My current favorite lunch

I don't know about you guys, but personally, when it comes to lunch, I usually lean towards an easy, healthy, and light (but still filling) lunch. That's why I almost always have this kind of bowl for lunch. I usually switch proteins, veggies, and carbs depending on what I have in the fridge, but the base is pretty much the same. Here I wanted to share with you my current lunch obsession; my spin on the famous "Harvest bowl" from Sweetgreen 💚

Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato (but I always make more than one, so I can use it in my future lunch bowls)

• Spices: salt & pepper to taste, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp paprika, and garlic powder to taste

• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil

• 1 medium-sized chicken breast

• About 1.5 cups of kale (if you don't like kale, you could sub for mesclun, romaine, or baby spinach for example)

• 1 tsp of lemon juice

• Cooked quinoa (or brown rice, if you reallllly want to make a Sweetgreen copycat)

• A tiny bit of cucumber (I usually use about 40g of cucumber, it's more or less 1/5 of a cucumber)

• Feta cheese (if you can't have dairy, the VioLife feta cheese is a good option)

• Half of an avocado

• A small handful of raisins

• Your favorite salad dressing/ vinaigrette

Directions

Prep the sweet potato

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°c (350 F)

2. Peel and cut your sweet potato into little cubes. Add it to an oven-safe dish and add the spices as well as 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Toss until every cube is coated with olive oil and spices.

3. Roast in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. I usually toss them around twice during the cooking process to roast them evenly. While the sweet potato is roasting, I usually prep the rest of the ingredients. And when the bake time is over, I put the sweet potato out of the oven and let it cool at room temperature.

Prep the chicken

1. In a bowl, put your chicken breast, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, some salt, and your favorite spices (sometimes I just add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika). Here, I used Trader Joe's "Cuban style Citrusy Garlic seasoning blend"* and added a tiny bit of paprika. I then let everything sit for about 5 minutes.

2. On a heated pan, grill your chicken breast for 5 to 10 minutes (during this time, I usually like to prep the kale). Once grilled, flip it over and grill the other side for a few minutes. Once cooked, set aside.

Prep the kale

1. In a bowl, put in your kale, some salt, olive, and lemon juice. Massage the kale until it becomes darker and the fibers get more tender. It's an additional step, but it's super quick and makes all the difference texture-wise!

Assemble everything

1. Prep and cut your cucumber and avocado (I usually like to cut the avocado in thin slices).

2. Once your veggies are prepped, let's combine everything! First, place your massaged kale in your serving bowl. Add the cucumber, as well as the cooked quinoa. Then add the roasted sweet potato on one side, and the grilled chicken on the other side of the bowl.

3. Add the rest of your ingredients, including feta cheese, raisins, and avocado on top. Add your favorite salad dressing on top and serve right away (for the dressing, I simply added olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper; nothing fancy)! 

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