A new family fav...the rice bowl!

Sausage and peppers rice bowl

So my friend Mindi has been doing the whole “eating for your blood type” thing for a while now. It’s been really working for her – she’s feeling and looking great! I’ve sort of been blowing it off for myself though until this past weekend. Mindi and I did a ski lesson together (hello…check off a New Year’s resolution) while the boys snowboarded. Afterwards we got some food and a few beers, the topic came up again. For some reason Brett rattled off his blood type - AB- (is this really something people know about themselves, like their phone number?) and the next day she sent me a ton of info on what he should be eating/avoiding. As an FYI – beer and meat were on his “avoid” list. So needless to say Brett will not be participating! :)

Luckily I had some old maternirty paperwork filed, so I dug it up to see what my blood type was. I’m O+ (which I will now never forget) and it turns out I’m supposed to avoid gluten and dairy…awesome. More specifically it said that wheat makes me gain weight. The silver lining is that beer and wine are on my “OK to eat list.”

As Brett said, “It’s like reading your horoscope. You don’t know if it actually applies to you, or if it’s just general enough to apply to everyone.” OK, so I, like Brett, am not going to start the regiment. But I did find the concept sort of interesting. It definitely inspired me to branch out a little and look for ways that I could replace wheat in my diet with other things. Because as I believe, it’s all about balance.

Where this recipe came from
So Monday night I had planned to do sausage and pepper subs for dinner. After reading about the gluten thing, I decided it might be fun to turn these into a rice bowl.

Making the recipe
Brown rice take FOREVER to cook, so keep that in mind when you are planning this. I started the rice before I cut up all the veggies and sausage.

The results
This turned out to be a suprising success!! I didn’t mix the rice/sausage mixture together for the kids – but they both ate it! If Brett was home, I would have had to cook the sausage/veggies separately, but since he wasn’t I was able to cook everything together. Much easier. I’ll definitely be looking for other ways to incorporate rice bowls into our dinner routine!

The recipe
NOTE: Since I was cooking for just me and the kids, I did half of what I would normally do. If you’re cooking for 4, I would double this.

1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup brown rice
1 tbsp olive oil
2 links chicken sausage (I used the sweet italian flavor - but use whatever you like), chunked
1/4 red pepper, chopped/cut in strips...whatever you like)
1/4 green pepper, cut the same way
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 scallion, chopped
shredded mozzerella cheese for topping
salt and pepper

Heat chicken stock to boiling in a small saucepan. Add rice, lower heat to simmer and cook until tender, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile heat olive oil in a skillet over med heat. Add pepper and onion. Cook for a minute or two and add sausage. Cook a few more minutes and add garlic. Continue cooking until vegetables begin to soften - about 8-10 minutes. Add scallion, salt and pepper.

Once the sausage and veggies are browned mix with sausage and check seasonings. Top with mozzerella cheese.