Simple Buddha Bowl Recipe for Clean Eating

This month my wife and I started a new "diet." Although we've both been moderately active and have eaten quite healthily for the last decade, we've both been hit with cancer (me once, my wife twice within a period of 18 months).

Like most people who have been dealt a traumatic health blow, we tried to exert control where we could, and this meant our eating habits and immediate environment. We started reading labels of EVERYTHING—food, lotion, shampoos, medicines... everything. We stopped buying items with unhealthy ingredients—Parabens, preservatives such as BHT & BPA. We greatly lessened our intake of processed sugars and sweeteners. We started eating mostly vegetarian, mostly organic....

And still, we suffer from aging and health issues—bad knees, aching joints, pre-diabetes, failing eyesight, increasingly worse allergies. Basically, we're getting older and feeling it.




We started taking a closer look at our diet and began questioning more in-depth the food chain that brought our food to our table. Now, before you get the wrong idea, we're not Gwyneth Paltrow Goopers—we don't prescribe to woo-woo science. We're more likely to trust our doctors' knowledge set when they tell us things, although we will come prepared to question them thoroughly. We do Yoga, although not religiously. We have good intentions when it comes to meditating, although often fail to do so. We walk. We continue to eat more healthily than most.

We also eat chocolate and ice-cream, drink full fat cows milk (in our coffee), have the occasional burger & fries, and order pizza delivered every once in awhile.

In our attempts at aging more gracefully, however, we decided that we need to be eating more cleanly. Clean eating is such a trendy catch phrase, but for us it means moving to all organic produce, removing sugars almost completely, focusing on healthy poly- & mono-saturated fats, and avoiding as much as possible foods and animals treated with chemicals / antibiotics. This includes certain fertilizers and the foods that our food eats.

It can get really complicated, which is frustrating and overwhelming to most—us included, so we try to keep it as simple as possible. We started growing what we could. We buy from local farmers whenever possible. When it's not possible, we have very specific parameters:

• Organic
• Pasture raised / fed
• No added ingredients / preservatives
• As little processing as possible

As with most transitions, the transition into this new way of eating has been a bit bumpy & not very cheap. I suspect, however, when we settle into it, we'll figure out how to minimize the costs—and if it works, then perhaps we'll minimize our medical & prescription costs as well (fingers crossed).

One of the things that has made it a little easier is coming up with simple recipes that we can assemble fairly quickly. The Buddha Bowl (like a noodle bowl, only healthier), is something we're really starting to dig. It allows us to eat more healthy ingredients, but because the bowl is made up of 5 basic sets of ingredients, it means we don't have to buy a lot of any one thing—which helps out on the budget side of things.

A Buddha Bowl is essentially made up of 5 parts:

1. A grain
2. A protein
3. A green
4. A veggie 
5. A fat

I separate the greens from the veggies because the greens provide some roughage but vegetables can provide either a punch of flavor or more substance.

Buddha Bowls are also nice because you can mix and match your ingredients. We have a basic list of ingredients. Each week, when I'm on the ball, I prep foods for our weekly meals (including Buddha Bowls). Each ingredient is prepped and packaged separately, labeled for easy assembly, and stored in the fridge.

1. Grains

• Couscous
• Quinoa
• Lentils
• Rice (We try to limit the rice. Some people insist on brown rice only, because of the fiber content. Others insist on white rice, because it is more easily digestible. This is something that is highly dependent on your specific digestive system—so just pay attention to the foods that make you feel good vs. the ones that make you feel bad & stay away from the bad ones.)
• Millet

2. Proteins

• Pastured eggs
• Pastured chicken
• Wild-caught shrimp
• Wild-caught fish
• Tempeh or Soy (Tofu, Edamame)
• Beans (Some believe that legumes are bad for your digestive system and cause inflammation. Others insist that cooking beans in a pressure cooker helps to reduce digestive issues. If beans make you feel bad, maybe shy away from eating them for awhile.)

3. Greens

• Cabbage
• Collards
• Kale
• Romaine or other lettuce
• Spinach
• etc.

4. Veggies

• Beets
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Carrots
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Fermented or pickled vegetables (kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled beets)
• Herbs
• Onions
• Peppers
• Roasted sweet potatoes or other root vegetables
• Sprouts
• Squash
• etc.

5. Good Fat

• Avocado
• Nuts—Almonds, Brazil nuts, Pine nuts, Walnuts
• Olives—Kalamata
• Olive oil
• Pastured cheese
• Wild-caught Sardines (either whole or used in a dressing or sauce)

Recipes

Breakfast Bowl (savory)

• 1/2 cup Quinoa or brown rice
• 1 Soft (or hard) boiled egg
• 1 cup Spinach
• 1/2 cup Roasted sweet potatoes (or corn, or fermented veggies)
• 1 T. Feta cheese
• 1/4 Avocado sliced or cubed
• Optional: Nuts
• Optional: Sprouts

Burrito Bowl

• 1/2 cup quinoa or brown rice (cooked in vegetable or chicken stock will give a richer flavor)
• 3 oz. chicken or 1/2 cup black beans (seasoned with cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder—basically taco seasoning)
• 1 cup romaine lettuce
• 1/4-1/2 cup roasted vegetables (sweet potato or red peppers & onions)
• 1/4 cup corn
• 1/4 Avocado sliced or cubed—or guacamole

Asian Inspired Bowl

• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 3 oz. Wild-caught salmon (or other fish)
• 1/2 cup broccoli
• 1/4 cup or less shredded carrot (raw or pickled)
• 1/4 cup or less shredded cabbage (raw or pickled)
• 1/4 cup or less diced cucumber (raw or pickled)
• 1/4 cup or less sliced green onion
• 1/4 cup edamame (optional)
• 1/4 Avocado sliced
• Miso-ginger sauce:
• 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar (you can also use lime juice in a pinch)
• 1 tablespoon white miso
• 2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
• Pinch of ground white pepper (optional)