What's For Lunch Wednesday - Greek - Israeli Couscous Salad

This week I chose Greek-Israeli Couscous Salad from Weelicous Lunches by Catherine McCord.  The recipe can also be found on the Weelicous blog.

Not quite as pretty as last week's lunch but I enjoyed this one so much more.  I've had couscous before but I don't think I've ever had the pearl couscous.  I was seriously missing out because this stuff is delicious.  I had to do some altering because it called for tomatoes and the tomatoes that are available right now are kind of sad.  It is also called for lemon juice and despite the fact that I remember buying a full bag of Meyer lemons there was not a lemon to be found in my house.  To replace the sweetness and the acid I would've gotten from the lemon and tomatoes I substituted Raspberry Enlightenment I had gotten from Penzey's my very favorite spice store.  Tomatoes will be fantastic in this during the summer so I'm definitely looking forward to that.  The couscous is a yummy base for just about any vegetable/fruit/cheese/spice combination you could think of.

The Good: This dish is fairly easy to throw together, makes enough for several meals, reheats well and is nice and filling without being heavy.  I also love how easy it would be to change it up.

The Bad:  The recipe called for olive oil to be added at the end and I didn't love the slight oil feel.  I most likely will cut the oil in half next time I make it.

The Verdict: Love It!  This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for!  I was actually so looking forward to having this for lunch again today that I decided not to get a fast food biscuit and I love those little balls of grease.

What's For Lunch Wednesday - Turkish "Kofte" Burgers

This week I was inspired (more loosely than I planned) by a recipe for Turkish "Kofte" Burgers I found in the book Relish by Daphne Oz.  I used lean ground pork instead of ground beef or lamb because the ground pork was on sale and then I didn't use a pita because I didn't want to waste the calories on bread.  Then I forgot to get feta at the grocery store which meant I wasn't able to make the whipped feta spread.  I ended up using some blue cheese crumbles and some garlic spread instead.

Pretty plate no? The tomato and cucumber salsa was a little onion heavy but otherwise good and very pretty and fresh.  I didn't end up loving the burgers.  I'm not sure if the meat switch was the issue but I don't think it was.  The texture was good but the spice combination just wasn't quite to my taste.  It used a huge variety of different dried spices - mint, coriander, cardamon, cumin, cinnamon and a few others.  I generally like cumin and have loved savory foods with cinnamon but I think the combination of the two with the mint was a little jarring for my fairly conservative taste buds.

The Good: Made plenty and would be easy to reheat through out the week.  Also loved the fresh vegetables in the salsa.

The Bad:  Too much onion in the salsa and found the spice combination in the burger themselves a little unpleasant.

The Verdict: Not for me.  Though I had high hopes for this I think I'll stick with my PB&J.

What's For Lunch Wednesday - Apple Honey Cheese Quesadilla

Part of my New Year's Resolutions is to mix up what I eat for lunch a little.  This week's offering came from Weelicious Lunches though you can also find it on the Weelicous blog.  I got the book from the library and then ended up buying it because it had  a lot of really great lunch ideas.  Though this is a book designed for kids lunches I bought it for myself.  The Tornado isn't big on change.  He refused to eat his sandwich the other day because the bread wasn't the same shape even though it was the same kind of bread just a different brand.

I like the apple cheese combination and I love making my tortillas from this recipe. I figured this would be a win-win.  I'd make a batch of tortillas so I could make this and Emma and the Tornado could finish off the rest of the batch.

My results: Didn't love it.  I never got a satisfactory cheesey bite and I found the honey and apples overshadowed the cheddar.  I had a really hard time flipping it in quesadilla form.  The flavor was pretty good but it wasn't particularly filling.   Maybe there wasn't enough protein?  I really had to fight the urge to go on a snacking rampage that afternoon which normally isn't a big deal.  I made this in grilled cheese form the next day and liked it a little bit better but it's definitely not going on my make again list.  I'll stick with my peanut and jelly sandwich with some cheez-its this week I think.