Mediterranean Lunch Bowl

Name: Mediterranean Lunch Bowl
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 1 servings
Ingredients: About 1 oz. lettuce blend, 1/5 of a 5 oz. box (H-E-B Organics romaine, butter lettuce, and arugula); 1/2 pouch ready brown rice (Ben's Original Whole Grain, 8.8 oz. pouch); 1/5 of a batch of Cava-style chicken; 1/5 of a batch of cucumber tomato salad; 2 Tbsp. tzatziki (Cedar's Cucumber Garlic Dill); 2 Tbsp. roasted red pepper hummus (H-E-B Deli); 2 Tbsp. lemon herb tahini; 2 Tbsp. crumbled feta

The thing all the Sunday prep is for. Greens, warm brown rice, harissa chicken, cucumber tomato salad, and three sauces, assembled in about five minutes and mixed together in the bowl. One weekend of cooking builds five of these.

Serves: 1
Prep: 5 min
Cook: 5 min
Total: 10 min

assembly
chicken
lunch
meal-prep
salad

Ingredients

About 1 oz. lettuce blend, 1/5 of a 5 oz. box (H-E-B Organics romaine, butter lettuce, and arugula)
1/2 pouch ready brown rice (Ben's Original Whole Grain, 8.8 oz. pouch)
1/5 of a batch of Cava-style chicken
1/5 of a batch of cucumber tomato salad
2 Tbsp. tzatziki (Cedar's Cucumber Garlic Dill)
2 Tbsp. roasted red pepper hummus (H-E-B Deli)
2 Tbsp. lemon herb tahini
2 Tbsp. crumbled feta

Instructions

Microwave half the rice pouch, about 45 seconds, and the chicken portion until warmed through, 1–2 min.
Slice the chicken.
Put the lettuce in a wide bowl. Add the rice, then the chicken.
Top with the cucumber tomato salad, using its juices as part of the dressing.
Add the tzatziki, hummus, and tahini in separate spoonfuls, then the feta.
Mix everything together and eat.

Notes

A wide, shallow bowl beats a deep one. Everything has to get mixed at the end, and a deep bowl means the sauces stay at the bottom.
Warm rice and chicken over cold greens is the point — the lettuce wilts slightly where it touches the rice and stays crisp everywhere else. Let either one cool too long and the bowl goes flat.
Microwave is the easy path. An air fryer at 350° for 3–4 min, or the oven, re-crisps the chicken edges if there's time.
Don't dress it beyond the three sauces. The cucumber tomato salad brings its own olive oil and lemon, and the pooled juice from the container is the rest of the dressing.
Everything is portioned in fifths because that's what a Sunday batch of chicken and salad divides into. The rice pouch splits over two days, so a five-day week takes about three pouches.
Feta and tzatziki are the two store-bought things here that vary a lot by brand. Block feta crumbled by hand is better than pre-crumbled, which is drier and often coated in starch.
The chicken marinade carries no salt, which is why the bowl comes in around 1,600 mg of sodium rather than 2,600. What's left comes from the feta, hummus, tzatziki, tahini, and the salad — five salted things, which is plenty. Don't salt the bowl at the table without tasting first.
Tzatziki brands are not interchangeable on the label. Cedar's Cucumber Garlic Dill, which the numbers here use, is 35 cal, 95 mg sodium, and 2 g protein per 2 Tbsp. The H-E-B house dip is sour-cream based: fewer calories but more salt and no protein at all.

Assembly order

Greens first, rice and chicken on top of them, cold components after, sauces last. Hot on cold, then dressed.
If you're carrying it to work assembled, keep the sauces separate and add them there. The bowl holds fine for a few hours; the greens under warm rice and three sauces do not.

Nutrition

Serving size: 1 bowl
Calories: 1149
Protein: 72 g
Fat: 61 g
Saturated fat: 13 g
Carbohydrates: 83 g
Fiber: 11 g
Sugar: 24 g
Sodium: 1627 mg
Cholesterol: 261 mg

Estimated from the ingredient list, per serving. Not a substitute for a label.