Things in Bowls Vol. 3

Here's more of what we've been eating in bowls lately! If you've missed any of the past posts or want to find a recipe again, you can find all of the Things in Bowls posts in one place HERE. In honor of the last post in our series on practicing intuitive eating, which covered gentle nutrition, I've pointed out some of the ways that we practiced gentle nutrition with changes to some of the recipes below. This can be a hard concept so I hope having a few practical examples helps!

Smoky Chicken Enchilada Skillet

This recipe has you make your own enchilada sauce but don't let that intimidate you because it's SO easy. You could also use 2-3 cans of your favorite store-bought brand though. I didn't use the tomato paste in the sauce because I didn't want to buy a whole can to only use 2 tablespoons 🙂 Generally, I just make corn tortillas (cheaper, tastier, and they don't fall apart!) but I'm sure the flour tortillas suggested in the recipe or store-bought corn tortillas work great too. Also note that jalapeno, cilantro, green onion, and avocado are all listed in the ingredients but they're just garnishes. I usually skip these to save $$ and prevent waste but we had avocado, so I used it.

One Pot Chili Mac

I still haven't figured out why there are carrots in this recipe. They don't seem to fit, so I never use them. Corn is good though! I typically use whole wheat elbow pasta because I generally find it more filling and flavorful but white pasta also works great. This swap is a great example of practicing gentle nutrition - using whole wheat pasta can add some extra nutrition but there is no judgement if you use white pasta instead. I don't usually use the whole 2 cups of cheese because it seems plenty cheesy with less than that, but it depends on what we feel like that day.

Basil Pesto Pasta

I'm all about recipes that include veggies, particularly ones that I wouldn't eat on their own (I'm looking at you, zucchini). Still, I use only 1 zucchini instead of the 2 zucchini + 2 yellow squash in the recipe. We also use 1 or 2 regular sized bell peppers instead of mini ones. My husband put the recipe together this time and diced all the veggies small instead of leaving them in larger pieces - we liked them better small. Aldi has a great pesto that's usually less than $2.00, so I use ~1/4 cup of that instead of making homemade. Fresh parmesan cheese is also good on this if you have some around.

Jerk Chicken + Mango Salsa

This has become one of our favorite summer recipes. If I'm having a hard time finding good nectarines, I just use 2 mangoes for the salsa instead. There didn't seem to be any jerk seasoning at the store, so we made some using this recipe (I never have dried thyme or parsley, so we just left those out). It makes enough to make the jerk chicken once or twice, depending on how much chicken you use. You can grill the chicken or cook it under the broiler for 6-8 minutes per side. I don't make the chile lime butter in the recipe. We serve it over brown rice with 1 can of black beans mixed in - another example of making small tweaks to practice some gentle nutrition. These swaps didn't feel required...we would've been just as fine with white rice and no beans. But, we typically have brown rice and the beans add some extra substance, fiber, and flavor, so we went ahead and added them since we had them.

Stacked Enchiladas

This wasn't a favorite at first but, after a few tweaks, it has become a staple! It looks like a mess, but don't let that fool you 🙂 My husband is NOT a fan of sweet potatoes, which was the main complaint, so I swapped that out for some frozen corn (~1 cup). I also added a can of pinto beans in addition to the black beans for some extra substance. Spinach is not my favorite in any form, so I don't include it either. You don't need to feel guilty about removing a "healthy" ingredient if it isn't something you like. This is just another part of gentle nutrition. The recipe calls for 2 cans of enchilada sauce but 1 can has always been plenty when we make it. We like cilantro and I don't like measuring, so we just chop up one whole bunch and add that.