dinner for one

When the gentleman caller (here forward GC) and I were out the other day, I mentioned how cooking for one gets a little boring.  I buy a bunch of veggies and something to go along with said veggies and I make variations on a theme for a week.  then I realized I hadn’t posted my dinners in awhile.

With fall-like weather descending on Portland again (yes-in JUNE!), I’ve been oven roasting my veggies and putting them on Asian noodles with a little peanut sauce and one night I got crazy and put them on Israeli couscous.

When I get home, I put my beloved cast iron skillet in the oven at 400*f to preheat.

I then commence to chopping veggies- this week has been cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini, and bell pepper.  Chop the veggies in what seem to be big bites, they will cook down.  Toss all the veggies in a bowl.  I drizzle with a little olive oil and some dried herbs.  On noodle night, I added some protein in the form of extra firm tofu, again, cut into bite size pieces and toss in with the veggies.  I’ll drizzle with a little sesame oil and sprinkle some curry powder, cumin and a little red pepper flakes.

Give all the veggies, oil, and herbs a good toss and when your oven is preheated, toss in the skillet.  You’ll hear a nice sizzle.  Every 10 minutes or so, pull out the skillet and give a little toss and shake and put back in the oven.  Total cooking time will be about 30 minutes.

Enter google.  I love google.  google knows everything.  All I have to do is ask and google tells me the secrets of the universe.  My friend Megan spent an evening in the ER recently having Israeli couscous pulled out of her twins’ nostrils.  I shouldn’t laugh, but holy crap!  That’s good shit!  Good enough to make me want to make Israeli couscous.  If it’s good enough to put up your nose, then I want that in my belly!  But I had no idea how to cook the stuff and google told me.  Well, really, google led me to epicurious, who told me.

The recipe I found, that seemed to fit my need, called for a few things I didn’t have on hand, so I made my usual modifications and dinner was served!  I chopped about 1/4- 1/2 cup onion and tossed in a pot with some butter for a few minutes.  Then I added 1 cup couscous (I made 1/3 the recipe on epicurious) and let this toast for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.  When it had a touch of color, I added 10z chicken broth.  I left out the extra salt the recipe called for since broth tends to be a bit salty and I knew I was going to toss in parmesan at the end.

I really made enough for lunch the next day, but this was so yummy, I ate it all the night I made it!  Next time I will add some grilled chicken.  I don’t think I would have been as inclined to eat it all if it had some protein.  But damn, this dish was yummy and so simple!  This will definitely go in the make again column.  tasty and easy-  that’s a win in my book!