Couscous!

This is different, isn't it?

Plastic makes it better. Kinda.

OK, not really because it's still an empty container. But the crumbs are different! See? They're couscous crumbs! Or rather individual couscou (one couscou, two couscous?). They were topped with stewed chickpeas that were made with lime and cinnamon, not that you could taste either because both flavours were obliterated by the tomato. Or maybe they were so harmonious that the flavours smoothly combined.

The last time I made this dish, the stewed chickpeas came out better, but the couscous was stale. I had just bought the friggin' couscous that day and it was already stale! That was the last time I bought boxed couscous. This couscous was happily hermetically sealed in a cellophane bag. Better living through plastics.

I'll Wait For My Quinoa To Be Fully Grown Next Time

The vegetarian kick continues.

Spousal Unit decided to be creative and buy kaniwa -- which is marketed as "baby quinoa" -- instead of the regular quinoa. According to The Internets, kaniwa is The Next Great Thing in ancient grain superfoods. Because we need more superfoods to combat the supervillains that are overrunning Gotham City.

I like regular quinoa. It's a bitch to clean and cook, but it makes for a nice summer salad. Kaniwa, on the other hand, is just kinda revolting. It's tiny, mealy and bleuch.

Mush

This kaniwa salad was made with chick peas, which is everyone's favourite legume to shove into a quinoa salad. In case you aren't savvy to the whole vegetarian thing, you need to find your protein somewhere, and quinoa and chick peas are "excellent sources" of protein. Plus the softness and mellowness of the chickpeas is a nice contrast to the nuttiness, and slight crunchiness, of the quinoa.

Adding chick peas to kaniwa, however? Ugh. Because kaniwa is so small and mealy, the whole dish becomes a grainy, mushy mess. Plus kaniwa doesn't taste of anything. So eating this salad was like eating tasteless, sandy mush.

I'm lobbying to have the remaining package of kaniwa thrown away. Or, alternately, I can send it to you so you can try it out for yourself. If you exist.