We eat a lot of brown rice in our house. I make five to six cups a week easy.

My kids enjoy it so much, sometimes I think they’d happily eat it everyday if for some reason I decided to never cook anything else again. Obviously that’s not happening, but brown rice is so healthy, I could certainly have worse problems.

My husband uses brown rice to make one of his favorites, a quick and easy rice “pudding”. He warms up a cup or so of rice, stirs in vanilla rice milk, tons of cinnamon, honey, walnuts and either blueberries or raisins. He started out making it as a dessert, but quickly saw no reason why it wouldn’t be just as good for breakfast. When the kids started eating it out of his bowl every morning, I knew he was on to something and by always keeping a big thing of cooked rice in the fridge, I can toss his recipe together at the last minute for breakfast, a midday snack or even as a healthy “I’m still hungry” treat after dinner.

One morning last week, everyone wanted Daddy’s recipe for breakfast but I didn’t have any brown rice in the fridge (this always seems to happen right at the moment everyone wants some). Being that we had to get out the door for school and work, there wasn’t enough time to cook a new batch. I quickly made some fast-cooking couscous, added in some soft, sweet chopped dates and came up with my own simple yummy version that everyone in my house now loves equally. It’s not only nutritious, but by putting out a few toppings for everyone to choose from, it’s a fun and out of the ordinary way to get kids involved in making their breakfast their own!

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Breakfast Couscous

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Author: Catherine McCord
Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 6 minutes

Ingredients  

  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup milk (any type works)
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup couscous
  • 1/2 cup chopped dates
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions 

  • In a medium saucepan, combine the water, milk, and salt and bring to a boil.
  • Stir in the couscous, dates, and cinnamon. Cover and turn off heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes.
  • Serve.

Nutrition

Calories: 260kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 190mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 14g
Did you make this recipe?Mention @Weelicious or tag #weelicious!

About the Author

Catherine is a mama of three. A Kentucky girl living in California. Here’s what I know: all kids can be great eaters and mealtime must be easy. I create simple, healthy recipes the whole family will love.

Comments

  1. […] when I found a recipe for a couscous breakfast on Weelicious I had to try it.  Baby boy loves couscous as one of his grains that we have often […]

  2. Just made for my 18 month old and she is devouring it! She has been protesting oatmeal and waffles for weeks. She is allergic to dairy so I made with soy milk and used orange cranberries and golden raisins . (Soaked in boiling water for 1 min to soften).Added organic honey to taste!

  3. I’m eating this right now-but with prunes because I have no dates. I can confirm that it is DELICIOUS.

  4. A recipe like this is great because it’s so versatile: substitute quinoa, millet, or amaranth for the couscous; use dried cranberries, cherries, or figs (or fresh fruit); sweeten with maple syrup, agave, or honey…possibilities are endless!

  5. Just made this tonight for my 18 month old daughter and she loved it. Also switched out the dates for raisins and it turned out great.

  6. Prunes would work well in this! Dates are a very sweet, slightly caramel flavor. I love them, and so do the kids!

  7. Would prunes work instead of dates? I’ve never eaten dates so I’m not sure if the flavor is similar to prunes. Thanks.

  8. Yes, my kids do eat brown rice! I always rinse the rice first which I find helps with cooking. Brown rice definitely takes longer to cook than white rice, on average 40-50 minutes! I know this can feel like forever, but cooking it the full time helps the brown rice become fluffier and less chewy. Also, if you find the rice is absorbing the liquid before it is finished cooking, just add some additional warm liquid to the pot. Cooking the rice in chicken or vegetable stock will give some added flavor, too!

  9. I’ve been trying to incorporate a lot more brown rice into our dinner meals, but it is not going over well. Do your kids eat just plain brown rice? Or do you ‘spruce’ it it up somehow, or use a special recipe? Trying to increase the flavor factor, honestly I myself sometimes feel I’m eating cardboard.
    Also, have you found any techniques to make the rice fluffier? Thanks so much!

  10. I’ve done this with leftover quinoa when we ran out of steel cut oatmeal, and my 2 year old loved it just the same.

  11. I’ve tried this recipe with various kinds of couscous and found that a 50%/50% mix of whole wheat couscous and regular semolina couscous is my favorite combo.

  12. There are different types of couscous, and I do use Whole Wheat Couscous. Either type is fine for this recipe! 🙂

  13. this may be a stupid question but… is couscous whole wheat? are there different kinds? which is the best to use for this recipe?

  14. Yummy! Always looking for more yummy whole-food breakfasts for my boys that don’t take a lot of time to prepare since we’re always in a hurry to get out the door for the bus. Thanks! We will try this probably this week.

  15. We have also tried this with quinoa. Very yummy! I like the dates idea. I will have to try that with our next batch.

  16. That sounds great! I think I will make it tomorrow. We already had our eggs this morning and are in the process of making your banana wheat germ muffins.

  17. Hmm, very interesting! I don’t like oatmeal so this is a recipe I will definitely have to try to switch up my morning breakfast choices. Thanks! Sounds delicious!

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