Farro

Well, leave to me to decide to start a new diet at noon on a Wednesday.  A day that I happen to work until 9pm.  I had picked up groceries on a break in my schedule, but what about prep time?

A few months ago I bought some Farro in the bulk section at Winco, but hadn't tried it yet.  Farro is a form of wheat popular in Italy, with ties to Ancient Egypt.  It's in the family also known as Emmer, Spelt and Einkorn. Apparently, it fell out of popularity due to low yield.

An internet search brought good news that it can be cooked in just 15 minutes.  Here's the article from A Couple Cooks which has some links to additional recipes.  Other articles talk about having cooked it for an hour and it was still hard as a rock.  Looks like I lucked out on having the right kind.

I whipped up a batch with the plan to use it as a breakfast cereal (1/2 cup), warmed up with trail mix (3 Tbs), 1% milk (1/2 cup) and cinnamon.  Nutrition:  350 Calories.  54g Carbohydrate, 8g Fiber, (46 Net) 16g Protein

Meanwhile, I washed a big hand-full of bean sprouts, steamed a head of broccoli for 1.5 minutes in the microwave, and made a balsamic vinegrette.  The veg are topped with 1 cup of the cooked farro and some pumpkin seeds for good measure.  I will warm this up in the microwave and plan to eat this for 2 meals since it's really filling, and my activity level is currently low.

Nutrition (as described): 517 Calories, 95g Carbohydrate, 19g Fiber (76 Net), 25g Protein

I had a sampler portion of the lunch bowl as a late supper.  I love the texture of the Farrow.  It's firm, like an al dente pasta with a nice whole grain flavor. It appears to be a good make-ahead grain so I'll be able to spread it out and have a serving a day in one form or another.