Party In My Mouth

Alternate Title: Sometimes I Make Food

In my house hubby does the cooking and I do the dishes. It's not a perfect arrangement - sometimes he gets bored with cooking, sometimes I get bored with dishes - but it's better than the alternative. I'm not creative in the kitchen and he loads a dishwasher like a blind monkey.

That being said, every now and then I plan to cook a meal. Even rarer, I actually follow through with my plan.

Yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to make a giant batch of couscous that I could bring to work for lunch for the next 2 weeks. Verdict: I have a winner. It's tasty, and filling and I made that giant batch in well under an hour. I'm particularly proud of myself because I didn't follow a recipe and yet it isn't terrible. Huzzah!

In case you want to try it too, here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
4 C dry couscous (I bought plain couscous in bulk, not the flavored side dishes)
1 t salt
4 t butter
3.5 C water
1/3 C red wine vinegar
2/3 C olive oil
filler:
--1 can diced tomatoes, drained
--1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
--1 can garbanzo beans, drained
--1 bunch parsley, coarsely chopped
--3 handfuls shredded carrots
--1/2 C feta cheese


DIRECTIONS
- bring salt, butter and water to a boil
- add dry couscous to boiling water, stir quickly
- remove couscous from heat, cover and let sit for 4-5 minutes
- fluff couscous with a fork, add vegetables and toss in oil and vinegar


yields 10-12 lunch sized portions

The great thing about couscous is you can make your filler out of just about anything in the pantry or refrigerator. Old canned veggies? Throw em in. Leftover salad carrots? Throw em in. Random 2 year old feta that mysteriously doesn't go bad? Throw it in. And like I said, this is really fast to make. The couscous itself cooks in about 10 minutes, then the rest of the time is in prepping your "filler" however you like it, and then combining the whole she-bang.

So what do you think? Get cooking!