What if I told you lunches, weeknight dinners, and even fancy weekend meals could all be easier if you just ate a dog bowl.
No, we’re not talking about the fur babies kibble, but we are talking about the high protein rice bowls becoming popularized by the chef and actor in the TV show “The Bear”, Matty Matheson. Matheson talks about prepping these dog bowls to support his healthier habits and weight loss journey. His mainly consist of ground beef, eggs, and white rice but, we can always add to it.
While simple, high in protein, and satiating, we are going to talk about what changes I would make as a registered dietitian when use the concept of dog bowls to make them healthier. Our goal, to bring more nutrient density, fiber, and flavor options into the mix to give you almost endless combinations for your easy weeknight dinner, meal prep staple, and delicious crowd pleasing dog bowls.
Matheson’s Recipe
In his video his recipe uses ½ cup long grain rice, 1 pound ground beef, 1 tablespoon butter, 3 eggs, Kosher salt, black pepper, and Ketchup. It’s a simple and keep the grocery list to a minimum.
Matheson does suggest in his video that green onion or ginger can be added to the rice to bring a little more flavor to the dish.
How do Dog Bowls Support Weight Loss
Its easy: It takes little effort and decision making to throw this together even after a long day at work.
Sometimes thinking about what you have to make, the energy needed to do it, and the lack of time can lead to options like fast food, which may not be ideals for your weight loss journey.
High in protein: High protein diets can support satiety which can help someone feel fuller for longer, even with a lower calorie intake [1].
Additionally, getting adequate protein is important to support muscle preservation during weight loss [1]. With a lower calorie intake, if someone isn’t eating enough protein to meet their needs, our body will take from our muscles. This means we could have more weight loss coming from our muscles.
Portion controlled: Dog bowls are great for portioning out our food to meet our needs. Nowadays, restaurant portions can be far to big for the average person meaning we tend to overeat [2].
However, everyone has different needs when it comes to meal sizes. After finding the perfect portion size for you, it can be portioned into individual containers to make meal prep even easier.
Dog Bowl Recipe Variations
Change up the protein
Instead of ground beef one could substitute this for lean cuts of meat, other ground meats or poultry, seafood, or plant based options.
Ground meats:
- Lean ground turkey 96% or leaner
- Lean ground chicken 96% or leaner
Whole cuts of meat or poultry
- Chicken thighs
- Chicken tenderloins
- Chicken breast
- Pork tenderloin
- Sirloin steak
- Eye of round
Seafood
- Salmon
- Tuna
- Haddock
- Cod
- Trout
- Swordfish
- Herring
- Sardines
Plant-based options
- Tofu
- Textured vegetable protein (Check out my post, “How to Cook Textured Vegetable Protein” here)
- Seitan
- Tempeh
- Beans
- Lentils
Choose Your Grain
White rice is easy and cheap, but other whole grain options can offer more fiber, nutrients, assorted flavors profiles, and textures for some variety. Bolded are some of my personal favorites.
If you’re wanting to switch it up from a grain bowl, you can also use a starchy vegetable as your base like potato or sweet potato, corn, winter swashes, or peas.
Whole grains:
- Amaranth
- Barley
- Buckwheat
- Bulgur
- Farro
- Millet
- Quinoa
- Sorghum
- Spelt
- Teff
- While or Brown Rice
Add More Nutrient Density
Again Matheson’s dog bowl is great with its simplicity and high protein content, but it does have some room for improvement with nutrient diversity, fiber content, and flavor variety.
Eating the same thing every day can be a recipe for nutrient deficiencies. Bowls of ground beef and rice do not contain adequate amounts of all the essential nutrients for the body, meaning we need to add a little bit more.
Additionally, with white rice, ground beef, and eggs there is no fiber. Fiber is important in supporting digestion, satiety, bowel regularity, and gut health. You can get more if you use certain plant-based protein sources or one of the whole grains instead of white rice. Certain cooked vegetables, like brussels sprouts, broccoli, Cauliflower, and kale, can also give a boost to the fiber content of these dog bowl.
Healthy fats
Healthy fats can come in multiple forms such as sauces, dressings, and cooking oils, but also from nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, and fatty fish. While getting enough healthy fats is important, be mindful of how much you use as they are very calorie dense which can make weight management more difficult if too much is used.
Vegetables
The focus of vegetables should be non-starchy sources. Starchy vegetables can still be included, but our goal is to create a more balanced meal. You can use starchy vegetables in place of some of our grain items. But with your non-starchy vegetables, really getting a variety of vegetables is best. Below is a list of some vegetables you can use in a dog bowl. Steam them or roast them for simplicity, but they can also be sautéed, air-fried, chopped into a slaw, blended into a sauce, turned into a salsa and more.
- Artichoke
- Asparagus
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Brussel sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Celery
- Dark leafy greens (Kale, collards, spinach, etc.)
- Eggplant
- Fennel
- Green beans
- Lettuces (various types)
- Mushrooms
- Peppers
- Radishes
- Tomatoes
Sauces and Flavorings
If trying to keep it low calorie stick to using more seasonings (paprika, coriander, cumin, curry powder, etc.), aromatics (garlic, onion, ginger, peppers), or herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, etc) when cooking. There are a few low-calorie condiments such as certain hot sauces, mustard, and low-sugar BBQ sauces.
Sauces can also be made by mixing herbs or spice with low-fat dairy products such as yogurt or kefir, silken tofu, or soaked cashew to make a creamy, vegan sauce.
For convenience, salad dressings can be used but, keep in mind that many are calorie dense. So, make sure you are choosing a dressing and amount that supports your goals.
I also like to use either store bought or homemade hummus, as it offers a variety of flavor options.
Take Away
Dog bowls are a great way to have a simple yet balanced meal to support your health goals. Although Matty Matheson keeps it simple and high in protein, with some simple modifications, you can bring more fiber and a more nutrient dense composition to your meals.