Since Barley is rich in fiber, it’s a great staple to add to your kitchen for your family’s Regularity, Lower Cholesterol, & Intestinal Protection...among other health benefits. There are numerous varieties of barley, and the one readily available in 2 local grocery stores was Pearl Barley. But, just like all grains, the more they are in the kernel the healthier it is; so we’re still on the hunt.

While there are dozens of barley recipes offered on this great website (that I’ll try soon, inshaAllah, God willing), I just added a cup of barley into a Moroccan stew-spiced-up-and-turned-into- a-soup-recipe below.

This easy, healthy, pot of soup helped sooth a couple of our sore throats this week, so we were very satisfied.

Peppered Chicken Barley Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken quarters (thighs & legs), skinned
• 9 cups of water
• 1.5 large onions
• 7 cloves garlic
• 2 chicken bouillons (preferably Maggi)
• 2 teaspoons ginger (substitute fresh ginger if you have)
• 1 teaspoon paprika (preferably Turkish spicy paprika)
• 2 Cherry peppers
• 2 carrots
• 1 medium sized potato diced
• 1 cup of pearl barley

Instructions:

• Cut the chicken quarters to 2 legs & 2 thighs.
• Add water, chicken, onions, garlic, chicken bouillon, ginger and paprika. Boil for approximately 45 minutes until chicken is nice and tender (but not shredded). We boil with a pressure cooker for a steam time of about 20 minutes.
• Take out the chicken bones and and cut the chicken to bite-sizes.
• Slice the cherry peppers into slivers, with the seeds.
• Slice the carrots into bite-sizes.
• Add the cherry peppers, carrots, potatoes, and barley. Boil for approximately 45 minutes. Pressure cooker steam time was about 20 minutes again.

Serve hot with pitas, French or Italian bread and salad.

I made this as a light late lunch meal, much to our amazement we were stuffed that everyone thought it was dinner. Hubby and the girls convinced me that because they were filled, alhumduililah, Praise be to God, that I didn’t have to make dinner, and they would have a cup of soup and some more salad if and when they were hungry…just as long as they could have a big ice cream waffle cone for dessert.

Undoubtedly, I agreed! Yum, yum.

Have a great barley recipe to share? Please comment below. Or, if you know where we can buy other varieties of barley please let us know.

Now, tacos has always been a family-fun dinner night because its fast, healthy and everyone, hubby included, helps to prepare the nearly dozen bowls of add-ons, such as tomatoes, avocado dip, sour cream, lettuce, etc.

Now, the girls help roll and fry our own tortillas too.

Tortilla Bread Machine Recipe

We started out with this recipe, and made the following adjustments:

• We do not grease the pan
• We do not wait for dark brown-black burnt marks.
• We flip only once.
• We set our gas stove at medium high, 5 out of 6 on our dial.
• We made this recipe the third time with corn flour and it was delicious. It was just much harder to roll them into nice circles with rounded edges.

Homemade Taco Seasonings Recipe

Considering we have almost hundred different spices in our cabinets, literally, we actually had everything on this list except onion powder.

• This recipe lasted 3 (1.5 pound meat) dinners.
• Storing it in a sandwich bag worked perfectly fine as well.

We added half a jar of medium or hot salsa to our meat, and yum-yum our tacos were done!

Taco toppings

So, what do you put on your tacos?

We always have the following dishes for everyone to fill their own tacos themselves:

• lettuce
• tomatoes
• medium  or hot salsa
• sour cream (we put this on last as the “glue” to hold the rolled soft taco together)
• avocado dip (one avocado with the juice of half a lemon or one full lime, both are delicious!)
• shredded cheese (we prefer white or orange cheddar rather than ‘taco’ or  ‘Mexican’ shredded cheese mixes)
• fresh or pickled jalepeno peppers
• Tobacco sauce

On ambitious days, we make chicken and beans dishes too.

So, what do you add in your tacos? We always have room for another topping or side dish, so please share below.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon instant dry yeast

1.5 cups warm water

1 quantity sugar-water syrup (qater): 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, and (optional) 2 tablespoons rose water or orange blossom.

~ 2 cups cooking oil

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, and salt; then pour in the yeast and mix well. Add the water and stir until the mixture resembles the texture of pancake batter and cover and set aside for 1 hour [or overnight in the fridge--the longer the better. It never made it past 1 night at our house. ]

Meanwhile, prepare the qatar as follows:

Heat water and sugar in a medium pot on medium heat. Watch and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside. While off the heat add the lemon juice and optional rose water or orange blossom.

Add the cooking oil in a pan and heat it on high. Once heated, reduce to medium-high heat and add a teaspoon of batter sporadically in the pan.

If you like to make small ball shapes, you need to fill your pan full of cooking oil, make sure it’s very hot and drop less than a teaspoon of batter. The oil will fry it up on all sides by itself and float to the top of the pan. This is the typical way it is made with much more qatar as well.

However,we like the deep-fried crunchy on the outside, soft & chewy

inside. It takes less oil and a lot less qatar (sugar water). So, while this is not the healthiest dessert, our version is a bit healthier, if that’s possible

Once they are a nice crispy fried color, turn over to the other side and you’ll have funky shapes resembling PBS’s beloved Boobahs!

Take the balls or Boobahs and set them on paper towels to soak up some remaining oil.

The traditional way is to soak the deep-fried balls ‘awamee in the qatar until it it sinks to the pan. The taste is good, but extremely sweet, that when you bit into the ball the qatar squeezes out from inside.

As I explained above, we like the crispy sweet taste on the outside alone, and the fluffy, airy test and texture in the inside. So, we hold a fork and slotted spoon. Drop in the ‘awamee, flip quickly so it is coated with qatar on all sides and quickly take it out. Place it on a plate and eat it hot.

If made the traditional way, it’s more like a candy and can be placed all together in a clear cellophane baggy and stored in room temperature. Beware that they are drippingly-sticky and usually eaten at room temperature. Our new way is eaten hot, fluffy and just enough sweetness to say “Yum, I want more!” But, by the time the plate is done you’ll be saying “Alhumdulilah, Praise be to God. That was enough sweets for the night.”