potatoe soup.

it's raining today in usually sunny la.
this makes for some serious craziness on the road! i'm home all snuggled up with my little family instead of battling the people who loose their minds when rain falls from the sky!

since this day is cold and wet and full of blah i thought i would make some potato soup to warm up this family of mine that is coming down with some sort of cold.

pinterest has pulled through for me again and i found this recipe that is easy and also delish!

i will spare you the play by play with prep and cooking photos!
a food photographer i am not!

enjoy!
i am off to cook and drink some coffee because we have the serious case of the mondays here!

Summertime Couscous Salad.

Last week I ran across a recipe for a Quinoa Salad from the Picky Palate that sounded really tasty.

I got excited to make this because one, it looked super easy, and two I wanted something light for dinner.

Then I remembered that last time I made Quinoa it was a disaster and no one ate it! So instead of having a repeat dinner moment, I came up with this version.

A super easy, yummy, summertime Couscous salad for all to enjoy!

Ingredients :

1 box of Couscous, any flavor. I used the regular.

2 cups broccoli florets uncooked

Instead of using the 2 cups cooked chicken the original recipe calls for, I bought a rotisserie chicken that I cut up. Much easier and tastier, plus I used it for a salad later that week.

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice from fresh lemon

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 avocado, diced

*The recipe doesn't call for the almonds but I added them because it needed some crunch since I omitted the peppers. The next time I ate it, I added dried cranberries which was really good and gave it a nice, sweet flavor!*

1. Cook couscous according to package directions.

2. Place broccoli and chicken into a large bowl. Add couscous and stir together.

3. Place olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper into a medium bowl, whisking to combine. Pour over couscous and stir in cubed avocado.

4. Refrigerate until ready to eat. *I added the sliced almonds to the individual servings because I found that almonds tend to get soggy when combined with a little bit of liquid.*

Makes 8 servings