21 February 2012

Lunch at Home

I am lucky enough to be able to prepare and eat lunch at home most days of the week. This gives me the freedom to not be confined to the limits of an office kitchen, i.e. microwave ovens. My day is planned around meals (maybe thats why I write on a food blog) and although it can be easy to skim over lunch during a busy day I try to make it something delicious and healthy, something I look forward to eating. If you are anything like me, your cravings zig zag all over the board from day to day. I want sweet, I want salty, I want spicy, I want creamy. Basically I love all different flavor profiles and taste sensations and with all of the options out there I get bored easily if my meals become too much the same. This summer when I lived with six girls, we survived off of canned and processed food. My friend Sophie got us hooked on these tuna melts. Tuna with real mayonnaise salt and lots of cracked pepper topped with Cabot extra sharp cheddar, over a bed of brown rice and then zapped in the microwave until gooey and hot. We made the melts four or five times a week, and reveled in every bite. They were so good at the time, but I think we maybe over did it...and my need for variation and nutrition is a form of recovery from all of that cheese, Hellman's, sodium and fish. But back to the here and now. Today I was craving a toasted sandwich so I rounded up what I thought went best together and made a little open-faced number.


I used a slice of whole wheat sourdough, marinated black olives, sauteed onions, maple mustard and mixed greens with tarragon dressed lightly with balsamic. 



I toasted my bread and spread on the maple mustard. I had originally thought of using honey mustard but when I realized we didn't have any, I mixed some Mead's Maple Syrup with dijon mustard, now Im never going back to honey mustard. 


I put the onions and olives on first in an attempt to not feel like I wasn't just eating salad on toast. It worked! This was a delicious, almost meaty, layer to bite into. 




I added a pickle on the side, and a bowl of Pacific's carrot ginger soup.  


 This lunch was substantial enough to fill me up, but didn't make me feel weighed down. It also had a good balance of sweet and spicy from the mustard, and the salty little bites of olive were delicious. As for the tarragon, my life wouldn't be the same without it. Slices of avocado would be amazing on this, too.


Next time you get a chance to do lunch at home, remember this formula, and the variations are endless! 

May you never have a blah lunch again,

KH

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