Sunday, June 14, 2009

Mediterranean Barley Salad

This salad is not for the faint of heart – its packing some heavy flavours - but in a good way! I find pasta salads dry up and lose their flavour after a day or two, not so with this one. Which is why I highly recommend for lunches through the week. I served it with grilled colossal prawns, and grilled asparagus – we consumed all the prawns, but the leftover asparagus was chopped and added to the remaining salad for leftovers the next day. Then the 3rd day, I cooked up some hot Italian sausages, and added them to the leftovers - wicked good - love barley!

2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard 
Pinch plus ½ tsp sea salt, divided 
3 tbsp sherry vinegar, plus 1 tsbp apple juice 
2 minced shallots 
¼ cup olive oil 
5 cups water 
2 cups pearl barley 
2 bay leaves 
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 2 tsps dried and crumbled 
1/3 cup pitted and chopped kalamata olives 
1/3 cup drained capers 
½ cup toasted pine nuts (I used half pecans, half pine nuts) 
¼ cup finely chopped green onions
Plus I added a bunch of chopped Italian parsley

Bring the water to a boil, add the barley with the remaining salt and bay leaves. Simmer until the barley is tender - approx. 45 minutes . Remove from heat & cool.

Place cooled barley in a large bowl, and stir in the dressing and remaining ingredients. Chill for 2 hrs. I then brought to room temp to serve.

So Freaking Easy Blueberry Bran Muffins

No fuss, no fat, no kidding!

(1)  Soak 1½ c wheat bran with 1 c nonfat milk (I use soy) for 10 mins.
(2)  Blend: 1 ripe banana, 1 egg, ½ c brown sugar, ½ tsp vanilla extract
(3)  Add: 1 c whole wheat flour, 1 tsp each baking soda and baking powder,  ½ tsp salt. Add the bran-milk mixture above to comine.
(4)  Stir in 1 cup blueberries.

375 degrees – 20 mins, makes 12

Friday, June 5, 2009

Tortellini Metropolitan

As I have an abundance of tarragon and chives, I thought of this old recipe from Graham Kerr, thankfully recalled by J!

I altered it a bit, as didn't require a thickening agent. Tastes like perogies - ochen vkusno!

Saute 3 chopped shallots in a bit of oil/butter, then add:
2 cups yogurt
1/3 cup white wine
3 tbsp or so parmesan
3 tbsp or so low fat cream cheese

Cook pasta (I used 600 g wholewheat 4 cheese tortellini). Last 2 mins, add a bunch of chopped asperagus to blanch, drain

Combine sauce with cooked tortellini and stir in a whack of chopped tarragon and chives. 

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Ceasar/Nicoise

Had some leftover ceasar dressing from the other night, so blanched some green beans, asparagus, roasted some potatoes, hard boiled a couple of eggs. Once cooled, tossed the first 3 ingredients with the dressing, added a handful of moroccan olives, served topped with quartered eggs. Ahhh, so easy!