Buckwheat

Now don't laugh, but I learned about buckwheat from a Wii game! Ok, you can laugh. Harvest Moon taught me that buckwheat must be good because you can get a lot of money on the game for growing and selling it! So I went and got some from the store. There are all different forms, and things you can do with it. The kind I have experimented with most is just regular cracked buckwheat. I make "oatmeal" (buckmeal? that doesn't sound very good) with it. With cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg, and sometimes apples, it is warm and nutty and tasty. The baby likes it too. If you take the dried form and mix a raw egg in, and cook it in a pan until it is dry before you boil it, it keeps the grains more separated and gives them more of a texture. Or you can skip straight to the boiling, which makes the grain more mushy. That is my preference for buckmeal.

Bulgur salad

I found this recipe on one of the food blogs that I read, The Skinny Gourmet. She credits the recipe to Cooking Light magazine. It was sort of an experiment for me, cause I didn't know if I would like it or not. Answer: I really liked it! It was super easy to make as well. It is just bulgar, chickpeas, carrots, almonds, cranberries, mint.... and had a dressing of lime, olive oil, cumin and coriander. It is meant to be eaten cold, but I liked it slightly warmed up. I have a food issue were I hate to eat cold food that my brain thinks should be hot. Like I can't eat leftovers straight from the fridge without heating them up first.
Oh, and another bonus of this dish is it looks really pretty!