Dinner

cava bowls

When my husband and I took our staycation to Boston, we grabbed dinner at quick service place, CAVA, after the Red Sox game. CAVA reminds me of Chipotle in the sense that you choose a base, protein, and additional toppings. We both really enjoyed our bowls there and I wanted to recreate something similar at home, so I did last week. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, and thus I had to recreate this meal again.

The ingredients list is lengthy but the cook time is quite short. I cut everything in the amount of time it took for the rice to cook.

Ingredients:

  • Rice (we’ve done sprouted brown rice and Banza chickpea rice) — I figured on one serving per person, so this amount will vary.
  • Chickpeas (drained and rinsed; sautéed in olive oil with onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, and paprika)
  • Roasted Red Peppers (diced)
  • Olives
  • Lettuce
  • Tomatoes (diced)
  • Cucumbers (diced)
  • Feta
  • Tzatziki
  • Pita (I like the Joseph’s oat & flax pitas)

Instructions:

  1. Start the rice (beware, if you make Banza rice — it cooks like pasta; we use chicken broth instead of water when we make the sprouted rice)
  2. As the rice cooks:
    1. Heat 1T Olive oil;
    2. Add rinsed chickpeas
    3. Season with 1t Paprika; 1t onion powder, and 2t garlic powder
    4. Stir and turn to low once heated
  3. As rice/chickpeas cook:
    1. Cut roasted red peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and olives if necessary
  4. Once everything is ready, assemble bowls by layering rice, chickpeas, vegetables, and adding 2T of each feta and tzatziki atop. Serve with pita.

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This meal was really filling and loaded with nutrients. I love making meals that I know my family will enjoy. This was meat free but nobody complained about that (13 usually calls out meatless meals and acts like I am trying to starve her, haha). This will definitely make its way into our regular rotation!

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Now, I didn’t input this into MyFitnessPal to figure out calories. I’ve been trying out Weight Watchers to stay on mostly a low-glycemic diet (though, if we’re all being honest here, I had FOUR lemon cupcakes last weekend at my BIL’s birthday and plan to have at least two tomorrow for Father’s Day because I grabbed these cute hotdog & hamburger cupcakes from the Stop & Shop). I have more to write about with my WW experience and will sit down and do that next month sometime.

*If you are doing WW, this meal clocks in at 8 points and this includes the oat & flax pita.

**Bonus, this meal was a big hit with the kids and 13 didn’t riot about the lack of meat.

***I’ve included a picture of the cupcakes I grabbed for our Father’s Day bbq tomorrow!

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