Simple Homemade Whole Grain Barley Cereal

While cooking a double batch of hulled barley with tuna and veggies for our work lunches, I felt inclined to cook a separate batch strictly for cereal. Hulled barley has everything intact but the outside hull and is the most nutritious form you can buy. Pearled barley is still a healthy choice, but it has been stripped of the nutritious husk and bran layers; it does cook faster though!


Cold Tuna Barley Salad for work lunch. Simple, healthy, yum!




Hulled barley is harder for me to find than pearled, so I make sure to get some whenever available. To cook, I simply add the barley to a dry pot over medium high heat and let it toast for a minute or two; stirring constantly. Once you can smell the toasted nuggets, add water and salt, cover, and let simmer for approximately 90 minutes.

 

Just wash a load of clothes, clean around the house, or get in a workout while waiting for the tiny grains to cook into chewy, nutty gems. Once cooked, add a tablespoon of honey or agave or, if you’re like me, use stevia to sweeten to taste.

 

Store cooked barley in the fridge to use as a cold cereal treat for breakfast or a healthy dessert. Cold barley mixed with plain Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, and toasted almonds or pistachios makes a well-rounded meal sure to cool you on the hottest summer day. It's not ice cream, but you'll feel a lot better with this.


Alternatively, you could just heat in the microwave if desired, but cold is my preferred choice in the summer. Hot or cold, these nutty grains provide wholesome comfort long after eating.

Q: Have you cooked your own grains to store in the fridge and use as a healthy cereal treat?


I bet you could bake them after cooking on the stove for a crunchy alternative. Don’t think barley is your only option, I’ve done this with quinoa before and think rice, millet, kamut, etc. would be just as pleasing.

Celebrate Spring with Homemade Peanut Butter Dip N’Dots

Today marks the first day of spring for 2012, and we have nothing but constant rain here to start it off. But that’s ok since the rain will help the grass to grow, flowers to bloom, and everything will have a fresh start! Now we just need to avoid the Texas droughts that usually occur a couple months later.

I saw a few posts (here’s one good example) on homemade dip n’dots over the weekend and was instantly intrigued. I remember getting this from a little cart inside the mall as a kid….mmmm, all the tasty, frozen pellets would melt with each spoonful. It was good, but I’m sure not very good for you.

Enter the wonder and satisfaction of homemade! It’s simple, all you need is yogurt and your preferred flavoring to get started.

Or you could just use an already flavored yogurt that requires no mixing, but where’s the fun in that? Plus, flavored yogurt usually has a lot of sugar that negates most of its health benefits. No thanks!

I’m a fan of peanut butter, so that’s the flavor I immediately thought of for my own Dip N’Dots version. Go ahead, make your own and let me know how much you loved it.

Peanut Butter Dip N’Dots

Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Greek or regular plain, non-fat yogurt (or 2 6oz containers)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup peanut flour (If you don’t have, you can use 2 tablespoons natural, creamy PB; just briefly heat to make it easy to stir)

Directions

In a bowl, mix together the yogurt, vanilla, and peanut flour or peanut butter until well combined. I actually had a large 32oz yogurt container with the right amount left, so I used this to mix everything.

Put the yogurt into a plastic sealable bag, and zip shut.

Cut a small corner off the bag and use it like a piping bag to squeeze out small dots over a cookie sheet. I used a silicone baking mat for ease of transfer once frozen.

Place in your freezer for a couple hours and wait, impatiently, if you’re like me.

Fold the mat to create a “V” shape and dump (if you didn’t use a mat, use a non-metallic spatula to scrape) into a container with a lid to freeze until ready to eat. Or just eat them right away! Warning: these melt somewhat quickly, so freezing your storage device before hand will help the dots keep their shape.

The best part about this recipe is that you can easily change the flavors to your liking. Here are some alternative suggestions:

Honey or agave to taste; Honey Dots!

Liquid (plain or vanilla) or powder stevia; Sugar-free Sweet Dots!

Favorite flavored protein powder; Protein Power Dip N’Dots!

Blended fruit; MMMM, Peanut Butter Banana Dots!

Pumpkin puree; Pumpkin Pie Dots!

These can and do make for a wonderfully satisfying and healthy treat. Try mixing with nuts and Overnight Oatmeal Crisps for a unique and hearty breakfast!

Kelley’s sister asked us if we’d take her 7 year old daughter (our niece) one weekend to show her the foods I buy and cook. She’s a very smart girl with a non-stop hunger for knowledge, so hopefully she’ll go back to teach her mom and dad a few things on healthy food and cooking! Homemade Dip N’Dots are easy enough to make with a kid and I bet she’ll have a blast helping us make (and eat) this simple treat.

