miss L’s chef challenge: mushroom & peach couscous

Last week, it was hot. Summer boiling 100 degree + hot. And this is nothing new for summers here, but there’s a definite transition period between eating dinner normally and then eating during the crazy hot days. So I decided to get a little crazy… and left the night’s meal planning to Miss L instead.

We walked into the store and I asked, “L… what are we going to buy for dinner tonight?” She immediately went to task and walked around the small farmer’s market-style store with gusto and picked out the following:

Portobello mushrooms and white peaches.

I’ve never been one to be too good at those Iron Chef type of contests (but man did I love reading about the NoshGirl Chef challenges last year!), so I gulped a bit, purchased the goods and left the store without an idea in my head.

But once I got home and realized I wanted to make the easiest dinner ever, I knew what I could do.

I grabbed the olive oil and my knives and prepped the peaches and mushrooms for grilling. The mushrooms got a light coat of olive oil and salt/pepper on both sides. The peaches just got canola oil. All that was left was heating up my grill pan and throwing them on.

Then I opened the pantry to find Miss L’s favorite quick-cooking grain: couscous. (p.s. this recipe used Near East brand)

In ten minutes, the peaches and mushrooms were done and I chopped them up. Then I mixed them into the finished couscous and scooped it out to serve.

I’m pretty certain I’ve never seen Miss L inhale her food that quickly, and trust me when I say that girl can eat. I’m not sure if it was the fact that she was in charge, or she thought it was that good. Either way, we both managed to eat good dinner on a hot day and survive.

And I’m pretty certain we might make it again… with maybe another addition.