Mowing twice in a week is no fun...

The new backyard is uphill, which does not make for pleasant lawn mowing... and I've had to do it twice this week because the grass was so long when we moved in! The yard is not nearly big enough to have a rider like we had in Maryland and if it was, I'd be fearful of tipping over and rolling down since it is pretty steep! Needless to say, by the time I was finished, I did not have much energy to put into dinner tonight.

The dish I had planned for tonight called for cooked shredded turkey, which I had done earlier in the day, but had much more prep work than I was willing to put up with. After a quick jaunt through my to-try piles, I came across a recipe that looked easy enough and called for ingredients I already had on hand. The only real work for this Whole Wheat Couscous Salad with Turkey and Arugula was peeling and grating the carrots!

With a speedy 5 minute cook time, the whole wheat couscous was done in a flash and all I had to do was toast some walnuts and toss everything together! With the couscous, we tossed in a few plump golden raisins to add a sweet element, allowing them to soften a bit more and soak up a little of the broth and water mixture. With lots of contrasting textures, this salad is just tiny golden pearls of pasta, chewy raisins, crunchy walnuts, meaty shreds of turkey, shreds of bright orange carrots from the farmers market and chopped arugula to lend a bitter counterpoint. For the slick dressing, a mixture of tangy lemon juice, olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper is whisked together and drizzled over the heaping mound of pasta - tough job huh?! But really, if you feel too tired to whip up something fancy or you require a fast, yet healthy dinner or lunch, think about giving this dish a try. Also, do feel free to change up the nuts, meat and greens to suit your taste.

Recipes
Whole Wheat Couscous Salad with Turkey and Arugula