Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Dinner Was Hijacked

Having discovered a packet of frozen tvp 'minced meat' (Tivol/Tivall) in the freezer I decided to make couscous with a vegan bolognese sauce.

DD has had couscous before and loved it. The last time was at Shabbat lunch at the home of friends. The couscous was served as a salad with cut up vegetables mixed in and a salad dressing. On that occasion I didn't happen to have any as there was so much other food on the table.

I started the sauce and as it was simmering on the hob I got the couscous out. It's an instant couscous - you just add some olive oil, spices and boiling water, wait five minutes and it's ready to eat. DD wandered in to the kitchen to see what I was up to and supervise as she is wont to do.
"Ooh is that couscous?"
"Yes, I'm making it with that meaty sauce."
"Can you cut up cucumbers and tomatoes in it instead like we had the other day on Shabbat?"
"I'll do some for you like that and some for me with the bolognese sauce."
"Well I'm only eating the salad one!"

In the end I put the bolognese sauce in the freezer for another time and made the whole coucous dish into a salad as instructed. It just wasn't worth the washing up to make two different meals.

We sat down to eat and DD tucked in. Between mouthfuls I got the following lecture: "This is delicious. Much better than that meaty sauce. I don't know why you didn't try this the other day on Shabbat. Why didn't you try it? I love this salad. Can I have some more please? Can I take some to school tomorrow? I never want to have that meaty sauce with couscous. Uh uh. Uh uh means no. Are you enjoying it?" And on and on and on......

Couscous salad with vegetables is very good but I wanted couscous bolognese. I felt like dinner had been  hijacked.


4 comments:

  1. I'm impressed though, no chance I'd get Leo to eat couscous, or salad in any way, unless maybe it was covered in ketchup, and then he'd probably just lick it all off ;)

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    1. DD is strange - she doesn't like ketchup, bread or eggs. She loves cheese, tomatoes and avocado. And despite being born in Israel, she hates humus! Go figure.

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  2. Got an idea for the sauce for you. Freeze small portions in ice cube trays. Then you can defrost just enough for yourself to put over some of the 10-min couscous!

    BTW, DD is no stranger than my kid. He won't eat fresh carrots with pasta because he doesn't like to combo of hard, crunchy carrots with the soft pasta! He loves cheese — but not melted cheese, so grilled cheese sandwiches are out (tho he does really like the mac & cheese I make from scratch!). Oh, and he's vegetarian, so if my husband and I are having meat or fish, I have to make sure there's a "side dish" that can do double duty as a main dish for my son (no one ever warned me that having a child would be challenging quite like this!).

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    1. It's annoying isn't it. Why can't she just like what I like? Thanks for the tip.

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