Wednesday, July 13, 2022

I have a new “recipe” for you! I put recipe in quotes because you could really throw anything together for this. And, you will see by my photo that I kinda did! Now, this received the Tom stamp of approval. He was sad that he couldn’t finish his because he got full.

A word about my “bowls”. Tom is super easy to please in the dinner department. He doesn’t want to have to make another decision so the fact that I have something ready for him at 6:00 ish makes him very happy. He is happy with tuna and crackers, tomato soup and grilled cheese, frozen Totino’s pizza, etc. I just put pressure on myself to make a nice meal most nights. He never cooks, by the way. He leaves for work at 7:00 am and gets home close to 6:00 pm and it’s just not his gift. He goes to bed at 8:30 so he likes to eat fairly early. #weold

I have been obsessed with “bowls”. I do a burrito bowl, egg roll in a bowl, an Asian/Teriyaki chicken bowl, buffalo bowl (for me – Tom doesn’t like buffalo sauce), KFC copycat bowl, and probably more that I can’t think of right now.

One night I did ask what Tom wanted for dinner and he said “anything NOT in a bowl”.

I told him that I would put his on a plate then.

Anyway…Tom loves cajun food and still bemoans the fact that his favorite cajun place went out of business. In fact, I think I hooked him with Emeril’s couscous jambalaya when we were dating…

So, I started with a base of Zatarain’s jambalaya rice in the box. It’s super easy – you just bring water and the rice mix to a boil and then simmer for 25 minutes. Then, I used already cooked, grilled chicken, and turkey sausage that I browned up. I sauteed the holy trinity of cajun cooking – onions, green peppers, and celery. Emeril taught me that this is called “the holy trinity”. I added frozen corn to the same skillet, then I roasted green beans in the air fryer just for some more veg/green. Oh, and I also added diced tomatoes and sprinkled some Tony Cachere’s on them.

For my bowl, I used cauliflower rice and just a spoonful of the jambalaya for flavor. I also measured out my turkey sausage to get 3 WW points worth. I estimate this meal was about 5 WW points in total for me.

Here is another meal that I think my meal prep partner Erica would enjoy.

You could also do shrimp in this bowl. You could do okra. I googled “cajun ingredients” and there are lots of variations on this. I also got images that looked like a “low country boil”, which could also make a great bowl! I think the next time I make this I will add the holy trinity and the diced tomatoes to the cauliflower rice along with the cajun spice and really incorporate it. This would be great for using up leftovers, too.

What do you think? Would you make a cajun bowl? Are you into bowls?

Amy