Barley Risotto

In the interest of cooking with more whole grains, and less white rice, I developed this recipe for risotto using pearl barley. It turned out fabulously, and now makes regular appearances at our weekend dinners.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup uncooked pearl barley
4 cups vegetable broth, hot
2 tbsp tomato paste*
1 med red pepper, diced**
1/2 med zucchini, diced**
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or asiago cheese (optional)

Heat oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and cook until translucent. Add barley and thyme, and cook for a couple of minutes to toast and add nutty flavour. Stir the tomato paste into the veggie broth. Add 1/4 of the veggie broth to the barley and onions. Stir often. Once the barley has absorbed most of the broth, add the second 1/4 of the broth. Continue in this manner. When adding the last 1/4 of broth, also add the diced veggies. Stir until the liquid has been absorbed, and risotto has a creamy texture. Add cheese if you are doing so. Serve immediately.

*you can buy tomato paste in tubes, or little cans. I find that most recipes only call for a couple of tablespoons, so I use what I need for the recipe, and freeze the rest in 2 tbsp portions for future recipes.

**you can really use whatever veggies you like, but dice them small. Paul insists on having mushrooms in this sometimes, so I make sure they're in large chunks so I can pick the disgusting slimy things out.

This recipe is also really tasty if you leave out the thyme and stir in some fresh basil at the end, with the cheese.

Katie's Fat Free Bran Muffins

The original recipe I think came from the back of a package of bran. I've tinkered with it for quite some time, and have totally cut out the fat, and greatly reduced the sugar. They're totally points friendly on Weightwatchers (either 2 or 3pts, depending on your variation), filling, and delish. They are very very branny though, you might need to work up to eating them every day.

1/2 cup apple sauce*
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup milk**
1 cup water**
3 cups bran
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder (15ml)
1 tsp baking soda (5ml)
1 tsp salt
1/2 raisins or berries***
1 carrot, peeled and grated (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Mix wet ingredients and sugar. Add bran. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to wet ingredients. Add raisins and carrot. Spoon into greased muffin cups, and bake 20 min. Makes 12 large muffins.

* I make the apple sauce every couple of months, and freeze in 1/2 cup batches. My apple sauce has 2 ingredients: apples and water.

** The original recipe called for all milk, but in the interest of being thrifty, I started using half milk and half water and noticed no difference. Now, in the interest of being extra thrifty, I use all water and 3 tbsp of skim milk powder. I figured if it works in my bread recipes, it would probably work in my muffin recipes. It does. I now use water and powdered milk in almost all baking which calls for milk. Sooo much cheaper.

***This is where you will find a difference in points. Raisins are higher in points, berries, like blueberries, are lower. If you do use raisins, soak them in a bit of hot water and drain before adding to the recipe. This will prevent the raisins from drying out the muffins.

The Trifle Recipe

This isn't the exact recipe from the Looney Spoon's cookbook since a) I lent Tara that book months ago, and she hasn't given it back yet, and b) I don't think it's fair to put the exact recipe on the web. But as best as I can remember it:


1 Angle Food Cake
2 cups prepared custard*
2 cups of fresh fruit and berries, cut up
1/4 cup of jam mixed with 1/4 cup orange juice.

So you cut or tear the Angle food cake up into chunks. Take a big bowl or trifle dish, and put a layer of the cake on the bottom. Drizzle with some of the jam mix, then follow with a layer of custard, and a layer of fruit. Repeat until you're out of layers. It's really the easiest dessert ever. Make ahead of time and refrigerate so it will all be yummy and cold and the flavours have time to meld together.

* I use Birds Custard powder and follow the directions on the side of the tin. You could use any custard you want, but remember you want it to be reasonably thick.

The Dessert Formerly Known As Rice Krispies Wheels . . .

And currently known and loved as LOG.

Credit for Log must go to one of my old roomies from UVic, Stephanie, who introduced us to the log, and it was so darn good that we would have to cut the entire thing up into 3 portions so we didn't fight over who had eaten how much log.

Aside from 2 TBSP of milk, the entire recipe is vegan, so I'm sure it could be easily veganized by subbing in soy milk, or even water.

This recipe is NOT Weight Watchers Friendly.

LOG

LOG BASE:

3/4 cup Corn Syrup
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 TBSP margerine
4 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

Put syrup and sugar in a large sauce pan, and cook over med heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbly. Add peanut butter and margerine. Stir till smooth. Add cereal, and stir to coat. Press mixture into a jelly pan lined with waxed paper. Set aside to cool.

CHOCOLATE LAYER:
1/3 cup margerine
2 TBSP milk
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder

Melt margerine with milk over low heat. Remove from heat, add icing sugar and cocoa, and blend till smooth. Cool a bit.

Spread chocolate layer over log base, and then carefully roll the log lengthwise. Cool in refridgerator. Slice into 1/2 inch pieces, and try not to eat the entire thing at once.