Horchata Cupcakes Again(!!!) and Israeli Couscous

Friday morning started off with an excellent mixed berry and banana smoothie.  Look how purple!  They say that humans have a natural aversion to purple food since so many purple things in the wild are actually poisonous, but I always feel like purple food is really healthy!  (Eggplant, blueberries, blackberries!)  Clearly purple's not all bad. 
 

Mid-morning I snacked on some almonds to stave off hunger.

 

For lunch I enjoyed leftover gazpacho with French bread and a magazine out on the balcony.  Unfortunately, prior to this lovely picture I spent quite a while cleaning gazpacho off the counter, stovetop, and kitchen floor after I spilled about half of the leftover soup everywhere.  And gazpacho isn't really a particularly appetizing food, so it was particularly unpleasant. 

 

After lunch I got to work mixing up horchata so that I could make horchata cupcakes again for a cupcake party a friend was planning for Saturday afternoon.  Step 1 for the cupcakes is to make the horchata itself.  I decided to cheat my way through it this time by starting with vanilla rice milk and just adding sugar and cinnamon. 

 

Once I was done, of course, I had to sample my horchata, and it tasted great - couldn't even tell I cheated on it! 

 

And once the horchata was done I got to work on the cupcakes, which also came out great!  The idea of the party was that everyone would make at least 20 cupcakes to share and the "winner" was going to get a bottle of wine.  I knew I wouldn't be able to try anyone else's cupcakes, but it sounded like a fun idea. 

So of course about fifteen minutes after I pulled these cupcakes out of the oven my friend cancels the party because she suddenly has to work.  Boo! :(  Looks like my boyfriend is bringing cupcakes to share at work Monday ...

 

For dinner I decided to invent something that would use this Israeli couscous I spotted at Trader Joe's the other day.  It loked basically like giant couscous, so I thought pretty much anything that would taste good with couscous would be fine.  I decided to mix it together with cooked mushrooms and red peppers, and lightly sauteed spinach. 

 

It was incredibly delicious!  My boyfriend said he was a little put off by the texture (he equated it to bubble tea), but I think it's something that grows on you.  And it's definitely not as mushy as tapioca ...  I'll definitely be trying this stuff again.  Maybe the same recipe ... or maybe something new.  We'll see!