Ah, I love bowls of food. Plates are fine, but it’s something about that concave shape that tends to house the tastiest of meals and snacks.
But sometimes we make sub-par bowls of food such as stale, sugary cereal or ice cream that tastes more like ice than cream or plain rice flavored with plain beans. Sometimes, we hold our bowls of food to standards that are far too low.
Speaking of low standards, that’s the only kind of standards I’ve set for myself in the marathon these past two years. I’m not saying I slack off or that I don’t train enough. I do all the hard work, I just refuse to set goals that are even in the slightest bit intimidating. Heaven forbid I don’t reach my goal.
But then I didn’t get into Boston and they dropped the qualifying time by five minutes and suddenly, I couldn’t allow myself to be satisfied with low standards anymore.
I’ve been lucky enough to never have to try too hard to qualify for Boston. As long as I put some effort into training, I was pretty much guaranteed a qualifying time. Not by much, but I’d make it in just under the wire.
Like when training for the Kalamazoo Marathon I trained like I planned to run a 3:25, but I refused to set a goal for anything faster than 3:30. I ended up with a 3:31. Now that’s not good enough for Boston, and I have to admit it’s not good enough for me either.
We’re never going to get better if we’re too afraid to set goals that we aren’t guaranteed to reach. I have to learn that and I’m guessing a few of you do as well.
But let’s start out easy with our bowl standards. Let’s not settle for the canned soup we know we’ll enjoy a moderate amount, let’s reach for something more.
So now we’ve arrived at these honey sesame chicken bowls. Brown rice, cabbage, chicken marinated with honey and soy sauce, crispy roasted broccoli, a soft-boiled egg, sesame seeds, and plenty of other flavors that will give us all the kick in the pants we need.
Make yourself this bowl full of nutritional goodness- protein-packed, plenty of vitamins and minerals and whole grains- and start gathering the courage to make a scary goal or two. I’m routing for you.
Honey sesame chicken bowls
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked brown rice (one cup uncooked)
- 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 2 tsp honey
- 1/4 cup soy sauce, plus more for serving
- 2 cups shredded red and green cabbage (I used coleslaw mix)
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 2 eggs, soft or hard boiled
- 1-2 raw chicken breasts (depending on size of chicken breast)
- 2 tsp black sesame seeds
- 1/2 head broccoli
- 1 tbsp oil
- salt
Instructions
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Mix together garlic, ginger, lemon juice, honey, and soy sauce in a small bowl.
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Coat broccoli with the olive oil and bake until roasted and crisp, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with salt.
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In the meantime, heat a small amount of oil in a pan to a medium heat. Add chicken, basting with the remaining marinade slowly throughout, and cook until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
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Remove the chicken and any remaining marinade and add the cabbage to the pan. Sprinkle with salt and cook until slightly soft and the color becomes more vibrant. Remove from heat.
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Cut the chicken into thin slices (save any remaining marinade in a small bowl). Peel the eggs and cut each one in half.
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Divide rice between two bowls. Top each bowl with half the chicken, cabbage, broccoli, one egg, green onion, sesame seeds, and any remaining marinade. Serve with soy sauce if desired.
