I tried this recipe from Cooking Light tonight and just had to share it. It might be the tastiest quick and healthy meal ever. It probably took ten-fifteen minutes from start to finish and now my roommate and I have 8 meals...

I copied and pasted the recipe from the website. Changes I made are in italics...I'm sure this isn't as tasty as the original plan but there were some grocery store difficulties... I also doubled the recipe to minimize the amount of cooking I do this week.

Barley Pilaf with Artichoke Hearts
O Version: Barley Pilaf with Stir-Fry Vegetables

A serving of this meatless main dish offers nearly a third of an adult's suggested daily requirement of fiber. Serve with cherry tomatoes tossed with a bottled vinaigrette. We're skipping the cherry tomato business too...
Ingredients

2 cups warm water
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking barley
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (14-ounce) can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
Couldn't find artichoke hearts so I ended up buying a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetable mix (combo of broccoli, red peppers, etc)
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic I used about half an onion sliced up instead...
2 tablespoons commercial pesto
1 tablespoon lemon juice I used half the amount of lemon juice
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese
Preparation
Combine the first 3 ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook 3 minutes. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 8 minutes or until tender.

While barley cooks, heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add artichokes and garlic. Sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
While the barley was cooking, I instead sauteed onions, added in the chickpeas, frozen veggies, some salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper...

Stir pesto, lemon juice, and chickpeas into the cooked barley. Serve artichoke mixture over barley; top with cheese. Instead,I stirred everything together (chickpeas, veggies, cheese et al.)...I knew that I wouldn't have the patience to sprinkle cheese and layer things when packing my lunch in the morning...
Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 cup barley mixture, 1/4 cup artichoke mixture, and 2 tablespoons cheese)
Nutritional Information

CALORIES 405(28% from fat); FAT 12.6g (sat 4g,mono 6.1g,poly 1.5g); PROTEIN 17.5g; CHOLESTEROL 12mg; CALCIUM 267mg; SODIUM 825mg; FIBER 8.7g; IRON 3.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 57.8g

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2003