I know a lot of people who always follow the recipes to the letter. While this is important in professional cooking, baking and complex recipes, it is totally unnecessary in casual everyday cooking. At my home, recipes are not set in stone; we can replace most ingredients in any recipe and I can always find something to do with the stuff I have at home. Also, being flexible with the ingredients allows me to give preference to seasonal and local vegetables, which are tastier from being picked ripe, and leave a reduced carbon footprint on the environment. On this couscous, for example, I can use any veggies I like, whatever is in my fridge, freezer or pantry. I also had tofu marinating that was ready to be baked. For both nutrition and aesthetics, it's always nice to balance colors and textures. I would probably have added some chopped kale or spinach, but it would make the photo a bit messy and hard to see the couscous grains. Finally, the sauce makes all the difference; this one is a Zesty Peanut from the book, that uses peanut butter, water and seasoning and you can literally make it in five minutes. Did you ever have an improvisation disaster?

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