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0 Comments | Buffalo News, Jan 27, 2010 | by Andrew Z. Galarneau

Colleen Tomasso runs up to 45 miles a week training for the Buffalo Marathon, in between teaching spinning and strength- training classes.

All of that comes after her full-time job as a Fisher Price copywriter. So when it’s time to reach for lunch, Tomasso, 25, makes whole grains a standard.

Tomasso has lots of company. Lots of people have started making whole grains part of their weekly menu. They’re like pasta or rice, but healthier. Whether it’s whole wheat grains or cracked bulgur wheat, quinoa, barley or millet, people are choosing specific grains for their own reasons: Protein, nutrients, ease of preparation, or flavor and texture.

For her part, Tomasso likes cracked bulgur wheat, which cooks easily — just cover it with boiling water — and lends itself to favorite mix-ins like turkey bacon and carrots, or feta cheese and fresh lemon.

The biggest plus is the energy it provides, good carbs for this marathoner-in-training’s starving muscles. She doesn’t drink coffee. “I just sleep really well at night,” Tomasso said. “And I eat bulgur.”

Fans of whole grains came back to this: They fill you up in a healthy way, for cheap. That’s the bottom line; boil a $2 pound of wheat berries and they’ll feed you for a week, if you can make them tasty enough to avoid boredom.

Responding to rising consumer demand, Wegmans supermarkets in Western New York have started offering five to seven whole-grain dishes a day in its stores’ ready-to-buy sections.

“A lot of our consumers are trying to eat healthier, live healthier lives, and whole grains are a huge part of that,” said Don Woods, the chain’s regional executive chef. “This is one category we’re really focusing on, not just because it’s great quality food and tastes good. It’s what the customers are looking for, and it’s the right thing to do.”

It doesn’t take a veteran chef like Woods, either. Bulgur is the easiest, but even whole wheat grains, called wheat berries, take less than an hour to cook. If you soak wheat berries, barley or brown rice overnight, it takes less time, said Pam Gay, a whole grain fan for decades.

Gay recommends salted water to bring out the grains’ flavor, as well as cooking enough for leftovers.

For the next day’s lunch, layer field greens with lightly steamed broccoli, cooked whole grain and whatever else you want, and just add Greek or Italian dressing, Gay suggested. The hardest part is remembering to take it to work the next day. “You’ll be glad you did,” she said
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