Here’s to bus rides + Spiced cauliflower rice with green beans and peppers

Please login again, Edlyn. Your last session expired. You’ve been frolicking outside for too long and your burn mark(s) now has a tan line and does not look like a burn mark(s). You’ve also left this “Add New Post” (as if anybody writes that way) page open for two days and hence the expiration. Nothing lasts forever, especially posts that start with a complaint about not wanting to do dishes for two (point five) hours.

Mostly, too much frolicking.

And too much junk food.

And a bad mood.

They must be related somehow but I can’t stop/won’t stop.

How did I get here? Ever since I decided for myself like the fully-functional adult I am going to get a job and only write once I week, I feel weird. Firstly, I am no fully functional adult. Secondly, I have a job. I actually wanted a job. I take two buses, twice a day and drink “spicy chai” across the road because I’m always early. Spicy chai? WTF. Early? Yeah, that would be me.  With all the things that make me feel weird about my current sort-of life changes, there is one thing that puts me at ease: I get to read.

I sit in a bus for about four times a week, check out the people talking to themselves, wonder why reading glasses and futons make for such interesting conversation and then I pick out my book. In the past year I’ve told you how most of my day went. Me pretending to be the busiest person in the world and you nodding your head at my super humanity. No? That’s okay. I won’t take it personally. My imaginary to-do list made maybe 3 seconds to read.  I was running around in circles, trying to feel accomplished. Once evening came, I looked to my left and then to my right and it was time for bed. Everybody knows you don’t read before you sleep. Amateur mistake. You hardly ever remember what you read and whatever magnificent plans you have about finishing 85 books by the end of 2013 turns into a lie.

“Santa Claus is your parents”.

That’s a stupid excuse. Books never end and bus rides are too short. The same trees, the same stops, almost the same people. That boy with the curly hair who also reads but falls asleep mid-way through his book, that grumpy bus driver for whom 7.30 is too early, that lady who seems to follow me home, the evergreens, the same stops, all with a new chapter, a new page, a slightly (okay, a very muchly) distracting sky, and I’m good.

I GET TO READ MORE. Thanks bus.

This works as a great side for any meal. If you want to eat it as one whole meal, I think that would be cool too. You can also mix it with couscous or brown rice and make it a meal. Ignore the goat cheese I sprinkled on the top. It was very impulsive of me and slightly crazy.

Ingredients

• 200 gms cauliflower, broken down into smaller flowers
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus a little more for cooking the other ingredients
• 1/2 cup chopped green beans
• 1/2 cup yellow peppers, diced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup shallots, finely chopped
• 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin
• Salt to taste
• Lime juice to squeeze over

Oh my gosh! Cauliflower rice?! Crazy right? Well. I’m not the first person to make this for the masses meaning me and me but I do like to think I am.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F. Then, start by cutting off the cauliflower stem and them breaking it into smaller parts. Put it all in a bowl and pour over the olive oil and just a very light sprinkle of salt. Mix well. Place the cauliflower on a baking sheet lined with foil and roast them for 10 minutes on one side. Ten minutes later, pull out the baking sheet, flip over the cauliflower and continue roasting it for 10 more minutes before you let it exit the oven forever. No more.

Let the roasted cauliflower cool for a bit and then put it in a food processor and chop it to tiny shreds, almost rice-line, but not to a puree. You can do it. I have faith. Put the riced cauliflower back in a bowl and leave it alone.

Now on to the +1s. Heat about a tbsp of cooking olive oil in a frying pan. Once it’s hot enough, add the crushed coriander seeds and cumin to it. Let them roast until they get fragrant, while you stir occasionally. Once you can smell the spices, add the garlic and the shallots and toss them around for about a minute and a half. Just like with the spices, you’ll know they’re ready when they smell like the bomb. Sorry “da” bomb. Next add the yellow peppers and green beans to the mix and give it one big toss with a spoon. Then let them cook until they are tender, but still crispy.  Give it 15-20 minutes and it’s ready for you. Put in the riced cauliflower and let it get warmed up for a minute more before you take the pan off the heat and pour in the rice vinegar. Add salt to taste and squeeze a generous amount of lime juice on the top.

Don’t do the sprinkle of goat cheese. Please. It’s so strange. I’m born this way.