This southwestern Beef Protein Bowl is so delicious, low carb friendly, and inexpensive to put together with seasoned ground beef, eggs, spinach, cauliflower rice, and zucchini. It’s healthy for a filling breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
A wonderful low carb bowl that packs over 30 grams of protein, it's easy to make and a great way to get in extra vegetables.
INGREDIENTS:
- Eggs - Eggs, including egg whites are filled with protein. A single egg has 6 grams of protein.
- Lean Beef - Beef is high in protein as well as iron and B12. A pound of ground beef has around 65 grams of protein and also contains a good amount of Iron, B6 and Magnesium. I recommend one that's 90/10. Bison would also work well here too.
- Cauliflower Rice - Low carb and easy to cook, one cup of cauliflower contains 2 grams of protein and only around 25 calories. It’s a great way to have a filling meal while also getting more vegetables in.
- Spinach - While not incredibly high in protein, spinach is anti-inflammatory and contains a good amount of vitamin C, as well as magnesium.
- Spices - With so much healthy proteins and vegetables, we need to bump up the flavor with lots of seasonings. This taco seasoned beef is one of my favorites and so versatile. You can blend this seasoning in larger batches and keep on hand for taco night or this protein bowl.
STEP 1: COOK THE BEEF
Start by browning the ground beef in a large nonstick pan over medium heat and mix in the spices. Once cooked through, remove from heat and set aside.
STEP 2-3: COOK VEGETABLES
In the same pan, cook the cauliflower rice over medium heat and add the spices. Mix in chopped zucchini and stir, until everything is just starting to soften (around 4 minutes total). Remove from the heat and set aside.
STEP 3: COOK EGGS AND SPINACH
Finally, add a little bit of oil to your pan and turn to medium high heat. Crack the eggs and gently put the egg into the pan. Fry for about 1-2 minutes, until the white becomes opaque, and flip the egg. Pan fry another minute - you want the yolk still runny but the whites fully cooked.
Meanwhile, add spinach to the pan on the other side of the eggs. This will allow the spinach to wilt down slightly, but not completely shrink up. You just want it softened.
STEP 4: BUILD THE BOWL
Layer the cauliflower and zucchini in the bottom of your bowl, top with ground beef, eggs, and spinach.
Salsa verde goes great on top of this and is one of my favorites, but any salsa will be delicious.
RECIPE TIPS
- This recipe is easy to customize to make it work for you. Feel free to substitute cauliflower rice with quinoa, or zucchini with broccoli. Hate eggs or are allergic? Just leave them out.
- This is a wonderful meal prep option and will last in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- If following a migraine diet, you want to avoid tyramine build up which happens in protein-rich foods. To do this, you can freeze the cooked beef and defrost later to build your bowl. The vegetables will not have the same tyramine build up as quickly as beef.
- Eggs are best cooked the day of, so slide those on once you’re ready to eat.
- This recipe is automatically gluten and dairy free, plus migraine diet friendly.
STORAGE SUGGESTIONS
To meal prep this low carb bowl, cook everything except the eggs. I would recommend doing a soft or hard boiled egg instead of the pan-fried. That way you can keep it on hand in the refrigerator.
Refrigerator - This recipe will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge in an airtight container.
Freezer - To freeze, cook everything up to the point of the eggs. Then freeze in individual containers. Defrost overnight in the fridge. Sometimes I find rice has a better texture for this than cauliflower rice, but do whatever works for you. Keep a stash or hard boiled eggs that you can grab and top the bowl with, or cook one right before serving.