2 cups Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat CousCous 2 cups Trader Joe’s Fat Free Milk 3 tablespoons Trader Joe’s honey or maple syrup (or agave to taste) 1 tablespoon butter or buttery spread 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon vanilla (or a scraped vanilla bean) 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s dried apricots, chopped 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s orange flavored cranberries 1 cup Trader Joe’s roasted slivered almonds Measure 2 cups of couscous into a LARGE mixing bowl. Bring milk to a simmer and add sweetener of your choice, butter or butter spread, and spices. Simmer to blend flavors (it will appear very grey and murky but will smell heavenly, and should be quite spicy and sweet). When the milk mixture is hot, but not scalded, and infused with your spices, pour over the couscous and immediatly cover the bowl and let rest for 5 minutes. In the meantime, chop sufficient TJ’s dried apricots to make 1/2 cup. I use scissors and just snip them. Combine all dried fruits and almonds. When cous cous has soaked up the milk mixture for 5 minutes, toss and fluff with a large fork. Add dried fruit and nuts, toss again, and serve immediately, warm, or let cool further and eat at room temperature. This wonderful breakfast pilaf is not wet or moist like hot oatmeal, which is why I call it a pilaf. It lasts all week, tastes comforting, will appear to children, and is easily toted to work for breakfast at your desk. You can easily adjust the fruits and spices to your own taste — more sweet or less sweet — or add warm milk to make a soupy cous cous porridge if you prefer hot, wet cereal.