Leftover Couscous Recombinations
It's often more time and energy efficient to cook in larger batches than a single person will eat in one meal. Leftovers are great as far as easy preparation goes, but sometimes eating the same thing eight days in a row gets a little boring. A little creative recombination can help vary the diet and relieve boredom.
I'm currently living with family, but they often don't share my food tastes. I made up a 2 lb box of couscous the other day, and since no one but me is eating it, I've been trying to use some as part of a meal each day and as a means to eat through other leftovers. I won't bore you with every variation, but here's a few that proved edible and are fairly healthy.
Couscous & baked beans - just mix and microwave, couscous is rather bland by itself but the sauce from the beans flavors it. .... You could probably do this with most soup varieties as well, creamy or thick sauces would work best.
Couscous with Turkey Burger, Mushrooms, Spinach & cheese - This was more prep heavy. My mom had bought a box of 6 frozen butterball turkey burger patties and used 4. I cooked one of the remaining patties in the skillet following package directions, minced some fresh spinach and three whole white mushrooms hitting the end of their useful life, cut the cooked patty into cubes, added some water (maybe 1/3 cup) and butter (roughly 2 tbsp.) to a pan, and cooked the meat, veggies, and about a cup of the couscous on medium for a few minutes. While they were cooking I added some additional spices: onion powder, pepper, ginger, and garlic. I probably could have added the cheese while cooking on the stove top, but I ended up adding it afterward. I had about 1/4 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese left, so I dumped that over the rest on a plate and then microwaved until melty.
The turkey burgers had a veal like texture that worked really well with the couscous. I liked it better this way than on a hamburger bun.
Couscous & Hummus with Leftover veggies - Hummus sort of glues the loose couscous grains together. I've done several variations on this one and have added onions, spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms in different combinations as well as different spices. One fun way I ate it was to mince and mix in the onion, tomato, and mushrooms, microwave for a few second to warm, and spoon some of the mix onto a large spinach leaf and wrap the leaf around to eat. But you could just chop up the spinach and toss it in.
Since these were meals made from leftovers, I didn't bother with exact measurements, but thought I'd share in hope of idea sparking.
I'm currently living with family, but they often don't share my food tastes. I made up a 2 lb box of couscous the other day, and since no one but me is eating it, I've been trying to use some as part of a meal each day and as a means to eat through other leftovers. I won't bore you with every variation, but here's a few that proved edible and are fairly healthy.
Couscous & baked beans - just mix and microwave, couscous is rather bland by itself but the sauce from the beans flavors it. .... You could probably do this with most soup varieties as well, creamy or thick sauces would work best.
Couscous with Turkey Burger, Mushrooms, Spinach & cheese - This was more prep heavy. My mom had bought a box of 6 frozen butterball turkey burger patties and used 4. I cooked one of the remaining patties in the skillet following package directions, minced some fresh spinach and three whole white mushrooms hitting the end of their useful life, cut the cooked patty into cubes, added some water (maybe 1/3 cup) and butter (roughly 2 tbsp.) to a pan, and cooked the meat, veggies, and about a cup of the couscous on medium for a few minutes. While they were cooking I added some additional spices: onion powder, pepper, ginger, and garlic. I probably could have added the cheese while cooking on the stove top, but I ended up adding it afterward. I had about 1/4 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese left, so I dumped that over the rest on a plate and then microwaved until melty.
The turkey burgers had a veal like texture that worked really well with the couscous. I liked it better this way than on a hamburger bun.
Couscous & Hummus with Leftover veggies - Hummus sort of glues the loose couscous grains together. I've done several variations on this one and have added onions, spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms in different combinations as well as different spices. One fun way I ate it was to mince and mix in the onion, tomato, and mushrooms, microwave for a few second to warm, and spoon some of the mix onto a large spinach leaf and wrap the leaf around to eat. But you could just chop up the spinach and toss it in.
Since these were meals made from leftovers, I didn't bother with exact measurements, but thought I'd share in hope of idea sparking.
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