Barley

Barley is a yummy and affordable high-fibre grain with a great texture. It has been cultivated for thousands of years and is Canada’s third largest crop.  Barley was pictured on early currency in ancient Egypt and was eaten for endurance and strength by gladiators in ancient Rome.

We tend to think of it as an ingredient in soups and stews but it is also great in salad, casseroles and as a side dish. There are different types of barley you can buy at the store. The most common are pot and pearl barley. Pearl barley has been polished so the bran layer has been removed. For this reason, pot barley is considered a whole grain and pearl barley is not. Pot barley offers us a little more vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. All types are good choices because the soluble fibre in barley is in the entire grain. Pot barley and pearl barley can be used interchangeably in recipes as they take about the same amount of time to cook. Barley can be cooked in a rice cooker just like brown rice, or on the stove by bringing barley and water to a boil then cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Check it often and stop cooking when it has reached your preferred level of chewiness. Extra can be frozen then added to soups or salads later.

Here are some things to do with barley:

• Try using barley instead of rice to increase variety.
• Enjoy it as a hot cereal
• Bake with it by replacing about ½ wheat flour with barley flour in recipes
• Eat it as a side dish! It’s great with slivered almonds and dried apricots; lemon, parmesan and sautéed greens, or parsley and mushrooms. Here is one of my fav’s Spanish Barley | GoBarley

Chantal Morais RD, MPH

From Unlockfood.ca and GoBarley.com

Mobile food cart cues up better choices within personal care homes

Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) is excited to try new approaches to enhancing dining experiences within its long-term care homes. One such improvement was the introduction of a “Suzy Q Cart” within Birtle Personal Care Home (PCH) in late 2022. This mobile cart keeps food hot (or cold for cold meals) and allows Nutrition services staff to bring the food to the table. Residents can see and smell the food and are offered a choice of which food items to have and how much they wish to eat. The food is served at the right temperature right from the cart.

Before Suzy Q, staff prepared meals for residents based on previously communicated preferences. One dining room received meals on trays. Nutrition services maintained lists of likes/dislikes and tried hard to ensure the food met the residents’ wishes. However, food was often wasted as, like all of us, residents may not feel like eating the option or the amount provided. Sometimes food was cold by the time residents arrived to eat.

A lot of work went into the transition to this style of dining. Maintenance staff installed the correct electrical work. Nutrition services revised workflows and experimented with different cart setups and forecasts of resident choices. Staff also stopped closing the dining room and offered beverage choices as residents arrived. Health Care Aide staff also changed their flow assist with meal set up in the dining room.

Staff at Birtle PCH already knew their residents well, but this dining style encourages staff and resident communication. The first week, staff were surprised to see residents’ choices. One resident said, “Suzy Q cart is a great idea.” One resident who always had hot cereal chose cold cereal, and one who never ate vegetables chose vegetables. One resident who could not communicate verbally could choose the soup when staff wrote down the two choices.

The meal service doesn’t take long, which is one worry staff had prior. However, staff are far more interactive with the residents when they are in the dining room. Already, staff notice they have less food waste. Food leftovers are safely cooled and used as a second option the next day, just like at home. The site has been going through a lot of tomato juice, a popular beverage choice.

Ultimately, Suzy Q style dining is not so much about the cart but is about respect and dignity, honouring the residents’ choices and building relationships with the residents. 

 Within PMH, four more PCHs will be introducing Suzy Q carts later this year, and several others are introducing additional options, such as cold beverage choices.

Neepawa Eats Healthy – Meal In 30 Project

The Neepawa Eats Healthy Committee is excited to be introducing the Meal in 30 Project – A partnership with local community groups, agencies, Prairie Mountain Health and the Neepawa Gladstone Co-op and Neepawa Safeway Grocery stores.

March is Nutrition Month and Neepawa Eats Healthy is launching “Meal in 30” kits on March 1st, 2023 at the participating grocery stores. Shoppers can look for the featured “Meal in 30” recipe, try it at home, tell the committee what they think by answering a short questionnaire and have a chance to win a grocery prize pack at the end of each month. The project will also run during the months of April and May.

Neepawa Eats Healthy is a group of dedicated partners representing local organizations and community members working together to improve healthy eating outcomes in the community.

“The goals of this project are to encourage local community members to cook and prepare healthy, budget friendly meals at home, build food skills, eat healthy and shop local” commented, Amanda Naughton Gale, committee member of the Neepawa Eats Healthy group.
During the next 3 months, shoppers in Neepawa can look for a recipe of the month that is quick and easy, includes vegetables and/or fruit, has easy substitutions (based on some basic shelf ingredients) and is budget friendly!

Brittney Bartecki, Registered Dietitian from Prairie Mountain Health is also part of the Neepawa Eats Healthy committee and is also excited about the project. “We are encouraging our community to find ways to cook more at home, experiment with new recipes and have some fun in the kitchen! Hopefully helping to take some guess work out of meal planning by helping to add a few new meal ideas into your week.”

Here is how everyone can get involved:

• Pick up the monthly featured recipe at Safeway or the Neepawa Gladstone Co-op
• Look for the Tagged food Items with the Neepawa Eats Healthy Logo on the grocer shelves
• Take home and cook up your tasty meals / once you are done….
• Scan the recipe QR code to complete a short survey for a chance to win a free grocery pack drawn each month.

By picking up the Meal In 30 recipe card and purchasing at least 3 of the featured items, people will also receive a Neepawa Eats Healthy Reusable Grocery Bag (while supplies last!)

The committee is excited to have the participation of the Neepawa Titans supporting this project.  Players from the local hockey club spent a day in the kitchen acting as guest cooks for the 3 recipes that will be featured on the local Access 12 station, helping to create awareness and encourage everyone to get involved. “Their participation has been lots of fun and we hope the community will get behind the project and will try the featured recipe over the next 3 months,” commented Bartecki.

For any questions about this project please contact Sherrill-Lee Hyra, Health Promotion Coordinator, Prairie Mountain Health at [email protected] or call 204-578-2192.

Sweet Potato or Yam?

Did you know? Sweet Potatoes and yams are completely different vegetables.

The orange tapered potatoes commonly called yams are in fact sweet potatoes, while many people have probably never tried a yam before. Yams are brown with a bark-like skin and are not very common in North America. Yams can also grow to be much bigger than sweet potatoes. There are a couple different varieties of sweet potatoes which vary in colour such as rose coloured skin with orange flesh, pale copper/tan skin with white flesh, red skin with dry white flesh, as well as purple skin and flesh.

The nutrition profiles of yams and sweet potatoes are similar, however yams are starchier, while sweet potatoes are sweeter. Sweet potatoes have more Vitamin A while yams have more Vitamin C and potassium. Yams and sweet potatoes can both be prepared by roasting, steaming, boiling or frying. Substituting yams in a sweet potato dish would be like using potatoes instead of sweet potatoes in the recipe—it would work, but the end result would taste very different.

Check out these tasty sweet potato recipes

• Grilled Sweet Potatoes Recipe | Food Network Kitchen | Food Network
• Sweet Potato and Corn Chowder Recipe | Geoffrey Zakarian | Food Network
• Spicy Quinoa with Sweet Potatoes Recipe | Food Network Kitchen | Food Network
• Mini Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe | Food Network Kitchen | Food Network