Barley and Black Beans

One of the joys of pregnancy so far is my new found obsession with eating enough protein in a day. After awhile I realized I just couldn't eat another soy hot dog or boca burger so I decided to be a little more creative.

I discovered hulled barley at Whole Foods and I was shocked by the nutritional power this grain has. One half cup of hulled barley has 11 grams of protein, 16 grams of fiber and only 2 grams of fat. On top of that it has a full days worth of manganese and 60% of my daily dose of selenium.

So I started just eating it plain or mixing it with black beans and as the days have progressed I have gotten more creative. Now I make it like this:

1/2 cup cooked hulled barley
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen vegetables
1-2 Tablespoons of salsa

This dish packs in 24 grams of protein and 28 grams of fiber.

Of course, barley is one of those foods that fills me up super fast, so I usually eat half of the bowl early in the day and the other half in the afternoon.

I couldn't get Zoey to actually sniff this dish but she did make an appearance on the kitchen table while I was taking pictures so that will have to do.



Here it is all mixed together and ready to eat:


It's delicious!

Zoey's dad adds 1/2 a yellow zucchini and a handful of spinach to his bowl. I haven't tried that yet but he loves having it for lunch at work.