Healthy Chicken Sausage &Quinoa Harvest Bowl
Jul 21, 2023
My go-to bowl GF, DF grain bowl when I'm needing a nutrient-dense meal! Packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and healthy fats, it’s ready in 20 minutes!
CATEGORY:
Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Lunch, Menstruation Phase
When I need a nutrient-dense, filling and quick lunch, this harvest bowl is my go-to! I especially love making it the first 3-7 days of my period, because during this time we should be eating "winter" foods. This means foods rich in fiber, antioxidants, and complex carbs to promote digestion, detoxification, and energy. This colorful Harvest Bowl is perfect for that. The best part is you can throw it together in less than 20 minutes, which makes it the perfect work-from-home lunch, too.
What makes this Harvest Bowl extra special is the gut-loving and liver-supportive ingredients. Our period is the time for major detoxificaiton in our body, so we need to ensure we are supporting our microbiome and detoxification pathways! Eating "the rainbow", foods high in fiber and iron, and complex carbs will help reduce with this, reducing our PMS symptoms and keeping us satiated.
I don't know about you, but those first few days of my cycle I am STARVING. My body is telling me to eat my whole pantry! So let's nourish our body with food that will actually make us feel good! Eating meals like this Harvest Bowl will keep those cravings low, and allow us to fill up on food that will actually provide a boost of long-term energy.
For this recipe, I chose chicken sasuage because it is packed with good flavor and lots of protein (~14 grams in one link). I chose the organic, chicken sasuage without nitrates from Whole Foods, but choose one that you are in the mood for!
To nourish out gut microbiome and maintain optimal digestive function, fiber-rich foods should be our go-to. I prefer to cook down fiber-rich foods as much as possible, to help aide digestion. That's why bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots, and green onion are great ingredients to sauté. This will also give us a boost of energy, and help manage the dreaded period poops we often get.
Lastly, adding complex carbs from the quoina and beets will help balance out our hormones, keeping our PMS symptoms at bay. Iron-rich foods like spinach and chicken sasuage helps make up for lost iron from our period.
Tip! Batch cook your vegetables, chicken sausage, and quinoa so that you can throw this bowl together in less than 5 minutes, saving you time from cooking, and cleaning!
This recipe can easily be adaptble to ingredients you already have in your kitchen! Swap out the spinach for other leafy greens; the quoina for sweet potatoes or wild rice. If you want a vegetarian option, use kidney beans or lentils instead of chicken sasuage. Also, feel free to adjust the remainder of veggies to your liking!
I love adding healthy fats to top off this Harvest Bowl. It really helps to give it that extra flavor and gut-loving ingredients! Today, I opted for olive oil, coconut aminos, and sunflower seeds, but pumpkin seeds and avocado are phenomenal for the beginning stage of your cycle. Additionally, you could add your favorite dressing, just make it a low-sugar optioon to help out your gut.
Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Comment below your redention of it, and let me know what you think!
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Healthy Chicken Sausage &Quinoa Harvest Bowl
5 Minutes
15 Minutes
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Total Time:
Servings:
Category:
20 Minutes
1 Serving
Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Lunch, Menstruation Phase
My go-to bowl GF, DF grain bowl when I'm needing a nutrient-dense meal! Packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and healthy fats, it’s ready in 20 minutes!
Ingredients
2 links of chicken sasuage, any flavor of your choice!
1/4 cup diced bell pepper
1/4 cup of portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 stalk of green onion
2 tablespoons of shredded carrots
1 cooked beet, diced
1/4 green apple, chopped
1 cup of spinach
1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
Oil for cooking - I prefer avocado oil, but use olive, ghee, or coconut oil
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Optional add ins: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, coconut aminos, olive oil, sliced avocado
Instructions
Step 1
Prepare a medium-sized skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil, heated on medium heat. Slice both links of chicken sasuage while pan is heating up.
Step 2
Once pan is hot, cook chicken sasuage and bell peppers until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. If bell pepper starts to burn, lower heat to medium-low.
Step 3
While the chicken sasuage and bell pepper are cooking, preapre your salad bowl. Add all of the spinach and cooked quinoa to the bowl. You can also take this time to cut and prepare the rest of the fruits and vegetables.
Step 4
Once the red bell pepper is tender and the chicken sasuage has browned, remove from pan and add it to the salad bowl with the spinach and quinoa. Add a little more oil back to the same pan, and sauté remaining mushrooms, shredded carrots, and half of the green onion (try to use the whiter, lighter part of the green onion) with oil, salt, and pepper on medium heat for 3-5 minutes, or until mushrooms are nice and golden on both sides.
Step 5
After the mushroom, carrots, and green onion are cooked, add them to the salad bowl. Top with diced beets, carrots, remaining dark, green onion, and optional add ins (I used sunflower seeds, olive oil, and coconut aminos this day!).