Eye Spy... a discovery!

As you probably already know, Mr bpab and myself have been doing a 30 day detox. We are in the middle of week 2 and things are looking pretty good!
We've discovered that when you are restricted to certain foods, you can really taste the sweetness or spice of foods. It's like we have a clean palette, as we have not been eating anything refined or artificially enhanced in any way. (Discovery #1!)

(Discovery #2) How to cook with new grains (some I knew about already, but never had cause to use). And they are very yummy! Here are some of them below:

Clock wise from top left: Buckwheat, Bourghal, Barley, Soy Grits, Millet.

In the middle is Wholewheat Vegetable Alphabets (for soup!!)

(Discovery #3) Sea Vegetables! Well I did know about them and have had them time to time, but never have I cooked with them. We have 4 types in our pantry now! Here they are below:

Top: Kombu (dark sea kelp raked from the ocean floor)
Middle: Arame (A wide leaf kelp sliced into strands)
Bottom: Wakame (grows in temperate waters, raked from the ocean floor)
*Not pictured: Nori (flat sheets usually rolled to form casing for sushi)

In this last discovery, (sea vegetables) the 'book' told us to steam them. Works fine for nori as it's so thin..... but the others were tough as old boots! So we boiled them in water and they tenderised and were thus delicious (esp. with a (homemade) black bean sauce! Shhhh! Don't tell the detox book!

So that's pretty much my discovery x3 this week!
Thanks to Megan from The Byron Life for this weeks theme. Mmmmm Byron Bay.....
To play click on the Eye Spy picture on the left. It's fun!