Purple Prairie Barley Salad

 

Until last week, I had never heard of Purple Prairie Barley.  I didn't even know such a thing existed.  I've been eating barley since I was little, but had only ever heard of whole, hulled, pot and pearl barley.  It was at the Bulk Barn last week that I first came across this new (to me) kind of barley.  Since I can never pass up an opportunity to try a new food, I had to buy some and give it a try.  I took it home and got to work on it almost immediately and came up with this barley salad.

 

Here's what I did...

 

 This is what the Bulk Barn has to say about the purple barley.

 And this is what it looks like dry.

I wanted to use it fairly quickly, so instead of soaking it overnight I decided to do the quick-soak method.  I rinsed it several times, covered it with water in a small pot, brought it to the boil, then turned off the heat and covered it for an hour.  Then I changed the water and simmered it until tender.  It lost some of its pretty, purple colour after cooking.

I made a dressing with white balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, whole-grain mustard, Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I rinsed and drained the barley and then added it to the bowl with the dressing.

I added a bunch of chopped green onions

 

and a chopped red pepper.

Then I added some diced English cucumber and chopped yellow grape tomatoes.

I mixed it all together 

and then I thought "hey, an avocado would be nice in this" so I diced one up and added it.  The result was a delicious whole-grain salad.

Foodie Pen Pals July

Well it's that time again.  My wonderful foodie pen pal this month was the lovely Myra and what a delightful package she sent me.  She listened to my likes/dislikes and (self-imposed) food restrictions and sent me a very thoughtful box of goodies. 

 This is a peek at what the box looked like when I opened the lid

 And all the goodies laid out

 I got a coconut almond bar (my Mum's absolute favourite, so she'll probably be profiting from this box too :))

 Yummy Simply Protein Chips and the spicy ones too, which are my favourite

 A couple of handy little packages of almond butter for a snack on-the-go

 Dark chocolate!!!

 And these bison bites, which look really intriguing.  Can't wait to try them.

 I love Sahale snacks.  Haven't tried this flavour, but balsamic vinegar and cayenne sounds fantastic to me!!

 Potato chips...my occasional guilty pleasure.  Myra mentioned she liked this brand when she was a kid.  

 Some fancy David's Tea!

 Mangosteen soap!  Wow, it smells wonderful.

 And one of Myra's favourite recipes from when she did a paleo boot camp...how cool is that!?

 Last but not least, she included this beautiful card.  I love the handwritten note and her handwriting is so neat!! :)  Thanks again Myra for this lovely box of treats!!

Gluten-Free 'White Chocolate' Strawberry Muffins

I happened upon this recipe yesterday and knew right away that I wanted to try it.  The first thing that drew me to it was that it called for fresh strawberries and I had just bought some.  Secondly, it called for raw cacao butter in place of white chocolate and how could that not be delicious?  I made these muffins today with only minor changes, which I'll note below.

Here's what I did...

 I melted (on very low heat) 1/4 cup raw cacao butter and 1/4 cup coconut oil

 This is what the raw cacao butter looks like

 Meanwhile, I put a fairly ripe banana in my stand mixer

 And mixed until it was well-mashed

 Then I added 1/4 cup coconut nectar

This is the coconut nectar

 And I mixed this with the banana.  Then added in the melted butters.

 Then I added 2 organic eggs and beat it again

Then I added 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 1 1/2 cups almond flour, 1/4 cup coconut flour, 2/3 tsp. Celtic sea salt and 1 tsp. baking soda and mixed it again

 Lastly, I mixed in 1 cup of small-diced fresh strawberries.

I dolloped it into muffin liners (13 of them) and baked at 350 for 28 minutes.

 So delicious!!!

Gluten-free Ginger Oat Crisps

I have been a big fan of this blog for a few years now and was excited when I saw this recipe (clearly their photography isn't done with an iPhone lol).  I knew it would be a winner, so I decided to give it a try today.  I doubled the recipe because I wanted to share the cookies.  They took all of 5 minutes to put together, so this is definitely one of those recipes you can whip up at the last minute when you're craving a sweet treat.  The only change I made was to 'up' the amount of ginger and sub. cinnamon for the cloves (Perry is not a fan of cloves).  They are absolutely scrumptious.

Here's what I did...

 

 I mixed together  1/2 cup coconut oil and 6 tbsp. of maple syrup.

 Added 1/4 cup buckwheat flour (I ground the whole buckwheat in my Vitamix first)

 Added 1/4 cup coconut milk (from a can, shaken to mix the thick and thin milk)

 I mixed all that together then added 1 1/3 cups large flake oats

 And 1/2 tsp. Celtic sea salt, 1 tbsp. ground ginger and 2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Dolloed it onto 2 parchment-lined cookie sheets (made 24 dollops, so 12 per sheet)

 Then flattened them out with my hand

 Baked them at 350F for 16 minutes, rotating the trays after 8 minutes.  Then left them on the trays for 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling tray.

Foodie Pen Pals June

Well it's time for another food pen pals reveal.  This month, I was lucky to receive a box of goodies from Sam.  She really listened to my likes/dislikes and (self-imposed) dietary restrictions.  I was thrilled with the thoughtful things she sent me.

Here's what I got...

 Here's the box I received.

 Sam is the second person to wrap my goodies in a cereal box.  Great idea as it's light in weight and a good size.  We don't eat cereal, so I can only do the same when someone sends me one :)

 I mentioned that my biggest vice is potato chips, so Sam was kind enough to include these delicious ones.  I was happy to see they have no added MSG and nothing artificial.  They were treated as a big treat and didn't last long between the 3 of us :)

 I haven't tried this, but it sounds wonderful.  Sam said she bought it at a local farmers' market.  I know it's going to be great.

 I had never seen this before, but will be looking out for it for sure.  It's sweetened with coconut palm sugar!  I could hardly believe it when I read that.  Again, it has nothing artificial in it.  It had a lovely deep, dark chocolate flavour and was gone pretty fast.

This curry masala was fantastic.  I used it with some ground grass-fed beef from a local farm and sauteed lots of onions, garlic, ginger, bell peppers & kale with it.  We loved it.

 Sam also included a lovely hand-written note to explain everything to me.

And last but not least, she included one of her favourite recipes.  I'll be trying this very soon.  I'm a big fan of Thai soups and make one that's popular with family and friends.  Mine's with pumpkin and Sam's is with sweet potatoes and shrimp.  It'll be fun to compare the two.

So another foodie pen pals experience is under my belt and again it was a wonderful one.  If you're interested in seeing what I sent, pop on over to Michelle's blog If you're interested in giving it a try yourself, just click on the "I love foodie pen pals" image at the top left-hand side of the page.