Bowls of Plenty by Carolynn Carreno

Hi friends! Have you jumped on “The Bowl” bandwagon yet? I’m sure you’ve seen the beautiful pictures of breakfast bowls all over Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. They look delicious, but I have no clue how to put one together. Thankfully, James Beard award-winning food writer Carolynn Carreno brings these one-dish meals to the home cook with “Bowls of Plenty: Recipes for Healthy and Delicious Whole-Grain Meals.”

Bowls aren’t just for breakfast. Salad Bowls, Main Dish Bowls and Build Your Own bowls are popular too! Carolyn even has “healthy-ish” dessert bowls included in her cookbook.

I was fortunate enough to meet Carolynn at a recent media event at Melissa’s Produce. We tasted her Red Beet and Quinoa Salad with hazelnuts and goat cheese, as well as her Shaved Brussels Sprouts with farrow, almonds and pecorino. For the Main dishes, there was a beautiful Build Your Own Asian Bowl and a Build Your Own Mexican Bowl spread! For dessert, we sampled a lovely Mixed Berry Crisp with a whole-grain topping!

One thing I absolutely love about this cookbook are the pages that give you ideas for Build Your Own Bowl themes! These are just two examples: Build Your Own Mexican Bowls and The Farmers Market Inspired Bowls. These would be perfect for a potluck or even a quick weeknight meal! Chop everything and set it out for everyone to make their own Bowls of Plenty! There are other examples in the book too. These were just my favorites and now I know how to build these beauties! YAY!

Bowls of Plenty features hearty, one-dish meals that layer flavorful veggies, meats, sauces and vinaigrettes on a foundation of whole grains! Carolynn encourages people to be creative and use different sauces or vinaigrettes from her book to customize the bowls to your family’s taste or dietary preferences! Vegetarian? No problem! Swap your favorite protein or just leave it out. Don’t like beans? Don’t add them! (How simple is that?) Love the sauce in one recipe and want to try it with another dish? Go for it! It’s all about creating delicious and healthy bowls that are easy to make, family-friendly and convenient!

Inside Bowls of Plenty are recipes like Spiced Apple Breakfast Farro, Huevos Rancheros Bowl, Butternut Squash Risotto, The Ultimate Burrito Bowl, Korean Short Ribs, Baja BBQ Shrimp Bowl and even a Flourless Chocolate Teff Cake! One of the recipes that caught my eye however was Carolynn’s Chinese Chicken Salad with Toasted Almonds and Crispy Rice!

This flavorful salad bowl has a Ginger Vinaigrette and toasts cooked brown rice until it’s crispy! Carolynn calls for coating the chicken with a seasoned cornstarch mixture and then frying it. I opted to use leftover roasted chicken instead, just to keep it a bit healthier.

To learn more about Carolynn, visit her online!
http://www.carolynncarreno.com/
Twitter and Instagram: @carolynncarreno
and on FB at: Bowls of Plenty by Carolynn Carreno

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of Carolynns cookbook and produce to make a recipe from “Bowls of Plenty” but received no other compensation and all opinions are 100% my own.