Brownies and Zucchini

This is the 8th recipe in the PositScience Thinkfood series.  It comes from Lori over at Fake Food Free. There are definitely other recipes that I would like to try on her site, AND she has a pug!!!  Ok, so  I might be a little obsessed with pugs…..well, dogs really…..but who can resist this face:

This is our pug Olive.  She has been in a previous post, begging for my waffles, but I thought I would officially introduce you all to her.  She will be 3 years old in October, and yes she has been working on that gray beard since she was about 6 months old.

Anyways.

You can find the other Thinkfood recipes that I have made on the Thinkfood Tab.

So….if you are like me and have no idea what a wheat berry is.  Let me fill you in.  I did some research.  Here are some things I found out about them on this healthy eats blog on Foodnetwork.com:

• Wheat berries are whole wheat kernels. They look like thick, short grains — similar to brown rice.
• Since the wheat kernel is left intact, virtually none of the nutrients are stripped away. A cup of cooked wheat berries has about 300 calories and is packed with fiber, protein and iron. Tasty sprouts are loaded with vitamin E, a cell-protecting antioxidant, and magnesium, which is good for healthy bones and muscles.

Oh dear, these seem WAY too healthy for me! 🙂

I asked Lori – from Fake Food Free – if she had any advice for cooking wheat berries before I started.  Since, obviously, I have never cooked them before.  She told me to cook them a day ahead to make sure they were cold, or make sure to run lots of cold water over them after they are cooked.

I intended to cook them last night, and prepare the salad tonight, but that didn’t work out.  So  I will choose the option to rinse them with cold water after they are cooked.

This recipe was not hard to make.  The wheat berries did take quite a bit of time to cook, but no real physical labor involved.  Just chopping a few things, but nothing too intense.

I tried the wheat berries before I put the dressing on.  Since I have never had them before, I wanted to eat them plain first to make sure that it wasn’t just the dressing that I didn’t like.  Turns out, wheat berries are yet another grain that I like.  Not really a surprise since I can’t really name a plain grain that I don’t like.

After putting all of the ingredients and dressing together I tried it again.

Not too bad.  I definitely didn’t dislike it.  I’m not a fan of tomatoes though….but they are easy to pick around. 🙂

Then I did something a little risky.

Yes, that is what it looks like.  Curried wheat berries on a tortilla chip.  It actually was pretty good! In fact, it tasted a bit like salsa.  Someone should come up with a wheat berry salsa!

Overall it was not hard to make, and tasted pretty good.

Ease: B+, it took a while for it to cook, but other than that, nothing more than chopping and mixing.
Taste: B, pretty solid but not great.

Would I make it again? Yeah I think so.  It would make a good side dish.

Are wheat berries and couscous always eaten cold?
I don’t dislike them cold, but I think I like them quite a bit more when they are warm.  Just wondering if it is the particular recipe, or just generally how the grains are eaten.

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Filed under: Grains, Sides and Salads Tagged: | salad, tomato, wheat berry