Barley

Barley, Mushroom and Green Bean Salad

| roeliaschoeman

Yesterday’s lunch! The last of my pre-cooked batch of pearl barley used! Managed to get 3 full meals out of it, so planning does save you lots of time and effort! 🙂

image

Adapted from “Closet Cooking”

100g cooked pearl barley

100g green fresh green beans (I just poured some boiling water on it, and left it to stand for about 10 minutes – no cooking needed)

150g mushrooms (I marinated a batch of mushrooms – ovenroasted it for about 30 minutes, put it in a glass bottle and poured some white vinegar (about 150ml) over it, leaving it to stand in the fridge for a couple of hours)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

A sprinkling of thyme and rosemary (I used dried herbs)

30g low fat feta

Salt and Pepper to taste

10ml white vinegar

5ml olive oil (lemon infused, but you can use normal olive oil with maybe a dash of lemon juice instead)

Lettuce to serve

 

This salad is very tasty if made in advance – to give the flavours of the olive oil, vinegar and marinated mushrooms to develop a bit.  So try to make it the night before.

Mix all the ingredients except the feta and lettuce together.  Once ready to serve, stir in the feta and serve on a bed of lettuce.

 

 

Mediterranean Barley Salad

| roeliaschoeman

This was yesterday’s lunch!  I’m sure you figured out that pearl barley is my newest obsession!  😉  I cooked a large batch a few days ago and froze it into portions – specifically to have it on hand to ‘experiment’ with.  That is my challenge for the week – to make 3 x brand new barley recipes!  Maybe you can try it – find a healthy ingredient that you don’t use THAT often, and see if you can get a few recipe ideas of how to cook/prepare it?

100g cooked barley
25g sliced red onion
50g cherry tomatoes, halved
150g chopped red, yellow and green pepper
30g low fat feta
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parley
8 pitted olives

Dressing: 25ml lemon juice & 25ml red wine vinegar

Mix all the ingredients together and serve!

Serves 1 – 2CC, 1 Protein, 1 Fat, 2.5 Veg

image

Breakfast Barley

| roeliaschoeman

We often get stuck on what to have for breakfast that is a little ‘different’.  Somedays I really don’t feel like another bowl of brand name cereal or a slice of toast with whatever…. 🙂

Keep forgetting that we can actually use any grain as a breakfast option – quinoa, couscous, brown rice and BARLEY!  🙂  So this is my version of ‘comfort food’ for breakfast.  Will work great with brown rice as well 🙂

wp-1451809209007.jpg

75g cooked barley (I cooked a big batch last night, froze it into individual portions to be used in my meals during the next week or so, so look out for a few ‘barley’ recipes coming up!)

125ml fat free milk

20g raisins

1 cinnamon stick

5ml honey for serving

Gently simmer barley, raisins and cinnamon stick until barley is more ‘mushy’ and most of the milk is reduced/evaporated.

Serve with honey and enjoy!

wp-1451809368475.jpg

Serves 1:  1.5 CC, 1/2 milk, 1 Fruit

wp-1451809314394.jpg

 

Christmassy Barley, Butternut and Cranberry Salad

| roeliaschoeman

photogrid_1451050431109.jpgAnother dish from Christmas Lunch 2015!  Lovely colours, isn’t it?  🙂  (Pictured on the right – apologies, not a good photo!)

 

Serves 6

600g cooked barley

500g butternut cubes (raw weight), oven roasted

60g dried cranberries

100g chopped red onion

30g mixed seeds and nuts

Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste

 

Dressing:

75ml balsamic vinegar

20ml olive oil

20ml honey

 

Mix all the ingredients together, serve dressing on the side

20151225_120442.jpg

Per person:   2 CC, 1 Fat, 1/2 Fruit (actually less, not sure if we need to count it?), approx 1 Veg

 

 

 

Barley Salad with Roasted Butternut & Apple

| roeliaschoeman

I felt like trying something different for lunch – and boy, this was delicious and filling!  🙂

250g roasted butternut (cut into cubes, roast on medium heat oven for about 35 minutes – until soft) – cooled down

Roasted Apple (100g apple, cut into thin slices, roasted on medium heat for about 25 minutes – before to release the flavour and crisp it up a little bit) – cooled down

140g cooked barley – cooled down

30g low fat feta

Dressing:  5ml olive oil with red wine vinegar (about 20ml – but you can adjust to taste – enough to stir mix with barley so that it isn’t too dry), alternatively you can use 30ml low fat mayonnaise

Salt and Pepper

Lettuce to serve

 

Mix dressing with barley

Place lettuce at bottom of the salad bowl/dish

Stir butternut into barley mix, season to taste

Place butternut and barley mixture on to of lettuce bed

Top with crumbed feta and apple slices

 

Serves 1:  2 CC, 1 Protein, 1 Fruit, 3 Veg, 1 Oil

wp-1449743026067.jpeg

Tomato Barley “Risotto” with Feta

| roeliaschoeman

“Risotto” in quotation marks because this doesn’t require half the effort of making ‘normal’ risotto!  Shortcuts all the way!  🙂

Serves 1:  2CC, 1 Fat, 2 Veg, 1 Prot

100g cooked pearl barley

5ml olive oil

50g finely chopped onion

1/4 tsp crushed garlic

200g tomato (I would suggest peeling it first – super easy!  Just pour boiling water over, leave for a couple of minutes and the tomato skin will peel off very easily)

A sprig of rosemary

20g tomato paste

300ml chicken stock

30g crumbled low-fat feta

 

Fry onion and garlic in olive oil for a few minutes.  Add rest of ingredients plus 300ml chicken stock.  Simmer on low heat until most of the water is reduced.  Remove the rosemary sprig (what is left of it).  The dish should have a ‘mushy’/risotto like consistency.

Serve with feta

 

image