Do you ever spend time in the kitchen with your own or your relative’s kids?

Easy Espresso Balsamic Chicken Tenders

While in Breck, Kelley’s dad, Steve, had mentioned a local olive oil and balsamic vinegar store that just opened. Knowing his daughter was married to a passionate foodie, he figured this was great info to share with us….and he was right!

Olive Fusion is a warm and cozy store with fine naturally flavored and non-flavored oils and vinegar around the perimeter. Vinegars were on one side and extra virgin oils on the other. Their very aged and intense balsamic vinegar had its own location separate from everything else to let you know its important status.

The two women in the store were more than happy to help us and urged us to sample anything we wanted. The oils and vinegars offered were all displayed with labels and small cups beside each bottle for anyone to try. If you are put-off by the thought of sipping vinegar and oil alone, you have not tried the intense flavors Olive Fusion has to offer. But, they do provide bread for dipping if you just can’t stand the liquid alone.

Kelley and I enjoy vinegar more than oils, but we tried several flavors of each variety. There were a few white balsamic vinegars along with many of the more popular dark red types. We tried flavors like dark chocolate, maple syrup, honey ginger, raspberry, and our favorite…espresso! The sweet tanginess of the vinegars makes them useful for a variety of dishes.

Inside Olive Fusion with shiny vats of fine oils. Bottles filled to order!

Some of the flavored oils offered were wild mushroom, garlic, cilantro onion, and a very spicy red pepper-infused oil. Kelley’s parents enjoy using extra virgin olive oil for the health benefits and flavor, so we picked up a bottle of the garlic flavored oil to give as a gift for letting us stay in their condo. For ourselves, we purchased a small bottle of the garlic “evoo” and a big bottle of espresso balsamic vinegar. There were also multiple salts with concentrated flavors to try; we lovvvvved the black truffle salt, but didn’t purchase any.

Kelley loves pouring balsamic on a stack of whole grain toast almost every night to accompany dinner, but we decided to reserve the espresso vinegar for special applications.  With the intense garlic flavor of the oil, this will be great mixed into any cooked grain or simply combined wth vinegar and drizzled on a salad. There are more uses for vinegars than just as a salad dressing or bread dipper; here’s a breakdown of its uses by age:


3 to 5 years, this is the youngest group and is good for salad dressings, dipping sauces for vegetables and bread, and marinades.

6 to 11 years, this is the middle age group that is more viscous and versatile. Use it in sauces (at the end of cooking), in risotto and pasta dishes, in marinades and mixed with Greek yogurt or mustard for a sandwich condiment.

Well-aged balsamic vinegar is anywhere from 12 to 150+ years and is best used after cooking complete, and in mild dishes so it can shine on its own. Use it to flavor meat like chicken, steak, fish or veal. It goes well with fruit and cheese pairings like strawberries, peaches and pears, along with ricotta or feta cheese. It is also great enjoyed by itself (just a small amount) or added to water (sparkling or not) for a refreshing beverage.


This week I decided to use our newfound liquid treasure to cook chicken tenders. I didn’t even have to marinate these to make them shine with espresso balsamic vinegar. Any cut of meat, poultry, or fish would work for this and I plan on using the vinegar on each type. Try sautéing mixed vegetables and add some vinegar towards the end to allow it to reduce and caramelize on the veggies.

You can see how thick the balsamic is...YUM!

For the tenders, I seasoned each side with sea salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, mustard, paprika, garlic powder (not salt!), oregano, and basil. I placed the chicken in foil, drizzled the espresso vinegar over and around each tender, wrapped up the foil and baked in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 35 to 30 minutes. Enclosing the chicken in foil with the vinegar allows it to absorb the steam created and makes for an intense flavor while keeping everything moist.

Great side profile of the tender tenders...

Love the look of seasoned chicken darkened with espresso balsamic!

I cut the chicken into cubes and placed on top of a baked sweet potato with a side of steamed veggies and drizzled with more espresso balsamic for one of our lunches this week. Just another food combo (sweet potato + balsamic) designed to make a happy wife!

It's hard to see, but there's a jersey sweet potato under that chicken.

Check out Olive Fusion's page on Facebook where you can e-mail them to order the products right to your home.  They have their own web page in the works and hopefully it will be up soon.


Have you tried flavor oils and/or vinegars before?