Spinach with Ginger and Apples over Barley

I recently embarked on a journey to better health by participating in a 21 day cleanse. This entails giving up pretty much every except vegetables, fruit, herbs, vinegar, sea salt, olive oil, brown rice, barley and lentils. Now when I first started I looked the list thinking, wow, that is going to get boring fast. I started out with fruit in the morning, salad for lunch, salad and brown rice for dinner or plain veggies with vinegar and brown rice. Although I was feeling great, I was flat out bored with what I was eating. It's not even that I don't like vegetables and fruit, I love my veggies and fruit, it was just getting so boring. Although I wasn't really craving anything (I was also drinking protein drinks through this) I couldn't imagine doing this more than the required 21 days.

Then, on my 8^th day into the cleanse I remembered how much I love lentil soup. I decided I would just pick up veggies I like and make my own vegetarian lentil soup – and it was delicious. I loaded it with ginger, garlic, spinach and other great veggies. I actually think I like my version of Ginger Lentil Soup more than my staple Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup. Now, that was a feat! Now I am eager to make something new and I have come up with some recipes that I would never even dream of on a regular day of chicken and potatoes. (I might add here that potatoes and corn are not allowed on this cleanse).

I have tried others recipes that I can honestly say I would have never even considered, or even looked for on a regular day, one of them being Sweet Potato Chips. These were so tasty and fulfilling!

Adding Ginger to broccoli, or everything like I have been doing! I used to have horrible headaches on a regular basis and heart burn every single day. I have not had either of these since switching my diet.

Now... for my newest creation that is so good I crave it several times a week.

Spinach with Ginger and Apples over Barley

Ingredients:

1 cup barley

1 bag frozen spinach

1 medium onion roughly chopped

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced

1 Table spoon olive oil

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 apple cut up into bite size pieces

Directions:

1. Cook the barley as instructions indicate on the box
2. Put the garlic, ginger and onion in pan with the olive oil on medium heat.
3. Allow the onions to soften a bit and add the apple.
4. Continue to cook until the onions and apples are to your liking (I like to cook the onions down, and have the apples still crunchy)
5. Add the vinegar spinach to the mixture and cover cooking on medium low heat for about 5-7 minutes or until the spinach is cooked throughout.
6. Serve the spinach over the barley and enjoy!

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