Steak Quinoa Bowls

June 28th, 2024

Delicious and healthy can be synonymous with one another and even co-exist when talking about food. Let’s be honest, most of us automatically think cardboard when we hear the word healthy. Tasting like cardboard isn’t a prerequisite for a meal to be deemed healthy. A couple of key factors to this concept are balance and moderation; both are necessary when crafting something so tasty that you crave to have it again and at the same time you consider your health.

Food and health are topics that yield many articles that can be found on the internet. Red meat is a topic that has historically been muddied with controversy; at the end of the day, you should consult your doctor about the best food plan for you. In saying this, I would like to note that my grandma’s doctor does not recommend her eating a ton of red meat and consumption going forward would need to be limited. Simply put we cannot eat it every day or even multiple times a week. Thankfully, grandma is not big on red meat, but she does still require protein and iron, as she is unfortunately also anemic.

Steak and Quinoa Bowls

Steak and quinoa bowls are a dish that we make some variation of every week or two. Steak is a source of iron, B12, and zinc, which are all vitamins or minerals that your body needs on a chemical level. The reason she cannot have beef all the time is that once your kidneys start to have problems, it becomes much harder for them to process animal proteins than they once did. This is especially true of red meat. The other issue one can encounter is that chicken and pork, though decent options, can be difficult to process as well. Having diversity with your proteins on a weekly basis is a means to help reduce the strain on one’s kidneys.

Studies show that plant proteins are easier to digest especially for someone that has kidney problems, therefore this is a tool that you can use to diversify your diet. Be intentional with your food selection, make meals with plant proteins such as quinoa or chickpeas (garbanzo beans); or instead of chicken for dinner make fish. There are so many options, that it comes down to balance and what you choose to pair with your meal. The cumulative amount of potassium and phosphorous is, objectively speaking, made by the choices of food we ingested that day.

To find out more about your food visit:

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/index.html

This helpful tools breaks down fresh and whole ingredients, such as different grains, fruit, and vegetables so that you can keep track of your intakes better.

For my steak and quinoa bowls, there are plenty of fresh greens and vegetables. The base is a chopped up leafy green topped with a quarter to half cup of quinoa and two to four ounces of steak. The smaller portion is based on the amount of food my grandma can ingest at one time. To maintain her diet, we prepare snacks, which we will talk about in a different post with that as a focus. For a fresh, crunch there are plenty of options, such as diced red bell peppers, and I have even added celery to the quinoa. I mix it up when it comes to the vegetables, sometimes I cook onion with the beef and other times I toss in slices of carrot or a bit sweet corn in.

On top of our bowls, we add a healthy fat and tiny bit of dairy, but again there is a limitation on dairy intake as well. The creamy topping is actually mostly just avocado and a couple tablespoons of sour cream with spices, your bowl only needs about a tablespoon or two of this mixture. The avocado topping will only last in the fridge for two to three days. It won’t go any longer because the avocado will start to oxidize. I do like to add some lemon juice for a zing in this mixture, but that doesn’t slow the oxidation process anymore than the sour cream and that means you pretty much have the same timeline. In lieu of shredded cheese from the storage, we bought a fresh, whole cheese and cut it up into farm-style “shredded” cheese and tossed it in a tablespoon of rice flour to prevent sticking, because the cheese was both soft and sticky. If the cheese is as soft as this was, you are better off using a sharp knife than a grater. The grater will simply end up mushing the cheese instead of making nice pieces.

What else could you do with these bowls?

Instead of topping the bowls with the creamy avocado, try making a verde aioli and drizzle that on top. In this case, I made the steak with an herbal substitute, but with the right spices you could give the meat a nice fajitas vibe. The bell peppers can be cooked with onions in longer slices and in a variety of colors to add more pop and lend to that fajitas flavor.

For a lighter feel, substitute the grain for more greens — a nice spring mix pairs well with this. Honestly, the meat doesn’t even have to be steak; pork, chicken, lamb, etc will also work with the with the dish. If you are a vegetarian, you could substitute with a fried egg, paneer, tofu, or garbanzo beans. The list of options in endless.

~Ginny