Quickie for Two: Cashew couscous, roasted carrots & spiced meatballs

Another Quickie for Two – don’t worry about the long ingredient list, it’s mainly spices – this will take less than 30 minutes for a full meal. This meal makes a good leftover lunch – you will probably have leftover meatballs, so you can make additional couscous & carrots if you’d like for lunch. Or, you could also double the recipe and pack some lunches for the week when you clean up dinner. I’m all about multi-tasking – packing healthy lunches as you clean up dinner is a great multi-tasking habit!

Ingredients

• 4 carrots, washed & cut into 2-inch pieces

• About 1 pound ground beef

• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

• 1.5 tsp. ground cumin

• 1.5 tsp. ground coriander

• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 4 tsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro

• 1 cup couscous

• 1 cube chicken bouillon or 1 cup chicken broth

• 1/2 cup chopped raw cashews

• 1 bunch scallions (separated & half minced, half sliced)

• S/P

• Olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet toss the carrots with a dash or two of olive oil and season with S/P. Roast until golden and tender, about 20 minutes. Toss occasionally.

2. In a large bowl, combine beef, spices, egg, cilantro, and minced scallions. Season with salt. Gently mix and form into 12 or so small meatballs.

3. In a large skillet, heat about 2 tbsp. olive oil and brown all the meatballs. Once browned on all sides, add 1/4 cup water and cover, reducing heat to low. Cook until cooked through, about 5 minutes.

4. Heat 1 cup broth to boiling – you can use chicken broth or just add bouillon to water. Add the couscous, stir, and cover for 5 minutes. Remove cover and fluff couscous with a fork. Add the sliced scallions & raw cashews. Stir. Serve with the hot meatballs and carrots.

Serves: 2-3

Recipe source: Adapted from a Martha Stewart Recipe

Time: 30 minutes