Eating the Alphabet Challenge: Tony's Breakfast Couscous

It's time once again for the Eating the Alphabet Challenge hosted by Brenda at Meal Planning Magic.  Each month we are given a set of letters and are challenged to make a dish using a fruit, vegetable, grain, or legume that begins with one of the letters.  This month's letters were C and D.  Last year I made this Roasted Cauliflower Risotto.  I thought that I'd try for "D" this year but then I found this couscous recipe that looked good, so I ended up making it instead.  The original recipe called for nonfat dry milk but provided substitutions so you could use fat-free milk instead.  Unfortunately, I cannot have dairy in the morning on an empty stomach.  I wouldn't call myself lactose intolerant, but feel the symptoms only if I have dairy in the morning on an empty stomach.  So I used soymilk in this recipe.  I also eliminated the walnuts that the original recipe called for.  I'm not a huge nut fan and walnuts are probably one of my least favorites.  I think pecans might be tasty in this though.  I made this over the weekend and it ended up being more like brunch for me by the time I got up and made it!  I was pleasantly surprised when my son, who is a pretty picky eater, tried this and liked it!  Normally he doesn't eat couscous when I make it.  But the cinnamon, brown sugar, cranberries, and raisins sweetened this up, and he likes sweet! He ended up having this for lunch with a cheese stick and a yogurt!  This was super easy to prepare and can be adapted to any ingredients that you want to add/take out.  This was a breakfast dish that I can see myself making again.  If you're interested in joining the Eating the Alphabet Challenge click here!

Tony's Breakfast Couscous
recipe adapted from Cooking Light, May 2006

Ingredients:
1/4 cup water
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup uncooked couscous
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Bring water and milk to a boil in a small saucepan; stir in remaining ingredients. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 10 minutes. (Mixture will thicken as it cools.)

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.