Making Healthy Eating Quick and Easy with an easy to make rice bowl using our Organic Sprouted Brown

In the fourth in a series of 6 guest blog posts for our Sunningdale Mills blog, with healthy recipes ideas from Teresa Ford of Take Root, she shares the benefits of making and taking the time to ensure we eat a healthy plant based diet.

Making Healthy Eating Quick and Easy

When I encourage people to eat healthier, and plant-based specifically, one of the most common concerns I hear is they don’t think they have enough time. Their schedules are already stretched to capacity. They are overworked, overtired and stressed. Doesn’t it take a lot of time to prepare plant-based meals? Don’t you need to do a ton of chopping?

I usually offer a two-part response. I start by proposing they consider the possibility of reprioritizing to create more time in their lives to plan and prepare healthy meals. After all, our diet is the second leading cause of death and disability combined, followed only by smoking (see here). If we don’t make time now to eat healthy, we’ll likely need to make time later to deal with disease.

That said, I explain that healthy eating really does not need to take a lot of time. As I’ve mentioned earlier in this series, it can be as simple as combining “a grain, a bean and a green.”Not much chopping there! And the variations are many, which is why we can turn to this dish regularly. Popular whole grains are brown rice and quinoa. Tasty and nutritious beans include chickpeas, black beans and edamame. We could easily include tofu, tempeh or lentils instead. Greens could be kale, spinach or broccoli, but other vegetables are nourishing too. Think shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, slivered sun-dried tomatoes or avocado (one of my favourites). Top it all off with a dressing or sauce. For example, start with about one or one-and-a-half cups of grains in each bowl. Add up to one tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil, one tablespoon of tamari, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of dried basil. Then add the other options. Done! (But if you find yourself with a couple of extra minutes to spare, you could toss on some extras like almonds, sunflower seeds, or chopped fresh cilantro or parsley.)

Choosing sprouted products is another time-saving strategy when it comes to healthy eating. Standard brown rice takes 45 minutes to cook, whereas Sunningdale Organic Sprouted Brown Rice takes only 25 minutes. I know from experience those saved minutes can make the difference between moving forward with an impromptu rice bowl versus choosing a less healthy option. Sunningdale Mills Organic Sprouted Quinoa takes a mere 10 minutes to cook, about the time it’ll take to pull together the add-ins for a scrumptious bowl.

Today I chose Sunningdale Mills Organic Sprouted Brown Rice, spiralized carrots, slivered sun-dried tomatoes, avocado and oil-free 3, 2, 1 dressing (3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons mustard of choice and 1 tablespoon maple syrup whisked together in a small bowl). Easy and delicious!

Enjoy today's recipe and order your Organic Sprouted Brown Rice here today!