If a name like rainbow chicken veggie bowl doesn’t catch your attention, I don’t know what will. Maybe the ridiculous beautiful and colorful photo of the best dish I have eaten in months?
If am being honest, I have been in a bit of a dinner funk lately. I find myself challenged and stretched to do it all sometimes. Between keeping the house clean, dealing with a stage 100 clingy baby, playing with wooden blocks nonstop, creating content for my site, copywriting for others’ sites, and creating meal plans for clients, I feel like time is running short.
Yet I have a desire to have a hot dinner on the table for my husband every night when he comes home from work. (Make no mistake- he does not demand this of me. It truly is a desire of mine).
And in the midst of this desire I also have the desire to keep things fun and interesting. My husband always says he can probably count on two hands the number of times we have had a repeat meal in our marriage, and that is true. But lately I have felt like I just am getting less and less creative, and our dishes are getting less and less colorful.
That was the real and raw motivation for this dish. I wanted to make something bright, cheerful, and delicious, and surprise my husband with a dish that was completely unique and new to us. I wanted to really wow him when he came home from work.
I also needed to be practical… I needed to create a dish entirely from the resources on hand in my pantry and fridge, because going to the grocery store an additional time was just not an option!
And that’s that. I looked around and came up with this idea for a rainbow chicken veggie bowl. My husband and I both love things that are sweet and salty, or as some might refer to it, sweet and savory. I decided to incorporate that into the dish as well. I would have named it ‘sweet and savory rainbow chicken veggie bowl,’ but yea, that’s just too much.
It might look pretty intense, but it’s actually rather simple. I used brown rice and black beans as the base. Then I topped it with pan seared chicken, sautéed sweet peppers, English peas, and sweet corn. To finish it off and add a bang, I drizzled homemade poppyseed dressing over the top. And if you think that sounds weird or funny, just try it… you have to.
Need a good homemade dressing recipe? Stay tuned! Otherwise, just use your favorite clean eating option. Honey mustard also works well with this dish.
I counted the number of times my husband complimented the dish. Y’all, eleven times during dinner he said, “honey, this is SO good.” A few times he even started the sentence with, “seriously, honey.”
And yes, it really was that good. I know my husband, and I can tell the difference between his genuine compliments and his “I’m being generous” compliments.
Seriously, y’all, it was SO good.
Also, a dish that is packed with flavor, totally filling, and still totally healthy is just the right dish to start your week on the right track.
Get busy and get this in your belly ASAP.