Mexican Mince and Warm Vegetable Rice Bowls (Diet)

Ingredients

• 900g raw NZ Premium Beef Mince (lean estimate; check fat/protein label)
• 180g dry white rice, cooked to serve — staple
• 240g drained canned sweetcorn (one 410g can; check drained yield)
• 200g carrot, grated
• 400g cabbage, shredded
• 100g onion, finely diced — staple
• 6g garlic, crushed — staple
• 60g tomato paste from a new 170g jar
• 5ml neutral oil, measured total — staple
• 15ml white vinegar — staple
• 20g grated hard cheese — staple
• 4g dried paprika — staple
• 2g ground cumin — staple
• 2g garlic powder — staple
• 1g dried oregano — staple
• 0.5g cayenne, or less to taste — staple

Add this — Thanja

• 60g additional dry white rice, cooked separately
• 40g additional grated hard cheese, for her portions only

Quantities below are for her two serves of the four-serve batch; keep separate from Declan’s portions. Adds per Thanja serve: ~189 kcal, 6.8g fat, 24.3g carbs.

Method

1. Cook the measured dry rice. Drain the sweetcorn.
2. Brown the extra-lean beef mince in a large non-stick pan with the measured 5ml oil. Add onion, garlic and carrot and cook until softened.
3. Stir in tomato paste and the dry spices. Add about 200ml water, the cabbage and corn; cover briefly then simmer until vegetables are tender and mince reaches 75°C.
4. Stir in vinegar. Divide rice and all the mince and vegetables into four bowls and melt the measured hard cheese through the hot filling.
5. Before serving, split the shared batch into four equal base portions. Keep two for Declan; add the listed extras only to Thanja’s two portions. Cook extra rice/pasta separately and divide the add-ons equally.

Notes

- Replaces fried katsu using the existing Mexican bowl recipe. Keep cabbage and carrot cooked into the filling; omit mayonnaise, sour cream and fresh herb garnish. - Premium beef mince selected as the leaner mince option rather than the cheaper unspecified Prime mince. Its exact fat/protein label is not exposed by the CLI; nutrition here assumes 5g fat and 21.5g protein per 100g. Check the pack before relying on the estimate. - Add the extra 60g dry rice (cooked separately) and 40g cheese across Thanja’s two portions only. - Macros are estimates for the entire served plate including carbs and all measured oil; Thanja’s add-ons are excluded from Declan’s front-matter macros. The CLI does not expose nutrition labels; check pack fat/protein and revise estimates if they differ. Breast uses 23g raw protein/100g, trimmed pork 21g/5g fat, premium beef 21.5g/5g fat. No label verification is claimed. - Cook all meat to 75°C and all vegetables through. Cool leftovers promptly; refrigerate or freeze promptly and reheat piping hot. Freeze later portions rather than refrigerating the full week.