grain brown rice
- 4 cups low sodium chicken stock or water
- 12 oz shrimp, fresh or frozen, peeled & deveined with tails removed
- 1 cup frozen, canned or fresh corn kernels
- 1 cup low fat mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp Tahini Paste
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 Avocado, cubed
- 5oz crumbled feta cheese
- Chopped flat leaf parsley or cilantro for garnish
Combine your lime juice, vinegar, salt and pepper and pour over your sliced red onions. Cover and place in fridge immediately for a minimum of 30 minutes before needed.
Next, toss sweet potatoes in 1 tsp of oil and season with salt and pepper. Place in air fryer/convection oven or conventional oven for 12-15 minutes or until soft to touch. Keep warm.
Cook brown rice in chicken stock following package instructions. You can use an instant pot, rice cooker or stove top. Cook until fluffy and keep warm until ready to serve.
Toss shrimp in seasoning of choice and cook using 1/4 teaspoon of oil in a saute pan until firm and pink. Carefully remove from heat and chop. Keep warm until ready to serve.
In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, tahini paste and black pepper. Mix to combine and keep cold until ready to assemble.
Heat corn kernels in microwave or small saute pan. Keep warm until ready to assemble.
In serving bowl, combine brown rice, sweet potatoes, shrimp, pickled red onions, corn, feta cheese and cubed avocado. Drizzle sauce over top. Garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro if desired. Enjoy!