Fall Harvest Buddha Bowl

I've said it once and I'll say it 2345 more times, I love fall foods. They are my favorite.

One thing I love about fall foods is that they are so versatile. They are good in soups, salads, bowls, plain, they are good everywhere. I will eat them here and there, I will eat them everywhere. I love fall foods Sam I Am. Wow, can you tell I have a four year old and a 15 month old...I just dropped a Green Eggs and Ham quote without even thinking about it. Speaking of children, like all my recipes, this one is child, baby approved, and omnivore approved.

I won't lie, I really don't have much to say today because this is the third blog post I have written this morning. The baby woke me up just before 5 am to eat and then I couldn't go back to bed so I decided to actually get some work done instead of cleaning my house. (We just repainted half our house so it is a wreck, but I am sick of working on that so I did this instead.) So I am just going to jump straight into the recipe. I am sure none of you mind at all.

For this recipe I used almost all my kitchen gadgets: air fryer, instantpot, and rice cooker which makes for a lot of dishes. But in my house, I cook, husband does dishes, so I don't care...If he complains then I say, "Okay, you can cook," and then he doesn't complain about it. Luckily, he almost never complains because he is an 11 on a scale of 1-10.

Recipe

2 c quinoa, uncooked

4 c water

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 c garbanzo beans, uncooked OR 1 can garbanzo beans

Kale, washed and roughly chopped

1/2 pomegranate, seeded

1/2 c pumpkin seeds, raw and hulled

1/2 c tahini

1-2 T maple syrup

2T+ balsamic vinegar

warm water, to thin

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. If making your own beans, combine 1 c beans with 3 c water in pressure cooker, I prefer the Instantpot, and pressure cook 28 minutes with a natural steam release.

**If using canned beans skip step two and start with step three.**

3. Combine quinoa and water in rice cooker and push cook OR in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until soft. Stir occasionally.

4. Skin and cube butternut squash. Place on baking sheet and bake 20 minutes, stir and check and continue baking, checking every 5-10 minutes until soft.

**OR put them in your air fryer and cook at 370 degrees F for 7-8 minutes, stir halfway through**

5. Wash a chop broccoli. Add to roasting squash when you have about 10 minutes left and cook until soft.

**OR put them in your air fryer and cook at 370 degrees F for 3 minutes.**

6. Make sauce. Combine tahini, maple syrup, and vinegar and whisk until smooth. Add warm water and whisk until thin enough to pour.

7. Make your bowls: I layer quinoa, kale, squash, broccoli, beans, pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds, and top with sauce. My husband puts sauce in his quinoa and on top, different ideas, all good.

8. ENJOY