I’ve had grain bowls on the brain for quite awhile now, and this past weekend we ventured out to Fresh Market to pick up a few essential items, including a few for this grain bowl. First, I just have to say that I’m more impressed with Fresh Market with every visit. Especially given the uncertain times we are currently in. Everything was stocked, from fresh produce to ready to make meals, and everyone in the store was keeping their recommended distance from one another. They’d even taped off how much space to leave between each customer at each checkout station.
Now for the grain bowls. It’s clear that I had the Italian flag in mind for my grain bowls, as you’ll notice. With the green coming from the zucchini, the white from the jasmine rice for my bowl, and the feta cheese from my mom’s bowl, followed by the red via the cherry tomatoes.
When I was originally coming up with the concept for those bowls I had shrimp in mind, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find them (they had the perfect cocktail shrimp at FM) so my back up plan was the Perdue Organic Chicken Nuggets that I had in the freezer. So if you’d rather use chicken versus shrimp, that works too!
Here’s what you’ll need to assemble your grain bowls…
Quick cooking rice… I went with VeeTee Thai Jasmine Rice while mom went for a Seeds of Change Organic Quinoa & Brown Rice Blend, that I’ve found previously at both Harris Teeter and Publix.
For the veggies (for a serving for 2-3) dice up one large zucchini. (We ate ours raw after washing throughly, but if you prefer to cook yours a little, just put your diced zucchini on plate and pop it in the microwave for 1 minute.) Plus a handful of freshly washed and sliced cherry tomatoes. If you only have a large tomato, just wash and dice it into smaller chunks.
Add fresh feta, or dollops of creamy goat cheese…
For our shrimp, we purchased pre-cooked cocktail shrimp, and we tossed it in a pan with goat butter for about 2-3 minutes on low to bring them up to room temperature and give them a little extra flavor from the goat butter. (Once you try goat butter, you won’t want to go back!)
Gustare! — Enjoy!
