the good lunch.

I'm a big fan of lunch, generally. But I need a good lunch: something light but tasty (and sustaining) in the middle of the day to keep me going. Especially during the workweek, having a good lunch is key; I've found that nothing wrecks my day like an unsatisfying lunch. On the weekends, especially when we're knee-deep in projects and time seems to fly, I can grab a granola bar and be sated, but when I've spent all morning at my desk, that won't do when noon rolls around.

Now Rob, he does just fine with a banana and a bagel every day. I need something different—not more, exactly, but more satisfying. If I do just a bagel or some other carb-laden snack, I'll hit a wall around 2:00. So I try to go for something balanced, with a bit of protein to keep me going.

For several months, I'd lapsed into the Lean Cuisine habit. But as we've been on a trend to eat more healthily—few processed foods, no preservatives or additives, fresh meats and produce, homemade bread, that kind of thing—the ingredient list on a Lean Cuisine box left me queasy. So I've lately committed to making some kind of salad on the weekend that I can take for lunch throughout the week. I've been fond of a corn and quinoa salad from Martha Stewart, shown above, (quinoa is loaded with protein) and of a hearty wheatberry salad that my friend Tricia makes all the time, which has smoked mozzarella, corn and cherry tomatoes.

This week, I've been enjoying a two-fer: roasted beet and goat cheese salad, and this one, which I sort of made up after having something similar at a catered event in the fall:

Carrot & Fennel Salad with Chicken
Shredded chicken
2 large carrots, peeled and julienned or grated
2 small or 1 large fennel bulb, julienned or sliced thinly
A few fennel fronds, chopped
A tablespoon or so of caraway seed
One or two tablespoons each of champagne vinegar and lemon olive oil
A generous grind of black pepper
A liberal sprinkling of coarse salt