Project MAMM: Day 5: Tabouleh by yours truly

I remember the first time I shopped at H&M on a trip to NYC. The chain doesn’t exist in Texas, so when I wore my new, affordable duds, everyone asked where I got them.

And you know what I said?

I said they were from Sweden.

Because that sounds way cooler than saying they were from some chain that’s technically Swedish, but sells fast fashion in pretty much any large U.S. city.

When people saw my $15 shirt, I wanted them to think of lingonberries and sexy blondes and maybe even a Nobel Prize winner who has something to do with both of those.

I tell you this, because I made tabouleh for similar reasons.

Yes, it’s delicious. But it also sounds really complicated. Picture me mopping my brow with a smile, “Oh, I’ve been slaving over this tabouleh all day.”

With all those syllables one might deduce that the recipe is complicated, or at least, exotic. But “Chef Boyardee” also has a lot of syllables.

And tabouleh by yours truly is about as complicated as making beef ravioli from a can. There, I said it.

I used a tabouleh mix. From a box in the Middle Eastern section of a grocery store.

But wait! I did add raw carrots, celery, and cucumber that I didn’t grow myself. As well as lemon juice and mint packaged up for me all convenient-like.

Before I did that, I had to soak the bulghur in olive oil and boiling water for awhile. Exhausting.

Then I left the confines of the kitchen and rested my weary feet. After I recycled the box the tabouleh came from.

When I first thought of the recipe, I considered making my own falafel balls, but I don’t have a good way to fry them. Also, frying is time-intensive, and I had a lot of other things I wanted to get done, like not accidentally burning my face off. Always a chore, that one.

So I bought falafel balls and tahini from a falafel place I like and decided to pick up a large oatmeal raisin cookie for dessert. Then I bagged up some baby carrots.