Big Bowl of Whole Grainy Dinner Goodness
January 27, 2010 - Written by DianaTonight’s dinner was inspired by a store bought frozen lunch I had today. It had beans, whole grain orzo, dried cranberries, spinach and a little bit of cheese. I enjoyed it quite a bit and thought I would use it as inspiration to create my own big bowl of whole grainy goodness. Even though the barley and quinoa stuck to his braces, my son thought it was delicious. My husband also liked it a lot too. I know my daughter would have enjoyed it, and that she would have grabbed the leftovers thrown salad dressing over top and had it cold for lunch the next day. One thing I would have changed would have been to add in more chard. I dug through the snow to find what chard I could from the raised beds in the garden. I found some small leaves, only about 7 or 8, but it was enough to give it a little color and flavor. I just wish I had more. It’s so cool to go dig through the snow for chard in the middle of winter, but your fingers get awfully cold and you have to be careful that they don’t stick to the …
Turkey, Chard and Red Jasmine Rice
November 28, 2009 - Written by DianaTurkey leftovers on Friday are always great. You shouldn’t want to do a huge preparation, just a little relaxing cooking for the day after Thanksgiving meal. I have this lovely chard colored red, yellow and green growing in my garden. No dyes involved in case like my kids you were wondering. We planted this in the raised beds earlier this past summer, but since Chard loves cool weather it is thriving and growing enthusiastically. Isn’t this just gorgeous?
I also had some Ruby Red Jasmine Rice to try out, which I thought would look awesome with my chard.
I pulled off the chard stems, chopped them and steamed them in the rice cooker along with the rice. My rice cooker has a steam tray that sits up from the rice.
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I made a Purple Risotto, I kid you not. It had flecks of different color purples from dark blue purple on down to lavender. If you have kids that love new colorful meals, this would such a cool dish for them to try. My son, my husband and I all thought it was scrumptious, and we’d eat it again. Actually we will, because there are leftovers. My husband and I went to Lynd’s Fruit Farm just outside of Columbus. We’ve been going there for apples in the fall plus other fun things. This was the last weekend of the sale tent and we didn’t want to miss out. They have such cool things available like purple cauliflower, purple broccoli, purple Brussels sprouts – okay, not purple brussel sprouts – just green, pumpkins, gourds and apples. While we were there, we actually got to be part of an apple tasting. One gentleman said they were trying out a new apple and we should taste 4 different types and rate where they landed on a piece of paper. After we placed the apples on the paper in the proper like/dislike square (it was a range), he marked where …
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My husband snarfed the leftover broccoli from the band competition and asked if we should take it. I said sure, I can freeze some and use some to make dinner. He did a little happy wiggle (he does that) and asked if we could have the chicken and broccoli casserole that we love to eat. I told him sure, especially since it’s an easy meal to prepare and really delicious. There are never leftovers of this. I have a small kitchen, so when I pull out my rice cooker I make extra rice and put it in the freezer. If you have frozen broccoli, and rice, you can defrost them in the fridge during the day to make this a quick and easy dinner to pull together. This casserole is very customizable, use your favorite ingredients to make it taste the way you like it best. 1 full size chicken breast 1/2 onion 1 cup …
I try to get grains into my diet, bulgur is a new one for me. Bulgur is lower in calories, has a lower glycemic indicator and is higher in fiber than brown rice. Let me tell you, bulgur is also a very delicious nutty tasting grain. I used some herbs from my garden, some sesame seeds – because I like them, and shallot. I had some spaghetti squash I bought at a nearby farm market and decided it would be wonderful to add in. So this dish is very much a salad. It can be eaten warm as we did with our bison roast, or cold the next day, which I also tried. You can find bulgur in the natural foods or organic section of the store. If you haven’t tried bulgur, you should think about adding it to your pantry because it is a healthy ingredient to work into your menu. I enjoy spaghetti squash, but I know it got it’s name because of it’s look. I’ve seen articles about spaghetti squash that want you to use it as a substitute for spaghetti, but that’s not how I like it. To prepare the spaghetti squash you …
Always rinse quinoa under cold running water until the water runs clear. This will remove the saponin, a naturally occurring coating on the grain that has a very bitter flavor. Ingredients: What’s for dinner? Burgers. Yeah, what’s in it? Millet. No meat? No, it has millet. So they’re birdseed burgers. No, it’s not birdseed. Is millet in birdseed? I think so. They’re birdseed burgers. Okay, I wasn’t an enlightened teenager, I just wanted regular burgers. I don’t think any of us made it easy on my father to incorporate whole grains into our meals. Truthfully, though those burgers weren’t great, they were pretty dry and not my idea of great food. Grain is the cornerstone of great civilizations. Wheat baked into daily bread fed the Romans and Greeks, while rice was a staple for the great dynasties in the East. Native Americans in the North used corn in lieu of a grain from the grass family. Lesser known grains have enjoyed favor in other parts of the world. The sophisticated Incans harvested quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wa.)
Granola goes way back. It makes you think of the birkenstock people, the hippies, the natural world embracing types. Granola is not only their food of choice but a fitting adjective: Madison’s grandmother smuggled weed in her bra to Woodstock back in the day, how granola! The granola set wisely held tight to unprocessed, natural foods during the latter half of the twentieth century while the rest of us were eating Wonder bread. The virtue of the whole grain has since fallen back into the favor of nutritional scientists. Grain is refined by the removal of two outer layers. Because these layers contain fiber, phytochemicals, and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), processing a whole grain into a refined grain renders it less nutritionally useful.
Purple (Cauliflower) Risotto
November 8, 2009 - Written by Diana
Mini-Peppers stuffed with Bulgur and Mini-Yellow Squash
October 12, 2009 - Written by Diana
At the store today, they had bags of mini-peppers for sale. It was a specialty item in the fresh produce department. Funny thing, I’ve got mini-peppers that I picked right from my garden. I wanted the baby-peppers (I’m sure that specialty item will be out soon) to get a little bigger, so we picked most of what was left including the mini-size. I also had some mini-yellow squash in the garden, but I didn’t see any of those in the store. I could own that market. Stuffed Mini-peppers make a great side dish. The bulgur, along with squash, some fresh herbs from the garden, topped with pine nuts and feta, had a very earthy yet nutty flavor. This side is a keeper, but if you want it as a main dish, just upsize the ingredients with a full size pepper, squash, etc. My son even loved it.
Chicken, Broccoli and Rice
September 22, 2009 - Written by Diana
Ingredients:
Lemony Bulgur and Spaghetti Squash
September 15, 2009 - Written by Diana
Quinoa Florentine
February 19, 2009 - Written by Diana
I picked a recipe from the WomenHeart’s All Heart Family Cookbook for dinner on Sunday night. Ever since Cookerati’s Robin challenged us to try Quinoa, I’ve been trying out meals here and there with different and new to me grains. This meal was delicious and filling and although my husband thought a little chicken would go well with it, I thought it was perfect the way it was. You could add chicken to it though if you felt you needed it, but it is a great vegetarian meal. He’s one of those guys who likes his meat with almost every meal which might explain his remark. Quinoa is technically a seed, but it’s cooked and served like a grain.
The Complete Whole Grains Cookbook: 150 Recipes for Healthy Living by Judith Finlayson
April 13, 2008 - Written by Diana
Whole Grains: Quinoa
March 7, 2008 - Written by Robin
That’s sooo granola
February 15, 2008 - Written by Robin
