Butternut Squash, Kale & Ground Beef Breakfast Bowl

When you eat Paleo, breakfast no longer is as easy as pouring cereal into a bowl and adding milk to it or popping a couple of slices of bread in the toaster.

Or, like I used to do A LOT, throwing a whole bunch of fruits and stuff into a food processor and blitz the whole thing into a delicious, but unfortunately not so nutritious, smoothie.

Prepping ahead of time becomes an essential step to putting a well balanced breakfast on your plate (or bowl!) and that holds especially true when doing a Whole30®

Speaking of which, I’m currently on day 13 of my 2nd challenge and things are going really well. I haven’t had a single craving for nuts or nut butter since I started, which truly surprises me. I mean, my addiction to nut butter was BAD! I would easily go through 2 to 3 cups every week, just eating the stuff by the spoonful.

As well, I had become some sort of a “muncher”. I was constantly looking for something to munch on, especially after dinner. Eating seemed to be all I could think about. This has completely subsided now and I have to say that it’s a great relief.

It’s like I flicked a switch and my brain just went along with it: Whole30® is on! Gotta behave!

Seriously, my body is feeling much better, much lighter already. And my mind is a lot more at ease, too.

If taking the Whole30® challenge 3-4 times a year is what it takes to keep me and my hormones in gear, I am fully prepared to do exactly that. I seem to respond very well to the fact that, while doing a Whole30®, certain things are simply OFF LIMITS. No exceptions. No grey areas.

And I think a lot has to be said for the no SWYPO rule, too, at least as far as I’m concerned. It helps me stay grounded and focused. It forces me to eat real food. It helps me get my emotional relationship with food back on track.

Now, there’s no way I could live under such strict conditions all the time, but I think I need to have these rigid guidelines to adhere to from time to time.

It really does my body and mind a world of good.

That being said, since I started eating paleo, I have a strange, new-found affection for “Indian” spices, such as spicy curry and garam masala. As much as I used to avoid them like the plague, they now seem to find their way into half of my dishes, especially at breakfast. It must be that they pair so well with coconut.

So anyway, Breakfast Bowls, as I like to call them, pretty much are my new cereal! Granted, they’re not quite as quick and easy to put together as a bowl of cereal, but with a little prep ahead of time, they do make it from pan to table on weekday mornings in a very decent amount of time.

What I usually do is I’ll bake a couple of butternut squash and/or sweet potatoes on the week-end and keep them in the fridge to use all week.

Likewise, I always cook one or two pounds of ground meat, which I then use to create all sorts of quick dishes, but most of it ends up in one of my “Breakfast Bowls”

What can I say? I like to eat breakfast out of a bowl!

And of course, while I mostly choose to have those for breakfast, they also make for perfect, portable lunches (most reheat super well in the microwave) or conveniently quick dinners for those nights when you’re in a pinch, or at a loss for inspiration.

Tell you what! They beat any take-out  food and probably will be ready in less time than it would take the delivery person to get to your door.

Providing that you have done your prep ahead of time, that is.

So make it a habit. Prep a few things on the week-end.

You’ll thank me for it!

Print Recipe Rate this Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Butternut Squash, Kale & Ground Beef Breakfast Bowl

Servings: 1

Ingredients

• ½ small onion, finely diced
• 1-2 button mushrooms, chopped
• 150 g lean ground grass fed beef
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 5 kale leaves, stems removed and chopped (you can sub collard or baby spinach)
• ¼ large butternut squash, cooked and cooled (that’s about 1½ cup)
• ¼ cup full fat coconut milk
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp spicy curry
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1-2 tbsp organic toasted coconut shavings
• 1-2 tbsp full fat coconut milk

Instructions

• In a heavy skillet set over medium high heat melt a little bit of coconut oil. When oil is nice and hot, add onions, mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook until the veggies are fragrant and softened, about 2-3 minutes.
• Add ground beef, garam masala, curry, ginger and cinnamon and continue cooking until the beef is no longer pink in color.
• Throw in the chopped kale and cook, stirring delicately, until the kale starts to wilt and turns a vivid dark green.
• Stir in cooked squash and coconut milk and stir to break down the squash and incorporate the coconut milk. Continue cooking just until heated through.
• Transfer to a bowl (it’s very important that you use a bowl here, else you would totally lose the right to call this a breakfast bowl) and garnish with a handful of toasted coconut and a few tablespoons of thick and delicious coconut milk.
  

Notes

*Time saving tip: You can double or triple the amount of meat (adjust onions and mushrooms accordingly) and use it on subsequent mornings to create different variations of this breakfast bowl. If you elect to do that, you might want to add the spices only after the meat is fully cooked and you have removed the portion that you’re not going to use right away.

Author: Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

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