Banana CousCous, An Unlikely Combination

This recipe was a bit of a combination of online resources. It started out with the idea to use up some ripening bananas, I originally thought of some main dish similar to cooked plantains but ended up going with the whole wheat couscous and a sweeter dish instead.

This will work for for a breakfast porridge type or closer to a rice pudding for desert and is an adaptation from bethmichelle.com among others. The key here is that this does not use a microwave.

Cooking a meal fresh in the microwave is, well, idk but it's not good!

As always the following is just approximate and is an adaptation itself, please experiment and adapt where appropriate. Substituting your favorite soy/nut/coconut milk instead of whole is one such yummy adaptation.

Ingredients: 2 1/4 cup whole milk (I like MOO milk especially but Organic Valley is also a great choice) 1 cup whole wheat couscous (buy in bulk if possible, but packaged should work ok) ~8 cardamon pods (break open and grind the seeds, use 1-3 more if pods are older, dried can work too) 2 pinches of cinnamon 1/4 tsp sea salt (use coarse crystals and grind with cardamon for best result) 1/2 cup brown sugar (use less if you do not have a strong sweet tooth, white sugar will work too, just use less) 2 ripe bananas, sliced Orange rind (scrape as much or little as you like but not more than 2 teaspoons) Optional: 1tsp vanilla/banana extract Fresh fruit for topping Ground chocolate for topping (Taza Chocolate works great if you can get it)

Preperation
Combine milk and sugar and heat on medium-high in a wide saucepan, stirring frequently until just boiling.  Turn down heat, adding salt, spices, orange rind, and couscous stir and simmer for 30 seconds or so.  Remove from heat and let sit until thick.  Add extra milk as needed and fluff with sliced bananas.  Add fruit or chocolate and serve hot or chilled.

Enjoy :)