Muy facíl

Next week is FCAT. And I'm a new 10th grade English teacher who is still not good at long-term planning (partly because of my propensity to procrastinate). So, since I needed to plan for Thursday, I wanted something really simple. 

Tonight's dinner was partially inspired by this recipe, but I made quite a few modifications (yaaay me) so I think I'll call it "almost" my own. I'd prefer the title "Mediterranean Couscous" rather than "Chickpea and Couscous Delight" - so that's what I'm gonna go with.

I bought some couscous at World Market the other day and was incredibly surprised by how cheap it was - I've never seen it under $6, I think. It was around $4, I believe. Next time, I should probably make it with quinoa, to get the health benefits. I've been wanting to make couscous for a while, though, so there you have it.

It didn't take long to chop the veggies at all, for once. I used:

1 cup dried garbanzos, soaked, then cooked.

1 cup vegetable broth (leftover and frozen; I like to save what I don't use)

1 cup couscous

~2 oz white mushrooms, chopped

2 mini local cucumbers

4 roma (plum) tomatoes

2 slices of local red onion, diced

olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste

salt and pepper to taste

reduced fat feta to taste

I meant to mince some garlic and put that in, but forgot.

I quick-soaked my garbanzos, since I never plan far enough ahead to soak them overnight. After soaking, I cooked for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Quick-soaked beans are usually obviously quick-soaked, slightly crunchy, but these turned out really well.

When the beans were nearly finished, I chopped the veggies.

The beans were nearly done at about an hour, so I boiled the vegetable broth, added the couscous, and removed from the heat. It absorbed all the broth within about a minute.

The rest I just eyeballed. I put in 2-3 tb olive oil - I think. And quite a few shakes of balsamic vinegar. This meal is easily vegan, but I had some feta, so I used a tiny bit in each serving. It was delicious, though I think it  needs a little bit of work to be as flavorful as I'd like. There are so many ways to add variety to this dish - I may roast the veggies next time! Yum.