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.

Carrot Soup

Got carrots?This is a very simple soup and is velvety smooth and full of flavor. I found that making chicken stock was not worth the extra work. Next time I'll just use store bought chicken stock or broth.


Carrot Soup
Serves 4 to 6

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
4 cups coarsely chopped carrots
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (aka: grenadine), plus extra for garnish
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 cups chicken stock
3/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Heat the olive oil over moderate heat in a large heavy-bottomed stock pot. Add the onion, carrots, pomegranate molasses and cumin. Cover the pot and lower the heat. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add 3 cups of stock and simmer, covered, until the carrots are very tender, about an hour. Take off the heat and let cool.

3. Purée, in batches if necessary, in a blender, adding the final cup of stock. The purée should be very smooth; if it isn't, you may want to pour the soup through a strainer.

4. Return to the burner and heat through until hot. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Ladle the soup into soup plates, spooning extra pomegranate molasses around the center (about one-half teaspoon per bowl). Serve immediately.



You may notice the pomegranate seed garnish. I didn't think it added much to the soup, but I will garnish with grenadine again....and maybe parsley.

Favorite Tools

What's not to love?

I was making dinner tonight and realized that EVERYTHING in front of me represented my favorites. I love lime, onion and garlic as much as the next girl, but what I REALLY love are my TJMaxx lemon squeezer (I used it because this lime is too big for my lime squeezer), my Pampered Chef garlic press and my new Kitchenaid paring knives.

As with any project, cooking is definitely more fun with the right tools.

Kitchen Weapons

Looks like a weapon, doesn't it?

Meet my new favorite tool.

I've been on the hunt for a meat tenderizer for the past several weeks. I found some pretty good deals on Amazon, but they all had one flaw noted in fine print: Do Not Place In Dishwasher. This would apparently ruin their shiny finish.

REALLY?? Why would I want a tool made for pounding raw meat that is not dishwasher safe? I'm not going to pound chicken with ANYthing that can't be tossed into the dishwasher.

Others at Target and Walmart that were dishwasher safe seemed light and inadequate.

So, I finally decided to splurge for this little beauty at Williams Sonoma.

Nice and heavy. Big surface for even flattening. No more falling-apart-chicken breasts from pounding them unevenly with a can.

With a simple twist of the handle, you can flip over the surface and use the tenderizing side.

Tough meat, no more!

I see more chicken parmigiana and grilled chicken in my immediate future!

Name that Gadget: Part 1

I picked up a new kitchen gadget today.

It's different.

A common tool, yet like none I'd seen before.

What is it?

Apparently, this one was too easy!

Yes, it's a meat tenderizer/pounder.

Chipotle-Lime Grilled Chicken Salad

I am no culinary genius.
I'm more of a culinary copycat.
But, I know a good recipe when I try one, and that is the purpose of this blog!
I promise to share my best finds with you and try to include a photo whenever possible.

I've been thinking about chipotle all week, since I made white chicken chili last week. I came across this reipe on the Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen. I changed enough that I'm going to list my own recipe below. Here's the link to the original.

Chipotle-Lime Grilled Chicken Salad

1/2 cup cilantro
1-2 Tbsp minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (two peppers...I minced them all and froze the rest)
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lime (or 3 Tbsp lime juice)

Combine all of the above ingredients, whisking in the olive oil last.

Pour half of the vinaigrette into a container and marinate 2 chicken breasts for 1 hour or overnight. [I used my FoodSaver and it was ready in 20 minutes.] This is a pretty spicy dressing/marinade. Reduce chipotle to 1 Tbs for the faint of heart!

Grill chicken breasts, slice thinly and serve over salad.

Combine salad ingredients, which include:

1 head romaine lettuce or mixed greens
1-2 carrots, cut in half and shaved into peels
2 small tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 avocado, diced
2 cups corn kernels, roasted [I fried frozen kernels in olive oil until brown and crispy-YUM! You could also broil on a baking sheet.]

You could add cotija or feta cheese, but I found cheese unnecessary, with so much flavor going on already.

Grill chicken breasts, slice thinly and serve over salad, dressing with remaining vinaigrette.

So good...it's what's for lunch tomorrow.

Sugar and Spice

A few of my most recent discoveries in the land of sugar and spice:

#1) Course sugar sprinkled over cookies and pies. WHY had I not tried this before??

#2) Ground Chipotle Powder. Hard to find in grocery stores, but easy to make. I found a bag of dried Chipotle pods at a latin market and ground them in an electric coffee grinder. So. Good.

#3) Freshly ground Nutmeg is fresher and tastier than buying it in powder form. I stumbled across some whole nutmeg the other day and decided to try it. I have no idea how people do this without losing the skin from their fingers, but it SMELLS and TASTES so good.