{"id":16397,"date":"2014-07-29T05:30:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T12:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shescookin.com\/?p=16397"},"modified":"2020-04-14T09:39:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T16:39:52","slug":"healthy-square-meal-in-a-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shescookin.com\/healthy-square-meal-in-a-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Square Meal in a Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n This\u00a0\u00fcber healthy, vegan, gluten free Carrot Quinoa Chickpea salad is more than a salad and better for you than popular fast-casual “bowls”, in fact, you could call it a square meal. For some reason this term crossed my mind and struck me as ironic – when, why and how did the expression “square meal” come to mean a nutritious and balanced meal? What makes it square? A plate or bowl is generally round, or was when “square meal” was a regular part of our vernacular. So, I had to “look it up” on the world wide web – another phrase that is rarely used.<\/p>\n If you can’t bear with me as I go off on this nerdy tangent – you’re welcome to skip this part and go directly to the square meal in a round bowl, best-carrot-salad-ever recipe.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Turns out that the term stems from a meaning of square that has nothing to do with the shape:<\/p>\n The word square has many meanings, including ‘proper, honest, straightforward’, and that’s the meaning in ‘square meal’. This isn’t a rectilinear meal on right-angled crockery, but a good and satisfying meal.<\/p>\n The phrase is of US origin. All the early citations are from America, including this, the earliest print reference I have found – an advertisement for the Hope and Neptune restaurant, in the California newspaper\u00a0The Mountain Democrat<\/em>, November 1856:<\/p>\n “We can promise all who patronize us that they can always get a hearty welcome and ‘square meal’ at the ‘Hope and Neptune. Oyster, chicken and game suppers prepared at short notice.”<\/p>\n {Source: The Phrase Finder}<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n From the “square meal”, nutritional guidelines moved \u00a0to the Food Pyramid (2005)<\/a> and, in June 2011, the USDA updated nutritional guidelines and adopted the use of My Plate<\/a> (a round plate) as a more appropriate and understandable depiction of what a balanced and nutritious meal should look like.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n