Tag Archives: whole grain

May 15, 2013 · 1:00 pm

Spelty Spelty Spelt

spelt berries grain

Not all that long ago, I bought a bag of spelt berries. This is the latest advance in my crusade to vary our whole grains beyond the dominating wheat and brown rice.

Bottom Line: I do like barley better. However, I have a cooked batch and the rest of the bag, so we’re going to use it and enjoy it.

The Drawback: Rubbery texture from a thick skin. In all fairness, this could be due to the way I cooked the stuff.

The Upside: The taste is good. Nutty and a bit more complex than other grains. It also has this great color… a richer, redder brown than the tans and greys of oats, bulger and the rest of them.

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Grainy Update

(This post might be a little bit of a cheat, but I promise there’s some good stuff in those links!)

Last week I posted this entry about whole grains and trying to vary them.

A couple of days later I went to my beloved Harvest Health and picked up rye pasta and hulled barley. I’m guessing plenty of pesto and spaghetti sauce are in my near future, but I’m also thinking about experimenting with (veggie) corned beef inspired pasta recipes and maybe some soup.

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Pesto Barley

I had a bag of pearled barley sitting in my pantry for literally years. Unlike my interlude with quinoa, my decision to open that bag was influenced by a serious case of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard.

The word “barley” always sounded like an herb to me, not a grain. When I bought the stuff, I was surprised to see that it looked like fat rice. I figured at some point I’d add it to soup, and that is exactly what I did.

My final soup product was incredibly hearty with black eyed peas, numerous veggies and the cooked barley.

Problem was, I’d made way more barley than I needed. It just sat in the fridge while the rest of my food supply continued to dwindle as we approached pay day.

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Soapbox: Healthful Reminders Part 1 of 3

I’ve eaten more desserts in the past few months than I have in the past several years combined. I’m allowing myself this indulgence while I’m pregnant… consolation for the little (and gladly suffered) physical discomforts my dear daughter is causing.

But here at week 34, my season is quickly drawing to a close. In six weeks (okay, maybe eight or 12) I’ll probably start thinking about getting my body back to it’s pre-pregnancy shape and range of motion.

I felt like I needed a little refresher and motivation, and so revisited something I wrote just over a year ago. Originally part of a health plan I was working on with my mom, it’s been polished a bit to share with you here:

This really isn’t “health nut” stuff – it should be common sense. It needs to be the way we think about food.
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Tagged as animal products, diet, eating healthy, health, whole grain