Buddha Bowl success...

I was reading The NonConsumer Advocate the other day, and she mentioned Stacey Flowers' videos on YouTube.   I liked this one in particular.  It made me think differently about how I prepare 'bowl' combinations, and resulted in a SPECTACULAR dinner at our house last night.

I've always liked 'bowls' when eating out, but the ones I've tried at home have been sort of unimpressive.  After watching Stacey's video about 'dressing' each item, it sort of clicked, and I was ready to try again.

I cooked some quinoa which I had rinsed and drained well.  I started by first adding a little bit of olive oil to a deep sauce pan with some finely diced onion and garlic, then the quinoa and let them all 'toast' for a minute or so.  Then added the water and cooked per package directions.

Once I had the quinoa started, I preheated the oven to 425° F.  Then I lined a large baking sheet with foil.  I poured about a Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil onto the foil, and spread it around with my finger tips to make sure the foil was covered with a light coating of oil.

I peeled and sliced some red beets and some golden beets.  (I've never cooked them before, but Stacey's looked SO good that I went out and bought some.)  I put the slices in a large Ziploc bag with about a Tablespoon of olive oil, and squooshed them around to lightly coat all sides with oil.  Then I laid them out at one end of the prepared baking sheet.

I peeled and chopped two sweet potatoes.  I put them in the same Ziploc bag.  I didn't add any more oil, I just squooshed the diced sweet potatoes around, and then added them to the baking sheet.

I rinsed and trimmed a handful of Brussels sprouts (as I'm the only one that likes them), cut them in half, and put them in the same old Ziploc bag (again adding no additional oil) and after squooshing to coat the sprouts with any oil clinging to the bag interior, I added them to one corner of the baking sheet.  

I tried to make sure the baking sheet was not over crowded, and to keep the vegetables somewhat separated.  I sprinkled with salt and pepper, and roasted them at 425° F for about 30 to 40 minutes, flipping them once toward the end of the roasting time.  When the vegetables were nice and tender and caramelized, I lifted them with the foil liner off of the baking sheet and set aside.  

I added a new foil liner to the pan, put the salmon on the pan with some salmon seasoning and baked (still with oven set at 425° F) till the center was almost done (about 10 minutes, but it depends on the thickness of the fillet), then removed the sheet from the oven and let the salmon rest for a few minutes on the sheet to continue it's final cooking.

To assemble my bowls, I started with chopped kale tossed with some lime juice and a little salt.  I added about a cup of quinoa in the center on top of the kale.  I put some roasted beet slices on one side, some roasted sweet potato on the other side, and squeezed in some roasted Brussels sprouts where they would fit.  I placed a serving of salmon (with skin removed) atop the quinoa, and drizzled with a Balsamic reduction.

These turned out absolutely DELICIOUS!  And relatively low in WW points, since the only things that had points in the bowl were the oil, quinoa, sweet potato and balsamic; all the rest of the veg and salmon are zero point.

And now for a humorous postscript:
Someone (who shall remain nameless, but lives in our garage apartment) is into the peak season at work with the holidays coming up.  I texted him a photo of the really fab meal in our fridge for him if he so desired.  He came in from work exhausted about midnight and took his 'bowl' to go.

Today it occurred to me that I might better send him a warning.  His response made me truly laugh out loud.