austen yum-town: butternut & arugala couscous

butternut & arugula couscous with citrus honey dressing

i have no idea how this idea came into my head, but this dish was scrumptious.  now, i don't expect ANYONE to ever like our concoctions.  but, when they work for us, i like keeping a record.  and, maybe someone else will enjoi them too!  (ps-i promised myself that i would post something more artsy before i did another cooking post...but this turned out too yum-town...oh well)!

this literally took us about 20 minutes to whip up.  

ingredients:

4 tbs. butter

1 butternut squash

1 yellow onion

1 yellow or orange bell pepper

couscous

ricotta cheese

2 grapefruits

arugula

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs honey

salt & pepper to taste

directions:

first - prepare your butternut squash.  a really easy way is to just split it in half, sprinkle with salt & pepper, put in a dish with 1/4 cup water, cover with saran wrap, & throw it in the microwave for about 10 minutes.  if you want to bake it in the oven, it's gonna take longer...but, it might taste a little bit better.

while that's cooking get your couscous going.  nothing fancy, use just water and butter.

dice up your onion & bell pepper.  warm butter in pan to saute them until they're nice & yummy.

when your squash is done, slice it up & throw it in with the onion/b.p to kinda marry the flavors.  about 2-3 minutes.  season with salt and pepper.

throw in baby arugula & continue to saute for another 2 minutes, then remove from heat.

prepare your sweet dressing.  squeeze juice from grapefruits, & mix with honey and sugar.

lay a bed of couscous on your plate, & cover that with a bed of small dollops of ricotta.  top with your salad.  

drench everything with the dressing and...

ENJOI!

it's so fresh, & sweetly satisfying.  

(arugula is not pictured b/c it was an afterthought.  it was great either way, really.)