Happy Sunday Morning!!!! I’ve got a busy day but I wanted to pop in with a quick and easy “recipe” and share why i’ve been a little MIA with the posts this week. The recipe i’m sharing with you today is a “Jazzed Up” Boxed Couscous dish. Yup, even I go for convenience sometimes and in this case it meant a box of Near East  Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil Couscous. On its own I love this stuff as a go to side dish to grilled chicken and veggies. 

Quick back track… I don’t know about you but I tend to forget about the meats i’ve saved for another day in the freezer and the pantry seems to be neglected sometimes too. This week I wanted to make an effort to not hit up the grocery store and really use up a lot of what we had stocked in the house already. I definitely hate waste and it pains me to throw piles of frost bitten meat away because I simply forgot it was there

While the meals might not be so “fancy” when using up whats on hand, they work and maybe you have to be just a little more creative. That brings me back to the couscous! I had found a box from a while back that was behind my pasta stash. I also had some veggies that needed to be used, like kale that there really was just a few leaves left. I figured lets jazz up this couscous up!

{Check out some ideas on how to use up on hand items after the recipe card}

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~Here are some things that I made up to use some freezer items~

*I had shredded pork carnitas and cajun black eyed peas {from NYE} that I defrosted. I sautéed some peppers and onions and added the pork. I made some plain brown rice and served the beans and pork overtop.

*I had a small package of boneless skinless chicken thighs I defrosted. This one is super simple! I had some Annie Organic Ranch Dressing {I don’t use bottled dressing often and almost always end up throwing out half the bottle} so decided to coat the chicken in the ranch dressing and then into some Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. A little drizzle of olive oil and baked in the oven until golden brown… it was SO good!!!!

*This next one used up some frozen veggies I had on hand. I made a healthy creamy sauce to go over ravioli. Melted some herbed butter in a saucepan. Whisk in equal amount of flour until relatively smooth. Add in a cup of fat free milk and whisk until combined {yes like the base to a béchamel}. Shut off the heat. I added a bag of Steamfresh garlic cauliflower that I cooked according to the package as well as some frozen peas. After the ravioli were cooked I added in some pasta water. Using my immersion blender and blended the sauce until nice and smooth. Stirred in some grated pecorino and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. I told the kids it was a green sauce for St Patricks Day and they gobbled it up!