Entertainment
Oozi Is My New Favorite Low-Mess Dinner
It’s rare to find a recipe that checks all the boxes: quick, easy, low-mess, and complete (meaning no sides required). When I spotted Mariam Daud’s oozi recipe in her new cookbook, I Sleep In My Kitchen, I knew immediately that I’d found one such gem.
“Oozi is my lazy-girl meal, for those I-don’t-know-what-to-make-and-it’s-already-six-p.m. nights,” says Mariam. “The foundation is rice, ground beef, frozen peas and carrots — ingredients I usually have on-hand. It comes together in 30 minutes, and when you remove the lid of the pot, a plume of spice-fragrant steam wafts into the kitchen, and you’re greeted with plump, colorful rice, dotted with pretty veggies.”
Mariam notes that this traditional dish is often served with chicken legs, but makes for a great, simple dinner on its own. “Don’t overthink it!” she urges. “The whole point of this recipe that it doesn’t take up too much brain power. The main thing to focus on is seasoning it well — let the spices cook in the fat for a few minutes, so the flavors bloom. That’s what really makes the dish. Other than that, don’t worry.”
Oozi (Spiced Rice with Beef, Peas and Carrots)
From I Sleep In My Kitchen, by Mariam Daud
Serves 4-6
for the beef, peas, and carrots:
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 1/4 lbs. ground beef (80%/20%)
1 16-oz bag frozen peas and carrots, thawed
2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp seven spice/baharat*
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
*Note: For the seven spice/baharat, Mariam says: “Don’t worry about specific brands. I grab whatever’s available at my local Middle Eastern store. If you don’t have one near you, you can easily make it at home. A simple batch is just a tablespoon of these seven spices: black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, and cardamom.
for the spiced rice:
2 cups basmati rice
3 tbsp ghee or olive oil
1 tbsp ground allspice
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp seven spice
2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp Vegeta seasoning or chicken bouillon powder
2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
for serving:
Chopped fresh parsley
Toasted pine nuts
In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until softened and translucent (3-4 minutes). Stir in the beef, breaking it apart with a spoon, and cook until evenly browned (5-7 minutes). Add the peas and carrots, salt, curry powder, allspice, black pepper, seven spice, cinnamon, and turmeric. Stir to coat the beef and vegetables in the fragrant spices. Let the mixture cook for 5-7 minutes to meld the flavors. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
Make the spiced rice: Rinse the rice under cold water until it runs clear. This helps remove excess starch, so you get separate, fluffy grains instead of a gummy texture. In a large pot, melt the ghee over medium heat. Stir in the rice, coating each grain with ghee, and toast for 3 minutes, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. Add the allspice, curry powder, seven spice, salt, Vegeta/bouillon, black pepper, turmeric, and cinnamon. Stir well to evenly distribute the spices. Add 4 cups water and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and let simmer — undisturbed — until the rice is fully cooked and tender, 15-20 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes to allow the rice to absorb any remaining moisture and become fluffy. “Always let your rice rest for at least ten minutes before jumping in,” says Mariam. “It makes a big difference in the texture.”
To serve: Fluff the rice gently with a fork and transfer to a serving platter. Layer the spiced beef mixture over the rice. Garnish with parsley and pine nuts.
Thank you so much for sharing this dish with us, Mariam, and congratulations on your new book.
P.S. More quick dinners we love, including one broccoli soup with six variations, and my best friends mom’s mushroom paprikash.
(Photos by Jim Henkens. Excerpted from I Sleep in My Kitchen, on sale now from Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. by Mariam Daud. Copyright © 2026 by Mariam Daud.)
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for April 29, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
To admire.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
ADORE
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Hurdle Word 2 hint
Heavy.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
HEFTY
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
Hurdle Word 3 hint
Two-legged.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
BIPED
Hurdle Word 4 hint
Hefty.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
HEAVY
Final Hurdle hint
Pointy.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
SHARP
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 29
It may appear full, but the Moon isn’t actually at 100% illumination yet. In fact, we’re still a couple of days away. But it’s still big and bright enough to do some moon gazing, so keep reading to find out what features you might be able to see tonight.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Wednesday, April 29, the Moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. Tonight, 94% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.
Without any visual aids, tonight you should be able to see the Mares Vaproum, Tranquillitatis, and Imbrium. With binoculars, you’ll see the Mare Frigoris, Clavius Crater, and the Alphonsus Crater. And, finally, with a telescope you’ll see all this plus the Apollo 17 landing spot, Rima Ariadaeus, and the Fra Mauro Highlands.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.
What are Moon phases?
According to NASA, the Moon takes roughly 29.5 days to circle Earth once, going through eight distinct phases in the process. Even though we always see the same side of the Moon, the amount of sunlight hitting it changes as it moves in its orbit. The shifting light creates the changing shapes we know as full, half, and crescent Moons. Altogether, there are eight main lunar phases.
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Entertainment
The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 gaming laptop is down to a record-low price at Amazon — now $400 off
TL;DR: Amazon has the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 gaming laptop on sale for $899.99, down from its $1,299.99 list price. That saves you $400 on a 2025 gaming laptop with an Intel Core i5-13450HX processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 graphics, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and a 165Hz FHD+ display.
$899.99
at Amazon
$1,299.99
Save $400
Finding a current-gen gaming laptop in today’s economy for under $1,000 is already amazing, but Amazon’s latest ASUS deal is offering you an all-time low bargain.
As of April 28, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 gaming laptop is on sale for $899.99 at Amazon, marked down from $1,299.99. Price tracker camelcamelcamel has confirmed that this is the lowest-ever price for this gaming laptop.
For that price, you’re getting the RTX 5050 and Intel Core i5 version of the TUF Gaming F16, which is built around an Intel Core i5-13450HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop GPU. It also comes with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD, so it should be nicely suited for jumping between games, school work, everyday browsing, and plenty of tabs without causing your sessions to come to a sudden crash.
With those sorts of specs, this version of the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 lets you comfortably run games from the latest graphically demanding titles — including Crimson Desert, Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Pragmata.
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The 16-inch FHD+ display is a big part of the appeal, with ASUS’s fitted 165Hz 16:10 panel with 100% sRGB color giving you extra vertical space compared to a standard 16:9 screen while keeping motion smoother in fast-paced games like Fortnite and Counter-Strike 2. The handy Adaptive-Sync also helps cut down on stuttering and screen tearing when your frame rate starts shifting during intense firefights or brawls with lots of assets moving around at the same time.
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The TUF Gaming F16 keeps the series’ usual more rugged angle, as well. ASUS has had the laptop tested to MIL-STD-810H standards, while its 2nd Gen Arc Flow Fans, full-width heatsink, and full-width vent are designed to help keep performance steady without making the machine unnecessarily loud.
If you’re after a laptop that’s more for work than gaming, Samsung’s ultra-sleek Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 just got a $450 price cut.
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