Mushroom Spinach Israeli Couscous

Please excuse the quality of the photo as it has been taken from my blackberry. How rustic it looks yeah?

Story behind why I'm eating Israeli couscous first!
I went to Trader Joe's last week in order to buy a salad for lunch and came across this amazing TJ's original country chicken cob salad or other.. something like that. It had these great little Israeli couscous pearls and i was instantly hooked! The texture and the size were much more pleasurable to eat than smaller grainier couscous which can get too dry for me sometimes. So i picked up a box and it sat in my cupboard for a week. All i could think about was how i was going to prepare this couscous alone without it being only a side for a salad. All thanks to Tastespotting.com i found this great recipe that was all in Australian metric measurements so I'll give you my own take and how nicely it turned out. This recipe is also VERY much like a mushroom risotto, so you can definitely try it with Arborio rice.

Ingredients
1 tbsp Olive Oil
3 slices English cut bacon (thicker and no smoke flavor) chopped
1 cup of sliced button mushrooms
4 cloves of minced garlic
1 cup of Israeli (pearl) couscous
1 1/2 cup of chicken stock
handful of fresh spinach
fresh grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the chopped bacon in olive oil over low heat in a medium sized saucepan. As the bottom of the pan starts to brown, move the bacon to the side of the pan and brown the mushrooms. Once the mushroom has finished browning add the garlic and the couscous and cook over medium heat until couscous soaks up all the excess oil. Pour in the chicken stock and bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, bring to a simmer and cover with a lid for 10 mins. Afterwards, put the fresh spinach inside the couscous and stir until it wilts. Serve immediately with some freshly grated Parmesan or cover and refrigerate.

enjoy!