Wheat Berry Breakfast Bowl

If you're like me and have buckets of hard wheat in your food storage, have you ever said to yourself, "Sure, I have wheat in my food storage. I wouldn't have a clue what to do with it if I ever had to rely on it!?"


I've had an awakening....of the whole grain sort. For some reason, I've spent the past week craving whole grains. One night I had a bowl of lentils for dinner. A few nights later, a bowl of barley. Boring, right? But it was what my body was asking for.

I've thought about the fact that I have wheat that I should try to figure out what to do with, but I always think, "I don't want to break the seal on a 50 lb bucket of wheat, because I'll never use it all and it will go bad." THEN I remembered that I had a few small #10 cans of wheat in storage. I decided to grind some into flour for a sourdough starter [another post. later.]. The can I opened was from 2003. Perfectly fresh...the air whooshed out as the can opener broke the seal.

Now that I had a gallon sized can open and ready to use, my mind started to wander. What could I make with wheat? So, I spent some time in Google search and discovered a few recipes that I've been dying to try all week! They all start with cooking the wheat for almost 2 hours, which is not anything I have time to do between getting home from work and cooking dinner. So, I decided to cook up 2 cups of wheat Friday night so I could try some fun salads this weekend.

Let me just say that I had no idea how yummy wheat berries could be! Just straight out of the pot with only a dash of salt...pure chewy heaven. [Remember, I'm the girl who likes a plain bowl of lentils or barley, so take it in context.] I also tried a little bowlful sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon that I had leftover from making pretzels last weekend - YUM!

With that very long intro, I bring you my:

WHEAT BERRY BREAKFAST BOWL!

Since I already had the wheat cooked, I simply tossed about 2/3 cup of wheat berries in each bowl and nuked them for 90 seconds.

I had a pear in the fridge that was far beyond 'ready.' Sliced it up and sauteed it in a little olive oil and butter. Then I tossed in a handful of frozen blackberries. I split a single serve container of honey vanilla greek yogurt in half (between 2 bowls), poured on the sauteed pears and blackberries, and sprinkled on a few roasted nuts (almonds for Jimmie, walnuts for me). Next time: pecans.

Seriously awesome. Chewy, sweet, nutty, filling. 5 minute meal for two.

1 1/3 cups cooked wheat berries

1 pear

1 handful berries

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp butter

1 cup greek yogurt

1/4 - 1/2 cup toasted almonds, walnuts or pecans

Little bits of dried fruit would also be good tossed in.