CousCous Stirfry

Like so many people I try to have a somewhat healthy diet.  As a chef turned mom-of-a-4-month-old I struggle with eating.  It's not that I'm not hungry...it's that I have a hard time juggling munchkin on one hip and creating a beautiful cordon bleu.

Lunches are the hardest for me as I'm generally alone and inevitably when I want to eat she also wants to eat...or cry...or poop...or all three.

So a healthy, fast, appetizing meal?  haha!  That is a good one.

But today I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.  In fact it took longer to type this out than to make my lunch!

Garlic-Sesame CousCous

Equal parts hot water and couscous, I used 1/3 cup

1/3 cup couscous
1/3 cup boiling water
sprinkle of garlic powder
sprinkle of sesame oil
pinch of salt and pepper

Put couscous, garlic powder, sesame oil, salt and pepper in a heat proof bowl that can easily be covered.  Pour in hot water and swirl/stir just enough to wet couscous.  Cover the bowl and let sit at least 10 minutes or while you cook the rest of your veggies.


Stir Fry

ANY veggies in your house.  I used:

1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup cut asparagus

Can you tell tomorrow is shopping day?

ANY protein (Optional)  I used:

1 cup garbanzo beans

Oil of choice I used:

1 Tbs coconut oil

ANY flavorings of choice.  I used:

A few shakes of fish sauce
A few shakes of soy sauce
A few shakes of sesame oil


Cut all your veggies on the diagonal or about 1 inch pieces.

Heat your oil on high heat.

layer your vegetables starting with the hardiest/slowest cooking.  I put carrots then celery.  I waited and put my garlic and asparagus in JUST before my beans, fish sauce, sesame and soy.

Stir in about 1/2-1 cup hot water and turn off heat.  Water should evaporate quickly and leave a nice sauce.

Mix with your couscous and enjoy.

This can easily be doubled, tripled, as much as you need to feed a small family or a crowd.  

The Great Oatmeal Scone Disaster of 2014

As a nursing mom I am always looking for new ways to get oatmeal into my diet.  Don't get me wrong...a big bowl of oatmeal every. single. morning. is great (insert sarcasm here) but it does get tiring.  I've added everything you can to oatmeal: fruit, nuts, seeds, peanut butter, honey, syrup, brown sugar, coconut oil, butter, milk...I haven't gone as far as sprinkling Reeses pieces in there...but I've considered it.

Anyway, Reeses oatmeal aside, I was on the hunt for a way to get in oatmeal without eating yet another bowl of warm oats.  Thus the Great Oatmeal Scone Disaster of 2014 (GOSD/14)!

By 'great' I mean 8 little scones in my small kitchen in the NW corner of Arkansas...and by 'disaster' I mean...not as pretty as I expected.

I grabbed a Scottish Oat Scone recipe off a site that claims to have ALL of the recipes...(like all of them in the world...?  On the internet...? who knows)  The recipe needs just a few tweaks.  I tried to leave a comment and some feedback but making an account that a year from now I'll have never used since and will have long forgotten my username and password...I did what any self-respecting person would do and decided to write a blog about it.

I was a little nervous and had some red flags when I read the instructions.  Preheat oven to 425.  425? Like 425 degrees?  That seems a little high...So I start reading the comments.  After the fourth comment of "I changed every single thing in this recipe and it was FANTASTIC" I decided to give the creator the benefit of the doubt and just preheat my oven to 425.

I didn't have currants and although I just flamed internet "chefs" everywhere for tweaking a recipe, I put some white chocolate chunks and some frozen cherries that magically appeared in my grocery bags one day.  (Honestly, I think they belonged to the person checking out ahead of me at WalMart a few weeks ago.  I wonder if they thought they were losing their mind when they got home and had no cherries.  Was it an "UGH I have to go back out for CHERRIES!  I could have SWORN I put them in my bag and they are the most important part of this Roast-Swallow-with-Cherry-Rum-Sauce dinner that I was cooking up for the Commandant and his wife tonight!" although the Commandant wasn't in NWA at the time...but I digress.)

Back to the GOSD/14.  As I'm finishing up the mixing and shaping I again check back with my trusty recipe.  "Score 8 wedges into each circle of dough..."  WAIT...Score?  Not cut?  And 8 wedges...?  How in the world am I supposed to get 8 wedges out of each circle?  Whatever...I score my circles into 4 wedges because well...there isn't that much dough.  "Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven until risen and browned.  Split wedges, and serve warm"  Uhhh...I'm pretty sure that if I do that the scones are going to be REALLY brown on the top (READ: burned) and doughy in the center.  But again...let's not doubt the obviously master internet baker that created this cutting edge scone recipe.  (Do they have a sarcasm emoticon...?  Maybe I should create one)

15 minutes later...Even used a timer!  Go me!  BAM!  REALLY brown on the top, completely raw in the center!  However, being the awesome internet baker I am, I cut my wedges, lowered the temp back to 350 like I had originally thought and baked for another 5-10 minutes.

The taste?  Not bad at all!  A little heavy, but hey, it is different than a bowl of oatmeal, and it's got white chocolate chunks!

Bottom line: not a bad recipe overall and I will probably make again.


See my completely revamped recipe below:

2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs and 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 stick butter melted
1/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 - 1 cup Fruit, chocolate, nuts, anything you want

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

Mix the dry ingredients (oatmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) in a large bowl.  Mix your additions into the dry ingredients.  Mix all the wet ingredients (butter, milk, egg and vanilla) in a large measuring cup.  Pour into the flour mixture and stir gently until the mixture comes together and forms a dough.

Using your hands press dough into a ball.  Flatten it out onto a greased baking sheet and cut into 8 wedges.  Pull those wedges apart and arrange on the baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden and the centers are cooked through.



Original recipe can be found here:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/scottish-oat-scones/