Day 1 of Love and Lemons' weekly meal planning series is this grain bowl recipe! Why? Our meal planning notebook, The Love & Lemons Meal Record and Market List, is now available. To see my post from last week, click this link.Go here to place your preorder right now if you haven't already!

Whenever I write about meal planning or making quick, easy dinners for the week, I usually suggest preparing a lot of food on Sundays. Although I like this approach, I'm attempting something else this week. I'm going to utilize the same ingredients to prepare a different dinner every night for five nights, building on the previous meals, starting with this tasty, simple Roasted Veggie Grain Bowl. This is where you can find the weekly recap!

Ways to Make a Fantastic Grain Bowl

25 Healthy Grain Bowl Recipes and Ideas - Insanely Good

We decided to start our meal plan week with a grain bowl as all good grain bowl dishes need certain ingredients. I first used them in this recipe for a grain bowl, then I mixed and matched them with other dinners all week long. I started with the component categories listed below:

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Ingredients

  • Contains two cups of white rice.
  • 4 glasses of water.
  • One large sweet potato, chopped and skinned.
  • Split up Three tablespoons of vegetable or coconut oil, depending on the recipe.
  • half a sliced red bell pepper.
  • Cut into half a green bell pepper.
  • Slicing one half an orange bell pepper and one 14-oz carton of extremely firm tofu.
  • One fifteen-ounce can of rinsed and drained black beans.
  • Two tablespoons of jerk marinade and one teaspoon of jerk seasoning (or to taste).

Directions

 Step 1

Bring the water and rice to a boil in a saucepan. The rice should be mushy and the water absorbed after 20 to 25 minutes of cooking over medium-low heat with a lid. Remain warm.

Step 2 

Set the oven's temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, or 230 degrees Celsius.

Step 3

Add one tablespoon of oil to chopped sweet potatoes and toss. Evenly distribute onto a baking sheet.

Step 4

Sweet potatoes should be cooked but not too soft after 15 to 20 minutes of roasting in a preheated oven.

Step 5

In a cast-iron pan, warm up one tablespoon of coconut oil over medium-high heat. For two to three minutes, add the orange, green, and red bell peppers and sauté. Remove and set aside from the skillet.

Step 6

In the same skillet, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of coconut oil. Evenly add the tofu. After two minutes of cooking, gently flip to the other side. Cook, stirring often, for another 6 to 8 minutes or until the tofu is beginning to crisp up around the edges.

Step 7

Make sure the tofu is fully coated before adding the jerk marinade. Once the marinade has started to caramelize, take the tofu off of the fire.

Step 8

In a microwave-safe bowl, reheat the black beans for two to three minutes, stirring every thirty seconds.

Step 9

Divide the rice, tofu, sweet potatoes, peppers, and black beans evenly among the serving dishes to make grain bowls. 

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