Whole Grains

I feel like I've been super lazy today even though I took Connor to swim lessons, did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen (this is a daily task), and went to the grocery store. Oh, I took the garbage out and cleaned the laundry room and the master bathroom.  *sigh* I guess I did more than I thought.  I was up until midnight last night because my Bible study group met until 11:00.  I guess I'm just tired and sick of the summer heat.

So, it's 4:45pm, the children are at the neighbor's playing and I feel like I should do something, anything!  Well, I guess I'll blog about the latest recipes I've tried.  They both came from Lorna Sass' Whole Grains Everyday, Every way.  I love whole grains.  I'm enjoying learning about them and cooking with them.  Oh, and Lorna has a great website http://lornasass.com/home Check it out!

Barley

So the first recipe was.....Farro Salad with prosciutto and asparagus

This one sounded really yummy and the picture in the book looked great, but I didn't really care for it in the end.  I may have used too much lemon juice, but the dressing was too bitter.  Next time I would add a bit of sugar.  I also used barley for this because it is really hard to find farro in the Midwest.  Cook according to directions.  You'll need about 4 cups.



An ice bath



After washing and cutting the asparagus, steam them in boiling water for about six minutes; until bright green.  Immediately transfer to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Mix up your dressing.  I always use a pint jar with a tight fitting lid.  Shake to combine the ingredients.  3 tablespoons olive oil, grated Parmesan, 2-3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice and the zest, 1/2 Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste and here is where my taste buds ask for a little sugar.

The finished product

The next recipe was Hominy with shredded chicken and peppers

This one was superb!  I've always been curious about hominy and while I didn't cook it from scratch (I used canned) it was still good.  I didn't take pictures of this one, I'm sorry, but here is what I did.

To prep slice an onion really thin, seed and slice up a green and a red pepper into thin sliced, seed and mince a jalapeno.
Heat olive oil in a pan and toss in the onions and bell peppers.  After they start to soften add in the jalapeno and two cloves of minced garlic.  Cook for about a minute.  Add 2 teaspoons of dried oregano and cumin.  Stir. Add one can of diced tomatoes with the juices and one can of drained and rinsed hominy (yellow or white).  Cook until heated through.  At this point, I added shredded chicken, but sauteed shrimp or sausage would be delish as well.  Whatever you feel like.

That's it!  It was so good:)