Tom’s Colorful Quail Couscous

Welcome to my first food post!

One of the first things I learned here in NY is that food is expensive, particularly eating out. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Chipotle burritos. There is one right downstairs from where I work, and as I recall my last burrito with extra meat ran up over $10. So let’s do a little bit of simple math.

~$12 (1 burrito w/extra meat) x 5 (lunches a week) x 4 (weeks a month) = $240. On lunches. Alone.

There has got to be another way! (There is!!)

Remember how your mom/dad/parental unit always made you lunch during middle school? Guess what? It’s your turn!

Lucky for you I am here to guide you in cooking your next lunch, dinner, date, and frate (friend date, it’s a thing.)
I have been positively encouraged to share what I eat, as I was told it looks and smells delicious.
I will start off with my dinner from a few days ago, and as I keep posting my food, the format will most likely change, but that barley has any significance at this point in time. (Pun intended)

*Note: My father has taught me to almost never follow recipes, so feel free to experiment as you see fit.

Ingredients:
Tricolor couscous – I used one serving – $3 for box
Red pepper (feel free to add yellow and green as well, I didn’t have any) – I used ¼th of one – $2 for 2 peppers
Colorful baby carrots (orange, yellow, purple) – I used like 7 I think – $2 per package
Mushrooms (because I am a fungi) – I used like 4 mushrooms if not less – $2 per package
Hard boiled quail eggs – I think I used 8 quail eggs – $11 per package (I think)
Chorizo – I used 1/10th of it – $7 per air tight sausage
Olive oil – I used a tablespoon? Maybe 5 – $4 per bottle
Salt & Pepper – $4 per pair of shakers

Total: $35 – Looks pricey thanks in part to the quail eggs and chorizo. Feel free to use regular eggs. I used like so little chorizo, mostly for the fat and flavor honestly. So if you have regular eggs, they cost like $3 a dozen and you get as much egg with 2 regular sized ones. And I used 7 baby carrots, and 1/3 of 1 red bell pepper. And 1 serving of couscous. so this price doesn’t even come close to the amount of food you can actually make with al the ingredients. And this is a full bottle of olive oil. And salt/pepper shakers.

Step 1:
Follow the box’s instructions to make couscous.

Step 2:
Hard boil quail eggs. Get discouraged peeling them. Power through the feeling of discouragement.

Step 3:
Halve carrots and chop em up. Dice mushrooms and peppers.

Step 4:
Throw the carrots on the stove with some olive oil and cook them till they become less firm.

Step 5:
Throw the peppers and mushrooms in there. Do not be afraid of discoloration. The purple carrots bleed.

Step 6:
Take the chorizo and dice it as best as you can but you will probably end up with a torn mess, which is ok. Throw it on there and mix it up.

Step 7:
Slice up the quail eggs and throw them on. These will turn purple. Still safe to eat. Remember to salt and pepper everything to taste. I like lots of salt so I have been salting after every step. Don’t forget to pepper too.

Step 8:
Move the concoction to once side of the pan, drain the couscous and throw it on the other side and admire the great work you have created so far.

Step 9:
Now this is a tricky step Would recommend to put on low heat so you don’t dry and burn everything to this point. Physically move the pan over so the couscous side is on the flame, and let it sit there until golden brown or however crispy you want it.

Step 10:
Mix it up and enjoy.

This lasted me 2 dinners, and if I rationed it a bit better would have lasted me 3. But I was hungry. As mentioned above, I did not use all ingredients! Had I used all, I would have a mountain of food that would last me for 7-10 days.

Price Per Taste:
$35/7.5
I would have added more salt, as well as some green hot sauce. Next time will skip the fancy quail eggs to be more economical. If you use all the ingredients (and you will still have some left over) you will have a great dinner for a few days.