Pearl Couscous with Roasted Tomatoes

When watching what I eat and spend, I think its really important to make lists. A weekly dinner list and, from that, a grocery list. This helps me do two things. One, I know whats for dinner every night and, ensuring its a tasty or new item, it keeps me from making poor choices for my late afternoon snack. For example, I am less likely to grab something high in calories and fat (bag of chips, candy bar, fries...) and more likely to eat a piece of fruit and/or yogurt because I want to save room for the upcoming dinner.
Two, by making the list that includes only the items I need for the week I am reducing my spending and also food waste as I am not buying anything that will not be used. The list includes items for lunchmaking and snacks, of course. It works 95% of the time for me; there are definitely splurge buys here and there.
I was looking through the fridge last Saturday, scoping out what we already had on hand before I created our weekly dinner menu. Turns out, last week was that rare 5% of the time I over buy. We had an abundance of Splendido tomatoes in there, all with that early shriveley-skin sign of "Use me now or lose me".


Splendido tomatoes, like a large Grape tomato but not as large as a Roma


I immediately went online and looked up roasted tomatoes. I found Pearl Couscous with Roasted Tomatoes on Epicurious and couldn't be happier with the results. I changed the recipe a bit and here is what I added or swapped:

1. Added fresh thyme and rosemary sprigs to the roasting tomatoes; tossed them when the roasting was done
2. Caramelized a medium yellow onion in 2 tsp olive oil before adding the couscous and toasting it in the pan for about 5 minutes.
3. Reduced the amount of olive oil in the dressing to 3T instead of 1/4 cup.

As a main meal, it was satisfying. I think it would be fantastic with grilled garlic shrimp or sardines.