Spooky Halloween and Barley Water

Here's a little ATC I made for Altered StART's mingle. The theme was "spooky Halloween" ....hope this doesn't scare anyone too much! LOL

As promised, here's the easy recipe for barley water. As you probably know, barley is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. I love barley in soups, salads and even as a cereal for breakfast. Barley water is simply the water in which you cook the barley, but you need to do a couple of things to make it a very refreshing drink. It is really an English idea but seems to be catching on here.

• Cook 1 cup hulled barley (don't use quick cooking...may have to search for "hulled" a bit in 4 cups of water. After it comes to a boil, simmer for 30 minutes & let stand for 30 minutes. While the barley is cooking, peel 2 lemons (try not to get into the white part) and place the peel and the juice into a 2 quart pitcher. Strain the barley water from the barley with a fine strainer into the pitcher. Most recipes call for honey as a sweetener but since I am diabetic, I use blue agave as a slight sweetener. Actually, I could drink it without any sweetener. It's quite refreshing sort of like lemonade but with a lot of nutrients. Try it!