Easy Bean Bowl

By Julia Howard, MPH, RHN

Easy Bean Bowl

During times of stress, don’t be too hard on yourself if you fall off the nutritional wagon. The key is to get back on as soon as you can. You don’t need to beat yourself up over it or continue eating poorly as if all is lost.

Who had chips and wine for supper last week? Yep, me too. And that’s ok. You need to give yourself a chance to let the initial shock of this dramatic shift in how we’re all living register.  

But this week, let’s take some time to get back to a routine. Try to keep meal times similar to how they’ve always been. Prioritize a varied whole-food, plant-based diet of colourful fruits and veggies. This type of diet will provide your body with the phytonutrients and fibre it needs to support your immune system, improve your gut health, and help you deal with stress. 

If you’re taking this time at home to focus more on your nutrition, incorporating more plant-based proteins into your diet is one thing you could try. If you’re looking to add some more canned beans and lentils to your diet, be sure to check the sodium content on the label and try to choose a “no salt added” variety. 

Need some inspiration? Here’s one of my favourite plant-based recipes, the Easy Bean Bowl.

Easy Bean Bowl (Serves 3)

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 can of black beans (or adzuki or mung beans, rinsed and drained)
  • 1.5 cups of short grain brown rice (or quinoa), cooked in water
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 7-8 mushrooms, sliced
  • 3 handfuls of salad leaves (e.g., spinach, kale)
  • 1 large sweet potato, chopped and roasted
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • Avocado, sliced

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Prepare rice (brown rice takes about 40 minutes to cook).
  • Chop sweet potato into cubes, place onto a pan, and drizzle with 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with chili powder.
  • Cook sweet potato for about 20 minutes.
  • Heat oil in a pot and add black beans, stirring occasionally while coating beans in 2 tbsp water, juice of lime, a sprinkle of chili powder, and a pinch of salt.
  • Sauté your greens and mushrooms in a few tablespoons of water and salt.
  • Build your bowl! Grains on bottom, beans in the middle, + root veggies, greens, and mushrooms on top.
  • Season with lime juice, salt, and freshly cracked pepper.
  • Optional: add slices of avocado on top (1/4 avocado each/bowl).

Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading,

~Julia

If you want to learn more about nutrition or have some nutrition goals you need help with, we offer online nutrition coaching!

Julia Howard Nutritionist + Run Coach

The people and the training set JKC apart from other gyms or programs I’ve tried in the past. Truly Jon and Thomas meet you where are and help you get to where you want to be. There are no expectations and never any judgement. You can go there having the worst day and you always leave feeling better. Truly JKC has given me a level of strength and confidence I would not have had otherwise ❤️.

I recently visited Newfoundland for one month, and was looking for a good place to train while I was there. Jon and the team at JK conditioning really took the time to assess what I already knew, and set achievable goals for the time that I had with them. The gym was such a great place to push yourself. It had everything you needed, but more importantly it had a well organized, very knowledgeable, and really motivating group of trainers to push you at each workout. Not to mention a really nice group of other members who also motivated me to go that little bit further. I would highly recommend the gym to anyone who has a goal and wants to find a place to help them achieve it.

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I started training at JKC in 2016 because I had built up a number of muscle imbalances from old injuries and activities like rock climbing which had led to some really bad posture and mobility issues. On top of that some friends had convinced me to sign up for a half-ironman. Working with Jon and Thomas was a way to pull my body back into alignment and make sure it wouldn’t fall apart during my race. The staff at JKC pride themselves on continuously advancing their knowledge, which leads to new and inventive way to address problems, old and new. I got my Dad to start training here and recommended JKC to all looking to improve their strength and fitness.

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