With apologies to Rod for today's totally inappropriate earworm: "This Old Heart of Mine" by Rod Stewart and Ronald Isley of the Isley Bros.... but he invited it with the line, "You've got me never knowing if I'm coming or going"....
Writing tends to be a sedentary business, which can lead to a spreading butt and through-put issues. In my case, which is possibly TMI, I have to give up eating potatoes. So, this morning, after I'd baked aging cod (on sale at half price), and prawns (also aging and half price) in Guernsey Farms cream -- because one always cooks fish in milk when it might be on the fishy-smelling side--I wondered what I could do to soak up all that good, wicked, creamy/fishy liquor, and turn the dish in a MAHA direction.
M.A.H.A. is "Make America Healthy Again".
A week or two ago, I would have thickened it with commercial Knorr Hollandaise powdered sauce, and put mashed potato on top, but my arthritis would have flared up and I would not have been able to walk (without pain) for a month.
I could have tried pasta, but that is basically durum flour and water, which is not all bad, but pasta causes constipation in some unfortunate individuals. Which is not, as The Bard said, "A consummation devoutly to be wished."
So... I seized three handfuls of Red Mill barley, and simmered it in the liquor (after setting aside the cooked fish and prawns). Then, I mixed the lot together in a casserole dish, put sliced yellow summer squash on top, to prevent any barley grains from getting hard and breaking a tooth.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/barley-benefits
I would not be sharing if it did not work out deliciously. One benefit that the healthline writers omit is that barley is also good for the bladder bladder (as opposed to the gall bladder). The British use lemon barley water as a cure for UTIs. Americans use cranberry juice. It is actually worthwhile to make cranberry-barley juice. But, consuming barley might fend off a UTI in the first place.
Barley is also good for preventing various cancers, including bowel cancer, for lowering cholesterol, for preventing heart disease and diabetes, and much more. It is also quite inexpensive.... possibly less expensive that a "pre-biotic" product being advertised on TV, costing $50 for 60 capsules which, an actor brazenly avers, "helps my daily bowel movements," and brings out the pedant in me.
How does one "help" something as insentient (one hopes) as a bowel movement? It might help the generator of the bowel movement to eliminate fecal matter by softening it, or bulking it up. A more accurate line would be, "helps me to have bowel movements daily."
Alas that advertisers are permitted to bombard us all with horrible grammar.
Raw oats has many of the advantages of barley. I think I've written about that before. For the perfect meal at each day-start, use Quaker rolled oats or quick oats, add half a cup of strained Greek yoghurt, a cup of boiling water, blueberries, raspberries, sliced banana, stir and leave to sit for about an hour.
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
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