The bowl can be anything to anyone, all that you need it to be, and more.
When you have a picky family, but can’t please everyone.
When you have a lot of ingredients, but nothing that seems to make a meal.
When you have plenty of leftovers, but just not enough of one thing to serve everyone…
Enter the bowl.
Prepare to be bowled over…
So, are bowls the perfect food?
Bowls have really gained popularity in the last few years, and some of them seem to be a little full of themselves 😉
There are bowl restaurants and cookbooks, but the most telling part is that you can buy them in the freezer section.
Like any frozen meals, eater beware. They can be filled with good guys or bad guys.
Still, the bottom line is I’m a bowl fan, so the more bowls the better.
the amazing choose-your-own-bowlventure poke bowl
When did things go ‘full bowl’?
Like I said, I’m a fan, and glad to see them becoming more popular, but I also remember way back when bowls were just my family putting leftovers in a… wait for it… a bowl.
We can’t talk bowls without crediting Yoshinoya Beef Bowl, which is still one of my little brother’s favorite places to eat. When he visits we go to Beef Bowl.
Yoshinoya has been around an astonishing 120+ years. One hundred and twenty!
I think it’s fair to say they were an early adopter, and beef, chicken, and rice bowls have been around in one form or another ever since.
When things got interesting for me was when Chipotle gave us the option to ditch the HUGE tortillas (~320 calories of empty calories, alone) and let us put our burrito bombs in a bowl.
once called the ‘burrito bowl’ to make you feel better about your decision
Calories were cut, nutrition went up, and because everything was right there in the open, we could see every ingredient, pick and choose, and it was every eater for themselves.
And everything changed.
Suddenly bowls were more than just bowls; they were healthy and suddenly, we loved them!
Ok. I don’t know if that’s how it actually started, that’s my history with bowls.
I’m going to pretend it was like that for everyone. Most people don’t think about it all that much, anyway. They’re more like “oh look, a bowl. I think I’ll have one.”
In bowls, I believe, and I am thankful.
Not all are believers, though
Someone also piped in to say a bowl is just a receptacle. *sigh*
One of the other commenters replied with “No, you’re a receptacle!”
Such a deep and spiritual response. I deleted the thread.
Back to the bowls at hand.
Building your own bowl is healthy
The dawn of the bowl has brought about plenty of change in nutritional attitudes.
Today we’re seeing taco bowls where there used to be huge, cheese smothered platters…
…breakfast bowls instead of pancakes, paleo bowls, kale bowls, veggie bowls, cauliflower rice bowls, and even bowls with fermented foods like kimchi!
Anything and everything goes great in a bowl.
So what’s the attraction of the bowl?
- They’re easy to eat
- They’re easy to serve
- They live by their own rules
‘Bowls’ as we know them are still new, and luckily, they are keeping their options open!
Healthy family meals
I’ve made bowls for my kids for years because they can build them exactly how they want them. Some of this, none of that. It’s their bowl to make.
one of my weekly homemade leftover bowls
It’s your bowl to make, too
If you also like bowls or are simply looking for new ways to eat healthfully, use up some leftovers, and keep the family happy with a meal they can help create, look no further than our free Build-A-Bowl ebook.
Build-A-Bowl Cookbook- Free eBook
We originally had our Build-A-Bowl Workshop in one of our live nutrition events, and it became so popular that we wrote up a cookbook for it.
The book and the bowls are a simple way to make busy lives easier, while also helping our readers, clients, and friends eat foods that promote good health, solid nutrition, and even weight loss.
Get Your Free Bowl Book
Just click right here or the book cover below, and we’ll send it right to you, absolutely free.
🥣 Dozens of ideas to build bowls your whole family will enjoy
🥣 Lots of Bowlspirations
🥣 Step by step steps to build bowls you’ll never forget and never want to!
Bowls, bowls, bowls!
Just click right here or the book cover above and we’ll send it right over!
I hope you’ll come back and share!
After you build your own bowls, I want to know what your favorite combination is, so be sure to come back!
Enjoy,
Roland
‘References’ and links
I too love bowls, easy to hold, serve and clean, and they came be had anyplace
Absolutely! 👌
I stopped on this because I love bowls too! I like to use raw chopped cucumbers, orange bell peppers, scallion, chopped greens, shredded or chopped carrots and ground chicken breast, That is a favorite lunch of mine. I like to sprinkle quinoa in there too when I have it and then a spicy dressing.
That sounds really good. Galina has been sprouting lentils lately and they make a great topping for our bowls.
I’m going to try your quinoa idea!
This sounds easy.Well we’ll see
I hope you report back, Nancy!