Bowl of Plenty's Sambal Tofu Quinoa Bowl

The best recipes are the ones you don't expect to discover, like this one for Sambal Tofu Quinoa Bowl in James Beard award-winning food writer Carolynn Carreno. The idea behind her book are recipes for healthy whole grain meals that you can serve in a bowl. There is this huge popularity for meals in a bowl, such as the ones you can find in chains, Chipotle or CoreLife Eatery.

I have a recipe that I regularly use for tofu, but it is always worth trying something new. Let's see if it is any good!

Yay or Nay: Yay

Like I gave away in the beginning of this post, this was a surprisingly delicious recipe for marinated tofu. The extra sauce leftover, used as a dressing, was definitely a winner as quinoa can taste quite bland, even when you pep up all the other elements of the dish. I would make this again in a heartbeat - a perfect summery dish.

Wasabi's Spicy Chirashi

Whenever I was ever looking for a fast, tasty, healthy thing to eat, Wasabi, a fast-food sushi chain restaurant in the UK was the place to go. My go-to was the Spicy Chirashi with a side of sashimi. Now I've looked far and wide (only as far as the internet) for the recipe but have had to rely on my memory. Recently I had the chance to go to NYC to meet a friend and I knew I had to hit Wasabi there as it is the only way I can get my fix!

As I was eating, I tried my best to remember the flavours I tasted, but when you're hungry and wolfing it down you can't really remember it that well!! This is based on the Wasabi version but isn't really so don't think that it is!!! 

  

 Yay or Nay: Yay

You pretty much mix it all together with some cooked rice and bob's your uncle! This always gets chowed pretty much straightaway as its delicious fresh as opposed to making it ahead - hence no end picture. Add more sriracha if you want more spice, more vinegar for a tangier taste, edamame or alfalfa sprouts for a bit of greenery - so it's really up to you.

Bowl's Summer Ramen

I spotted cookbook Bowl at my local library and the premise is, pretty much meals in one bowl. Written by Lukas Volger, a veggie expert (as it states in the blurb) it was worth a flip through.

As the Hubby was out fishing for most of the day I wanted something fresh, healthy and most importantly made up of ingredients that he refuses to eat. I was planning to make something else from the book but I figured this would be easy and quick enough to whip up for lunch!

Yay or Nay: Yay

This was light, refreshing and smugly healthy! I didn't have some of the ingredients on the list so I omitted them or replaced them with similar items. Instead of buying 5 ears of fresh corn I subbed with canned corn, of which I used the liquid in the can as part of the broth as I couldn't get the corn milk that you would get from fresh corn. I'm assuming you'd get more corn-like flavour. I didn't add onion (none at home), togarashi, scallions or egg as I didn't think it would take away too much from the flavour profile - though I'd rethink the onion (for sweetness). I didn't have kombu (which I can't get my hands on here) so I subbed with some Korean seaweed/kelp.

Self magazine's Smoothie Bowl

2015 was all about the smoothie bowl or the acai bowl, I'm sure your instagram feed was inundated with pictures of bloggers tucking into their delicious looking breakfasts. I had the chance to try one when I went to visit a friend in NYC as there was a Juice Generation five minutes walk away from our hotel. I think I went for the XO Coco and I have to say it was pretty  much a smoothie in a bowl with some yummy toppings, so surely this would be easy enough to replicate.

Yay or Nay: Yay

After coming back from London I needed something healthy to kick start my metabolism as drinking every night definitely took its toll on me. I didn't use a particular recipe but just gleaned ideas from here and there (although I did get inspired by Self magazine). I would say follow the advice to have frozen fruit as it doesn't have the thick texture if it isn't.