Lunch #1 Triple Red Salad

Lunch #1 Triple Red Salad

On the morning of December 31st, 2012 I packed my lunch with a sandwich for the last time for a while.  Here's what that sandwich looked like.

 

 

 

Packaged ham, 2 slices muenster cheese, maybe 1/4 cup romaine lettuce, ketchup & mustard, all stuck between 100% whole wheat bread (as you can see, I used the hull.  All out of bread makes it easier to keep with this project.)

 

I've been packing my own lunch now for over 6 years and aside from the occasional leftovers from dinner, the sandwich with cold cuts has been my go to mid-day meal.  And why not?  The sandwich is easily portable, easy to put together, and easy to make, and easy made into a somewhat healthy meal if done right (No processed packaged meats, more veggies, etc.).

 

And that's the thing, the sandwich is easy and easy can breed laziness and routine.  Which is where I feel I'm at.  This little project of mine is more about reawakening my creativeness while gaining  more experience with meal planning.

 

You've probably heard the joke where three men working on a a high rise building were taking their lunch one afternoon.  The first man exclaims, "Lasagna again!  If I have lasagna in my lunch tomorrow, I'm jumping off this building."  The second guy has roast beef in his lunchbox and he also has had it with how his lunch is being packed and will join the first guy in jumping off the building.  The third man has a bologna sandwich in his lunchpail and he also says that he's jumping if he has bologna sandwich just one more time.  Sure enough, the next day all three men have lasagna, roast beef, and a bologna sandwich respectively and they all jump off the building.  Quite sad nowadays given all the resources available in the ways of counseling, but that's not how the joke goes. 

 

At the funeral, the wives who pack the lasagna and roast beef sob and sigh and say, "if I only know my husband wanted something else I would've made that instead."  Then they look over to the wife of the bologna sandwich man.  She's not showing a hint of sadness.  They ask her why she's not mourning. 

 

Her reply.  "He packs his own lunch."

 

Just like most things in life, if you're not happy with what you've put in front of you, change it!

 

And so it goes my first lunch outside the sandwich.  It's a salad I've dubbed Triple Red Salad on account that it has three ruby colored components: pomegranate seeds, kidney beans, and beets.

 Pomegranate Seeds

1/2 cup Kidney Beans.  From the can.Washed to further reduce sodium content.

Julienned Beets

 

 

 

I took these and added 1 cup of chopped romaine lettuce that I chopped the night before.

I use the salad spinner to make life just a little easier.

 

 

Throw it all together with some Dubuque Ham left over from the New Year and that's Triple Red Salad for you.

I used some Caesar salad dressing to round out this antioxidant and fiber rich salad.  Note the container I used for the dressing.  I got it from the taqueria my wife and I frequent.  It helps control the portion of dressing (2 Tbsp).

What is/are your go to lunch staples.  Any habits or tendencies you can think of?

Comment away.

Let thy food be thy medicine.
    ~Hippocrates