Adventures in Budget Cooking: Episode 1

So sometimes I have to eat something. Most of the time, that involves dealing with being out of the ingredients for known cohesive meals, but luckily I plan ahead for these times and stock mass quantities of staples. These staples don't look like much to the naked eye, but with my skills--and my ability to bike down to the garden for veggies--it becomes a feast.

Episode 1: Couscous a la Spicy Black Bean Burger
August 12, 2008.

The key to this delicious feast was the subtle tones of dill from my failing herb garden. This way, I didn't need the burden of figuring out how much dill to add--I just took a pinch off the only living dill plants.

I prepared the couscous from a large bucket of the stuff I got last winter. When you do this at home, sprinkle bits of random spice to add the illusion of flavor (I prefer curry!). Luckily, Hilary and I have enough grape tomatoes in our garden to feed a small village. I threw some of those on there for flavor and beauty. The swiss chard and standard tomato slices also came from the garden. I prepared the Spicy Black Bean burger from Morningstar Farms in the skillet, sliced up a carrot from the grocery store, and topped it all off with some mustard. It's all in the presentation, folks. I mean look at that mustard. This was quite delicious.

UPDATE: Actually, my herb garden is doing quite nicely. My attempt at humor was admittedly disrespectful of the dill weed :) And for the record, plain couscous is still delicious, but curry makes it better.