Archive for January, 2008

  • Byte of Barley by Patty "Sassy" Knutson

    Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

    Byte of Barley
    By Patty "Sassy" Knutson

    BARLEY

    Have you ever tried barley?  It's a plump little grain that is delicious whether eaten as a breakfast cereal, added to soups and stews, used in place of rice or mixed with other grains, even finely ground and used as a flour!

    Personally, I didn't start cooking with barley until just two years ago!  (Isn't it fascinating how many foods there are out there for us Vegetarians to discover?)  Barley added such a wonderfully delicious flavor and texture to my soups that I started to experiment using it in other ways.  It's a fun little grain and one that you're sure to love.

    Barley has a nutty flavor, and due to its gluten content makes for a chewy grain that is reminiscent of pasta, and who doesn't love pasta?  Barley is a most comforting food. 

    But what I love most is learning about the nutritional profile of barley — it's quite impressive.  There's so very much to learn about the nutrients in barley, but as always I'd like to highlight the most dense nutrient encased in this delicious grain…

    IT'S TIME FOR A NUTRITIONAL QUICKIE!    Wink

    Barley is an outstanding sour…

  • No-Pressure Cooking – The Vegan Way by Jill Nussinow, M.S, R.D.

    Thursday, January 10th, 2008

    By Jill Nussinow, M.S, R.D., The Veggie Queen™

    If you’ve never seen a pressure cooker, they are a curiosity. If you have, you might conjure up frightening images of hissing pots and food on the ceiling, or worse. I saw the aftermath of my mother’s pressure cooker and vowed never to use one of those. And I don’t. My new, second generation, pressure cooker is safe, quiet and produces healthy food in a fraction of the time of conventional cooking methods, keeping me cool while cooking in the summer and making hot food really hot in the winter.

    Introduced from Europe to the U. S. in the 1980s, the new pressure cookers are an improved version of mother’s. They have at least three safety release valves. Instead of a jiggler on top, they use a spring valve that rises with pressure. They cannot be opened until the pressure subsides. You have more chance of blowing the engine on your car than blowing the lid off one of these cookers.

    Cooking under pressure relieves the pressure in your life. Come dinnertime, you can have a meal on the table in less than 30 minutes. How does 15-minute chili or lentil soup, 5-minute black beans or quinoa sound? Once you lock on the lid and bring your cooker to high pressure, almost all you…