Peter's Cooking Diary #4

Well this week I wanted to try something new, I have eaten wheatberries before, but haven't ever cooked with them. For those who don't know what wheatberries are, they are the actual whole intact wheat grain, the bran, germ, and endosperm all together in one piece. They are not all that hard to find, I found them in the natural food section of the grocery store I like to shop at, and nearly 2 lbs was less than $4, so not too pricey either.

Cooking wheatberries takes a long time, the recipe on the package doesn't even have a time listed on it. All in all I think the cooking time for me was about 50 minutes, which is quite a while, but luckily its just a low simmer on the stove, not the most active cooking. Here is a picture of what they looked like when they were done cooking:

Its not too clear of a shot, but it looks quite a bit like puffed wheat. I cooked it so it was not completely soft, I liked it with a little bit of chewy texture to it.

To go along with the wheatberries, I made some taco meat in my slow cooker, once again using a recipe from my cook book for smoky and spicy ground turkey.

I think the turkey turned out really well after the time in the slow cooker. After it was done cooking, I gave it some time to cool, and then I spooned off some fat that had accumulated, there was some added fat in the turkey and also oil from cooking the vegetables that I had added, its a quick and easy way to reduce your fat intake, as well as lower your calorie intake.

The last component of my meal for this week was oven roasted corn, which was a mini-recipe from my cookbook. Putting the corn under the broiler was quickly able to caramelize the corn a bit.

I sliced the corn off of the cob, and added a little bit of butter and cilantro to it, I will be making my own burrito bowls for lunch with the meat, wheatberries and corn mixed together, with some avocado and salsa on top. Even though I cooked a few different things this week, it was quite effortless cooking.