Choose Your Own Adventure Dinner!

A few people have asked how I feed my family when they’re eating meat and I’m not eating meat.

One of the few things I can make that stirs up zero complaints is something we call crazy bowls. Picture this: a big bowl of rice, a big bowl of corn, a big bowl of tomatoes, some cheese, some ground beef, and some roasted vegetables.

Less than an hour ago, this was happening on my stove:

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On the left you see ground beef. I don’t eat ground beef, but I *do* season it with cumin, sage, garlic salt, and pepper. On the right you see roasted veggies. Specifically, a sweet potato, some carrots, an onion, a squash, and some mushrooms. I toss everything in a bit of olive oil and season it with salt and pepper before throwing it into the oven.

When it’s time to eat, everyone builds their bowl with the ingredients listed above. Harp tends to go with rice, beef, and corn. Meredith does the same combination, but heavier on the rice plus tomatoes. Jeff piles everything on except for the roasted vegetables, which he eats afterwards. Tonight I went with only the vegetables, and I’m about to smoosh some avocado and some apple slices together for a snack.

All of this to say, I’ve got nothing for you today. I spent the entire morning and afternoon working on my project, and in a few minutes Jeff has volunteered to head to the store because I’m out of coffee. I’m not one of those people who acts like it’s a disaster to run out of coffee, but I will admit that my mood will be better in the morning knowing that I’m covered. Jeff? He’s a gem, that one.

Here’s hoping your Tuesday was good. I’ll see you tomorrow. ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>

8 thoughts on “Choose Your Own Adventure Dinner!”

  1. My mom always used to say, ‘all of that to say …’ so you just gave me a flashback. She also said, ‘to make a long story short’ but at that point, the story was inevitably long.

  2. That was not nothing! That was a nugget of parenting brilliance. I’m totally making that for dinner this week. Thanks for the idea.

  3. “Crazy Bowls” FTW. And, y’know what? I’ll wager that’s one of the (many) memories Meredith and Harper with take with them to the next generation when they become mommies modeled after you. I had no idea my heart was going to explode the other day when our older son called just to say “Hey, Mom, guess what? Our family just did a “Whoosh Around”, remember those?” (It was my communal speed cleaning effort when someone was unexpectedly heading toward our door, or Dad was due home soon, or when there was some special treat looming if only the toys would get put away.) I barely remembered myself, and would never have guessed that he or his brother did.

    “Crazy Bowls”, they’ll make your heart smile for decades, Angie!

  4. We call those Chipotle bowls, except I think Michael refers to them as “Cindy Chipotle Bowls” because we’re not at Chipotle. Any way. If Michael wants meat in a meal, he’s responsible for making it happen. This works well for us. He’s also very considerate about what cutting board he uses. I didn’t even have to train him to be that way.

  5. I agree. That is parenting brilliance. I’m totally working “crazy bowls” into our rotation. Also, Caroll made my heart melt a little. And I agree with her. And I hope my kids have fun throw backs from our family too :)

  6. Would you share the details of the roasted vegies? I do that same thing with root vegies, but it looks like you use others — mushrooms, zucchini, asparagus. Oven temp? Time? Do you put them all in at once, or add the non-root vegies later?

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