Freezing drizzle in Indy has meant a day at home. A very rare occurrence in our world. The weather forecast warned us yesterday so I stuffed my briefcase with a bunch of things to do when we left the office yesterday. I've been working on office tasks and working on a project at home. We've lived here two and a half years so it was time to tackle straightening and cleaning out the pantry. I started with the pasta, rice and grains. We've been eating more grains so I've bought more types. And, they tend to come either in bags or oddly shaped plastic containers. That meant an interesting assortment of stuff on those shelves. So, I went to the container store and bought a dozen plastic containers like ones I already had. Now, it'll be neat and tidy! And, I'll know what I have so I can use it up. Turns out I had two bags of wheat berries, one and a half of quinoa and an extra of bulgur. On the pasta side, the only duplication was cavatappi. And, there were two containers of brown rice. Not bad at all.
Here's a progress photo:
In the fridge, I had extra eggs, apples and avocados that needed to be used up. Among other things! Since we were actually going to be home, I didn't have to cook and schlep everything to the office. What a concept!
One of the recipes I saved on my ipad while reading Texture was for a cheddar/apple omelet. Now, I have NO clue what magazine it was from because they didn't show the magazine name on each page and all I have is a snapshot of the one page... So, wherever it was from, I'm glad I found it. The omelet was pretty basic. I browned bacon and drained it on paper towels. Then I drained all but about a teaspoon of the bacon fat out of the skillet. Into that went half a Gaia apple, (chopped) along with a smidge of crushed rosemary. I whisked four eggs with salt and pepper and a bit of cream. And, grated about an ounce of extra sharp cheddar cheese. Once the apples were softened, I put them aside in a bowl and poured the eggs into the skillet. As they cooked, I lifted the sides to allow the uncooked eggs to flow under the cooked. Just before the omelets were done, I sprinkled the cheese on top and topped that with the bacon and apples. Unfortunately, I wasn't alert enough to think about a photo!
Lunch was a different story. By that time my phone was out! Since I have my list of partial bags of grains to use up, we'll be having plenty of those in the next couple of weeks. Today I started with wheat berries. I put wheat berries into eatyourbooks and got over 6,000 options. Then, I clicked on the button to show me only recipes from my cookbooks and got over 2,000. Ok, then, time to narrow it further! How about just salads? Ah, yes, wheat berry salad with avocados and pickled red onions from Whole Grains for a New Generation by Lianna Krissoff. I confess I didn't go hunt down the cookbook. I've put most of my cookbooks onto eatyourbooks.com but have yet to list where they are in the house. And, since I'm at easily 1400 cookbooks, hunting is not fun unless it's a cookbook I know has been filed where it's supposed to be. The recipe sounded pretty straightforward. I figured if I did anything different it wasn't a big deal
How did we like it? It was fabulous. It came together easily and tasted great. And, we got some good healthy grains and fats!
Wheat Berry Salad with Avocado and Pickled Onion
Ingredients:
1/2 c wheat berries
1/2 c cider vinegar
3 allspice berries
1 bay leaf
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 avocado, peeled and chopped
1 T pecan oil (any good extra virgin olive oil will work)
1 tangerine, peeled and chopped
Directions
Cook the wheat berries in 1.75 c of water. Bring them to a rolling boil then reduce the heat, cover the saucepan and allow to simmer for an hour. Drain them and pour them into a mixing bowl. While the wheat berries are cooking, pickle the onion. In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, allspice berries and bay leaf to a simmer. Pour that over the onions and let them pickle. Add the onions and about a tablespoon of the vinegar to the wheat berries along with the avocado, tangerine and pecan oil. Stir, adjust the seasoning (you may want more vinegar) and serve.
