Adventures in COUSCOUS!

Couscous is possibly the simplest warm dish to create, right?  WRONG.  It's wrong for me anyhow. I think it's finally time for me to chronicle my journeys with this food:

1. I bought couscous, of the instant sort, a few months ago.  One box.  Plain.  I've been told it's stupid to buy it plain because it really needs flavoring.  The first time I made it I was pretty content with it. It looked pretty cute in my lunch though. 0w0

Ingredients: Couscous, Nori Face,  Celery, Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots.

Comment: I bought a bunch of scrapbooking punches from my mom's friend. It's hard to tell but I have a pair of nori lips and 2 nori oval eyes.

2.  I decided to make fruity couscous.  Only with artificial fruit flavorings and no experience.  While the water was boiling I put some red kool-aid, sugar, and pink country time lemonade mix into it.  Unfortunately I hadn't decided to make it fruity until I'd already put some butter and salt in.  This couscous didn't taste 

particularly good.  I brought it to school and ate it anyway though.  Waste not, want not.

3.  Just the other day I decided to make flavorful couscous.  To me this meant a flavor that was moreso spicy than sweet.  So I opened up our cupboard of spices and started sniffing around.  Things like nutmeg and cinnamon go the no-go pretty quickly.  I didn't want my meal to be sweet, not after Adventure in COUSCOUS #2.  I eventually ended up grabbing I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Salt, Garlic Salt, and Chili Powder.

On another note- I usually put a little more water into these than suggested.  I realize that the companies take evaporation into consideration, but for some reason I usually find myself adding a bit more.  In this case I opted for the 1 cup suggested for 3/4 cups of couscous.  I definitely did not have this much couscous, as you can see in that picture up there.  My theory (shaky justification of my temporary lack of foresight) was that those little pellets would absorb as much as they normally do.  After that they would just stop and the water would roll right off 'em.

The final product of this couscous was a sticky mass with a slightly spicy aftertaste.  I should have had more garlic salt in relation to the chili powder and a LOT more of both overall.  Too much water made it waaay to sticky.  I ate it all, of course, but it was definitely a fantastic learning experience for me.