Special thanks to Tim Putt, guest photographer for not only taking the photo, but for being willing to eat an additional plate-full after we all forgot to photograph the meal before we started eating.
A couple weeks ago we had over new parents and old friends, Tim and Magally. We live about 5 miles from each other and rarely have much time to spend together. It seems each of our kids should be bringing us together some, but they also give you a reason to stay home sometimes.
Speaking from experience, when the new and over-excited grandmothers leave, one of the nicest things you can do for a new mom is bring her over a little something to eat. In this case, we invited Tim and Magally so they could just get out of the house. And the great thing was that I had unintentionally made the meal vegan, which is a lesson learned as some babies are very sensitive to what their mamas eat.
Now my point for bragging about the accidental vegan menu is not that I have anything against vegans and vegan meals. It's the fact that sometimes it's really easy to be a vegan. I just wanted to prove that if you are wanting to move from vegetarian to vegan, I can safely say that at least the occasional meal isn't too hard to come up with.
The big reason why I chose this menu was because I wanted dishes that could be served room-temperature. Tim and Magally's schedule functions later than ours does, and I knew we needed to have a light supper as we would go to bed soon after dinner. Also, I wanted a dish that could be prepared a day in advance. The couscous accomplished this. I made it and let it cool, which took all of 15 minutes. Then, I sliced the olives. (Buy them pre-sliced if you really need to save time.) And I kept the can of garbanzos in the fridge overnight. The most time-consuming part of this dish was harvesting the herbs. What does that tell you?
The Lemony Couscous recipe came out of Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers. And indeed it was. I was really proud of the results of this dish and have shared it a number of times since.
Stay tuned for the Story about Green Beans.
Cost to Make Couscous
- $1.00 Couscous
- $0.85 Garbanzo Beans
- $1.66 Black Olives (Yes, I know. Ridiculous price!)
- $0.05 Lemon Juice
- $0.01 Salt
- $0.04 Olive oil
- Free Herbs (Extensive herb gardens make this cheap.)
- $3.60
Thanks for a lovely evening, Tim and Magally! Mateo is such a blessing.
Lemony Couscous
Adapted from Simple Suppers
- 1 cup couscous
- 1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can black olives, sliced
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup chives, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup mint, finely chopped
Cook the couscous. (This is super easy in the microwave. A real time-saver.) Transfer couscous to serving bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Note: the original recipe called for 1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds. I always forget them.
