today's yummy lunch.

Last week for lunch, I brought a tasty salad of farro, roasted butternut squash and red onion, spinach and goat cheese; the recipe from 101cookbooks. It was super delish ... but I quickly realized in the early afternoon that it lacked protein, and we know that a bit of protein goes a long way toward Keeping. Bryn. Awake.

So this week I resurrected a salad of my own concoction. It needs a clever name.

2 small boneless chicken breasts, poached and shredded (grilled or roasted would be good, too)
2 large carrots
1 large fennel bulb
pinch of caraway seed
generous handful of parsley, chopped very roughly
S & P
drizzle of olive oil
drizzle of rice wine vinegar

I thinly sliced the carrot and fennel on my mandoline, then tossed everything together; it makes 3 good-size lunch portions. The caraway is an unexpected flavor, and the rice wine vinegar is a bit less sharp than regular vinegar would be. This has it all: bright taste, crunch, color, protein, yumminess.

a reasonable alternative to fast food.

For awhile last year, I was on an unfortunate kick of Lean Cuisines for lunch. They're convenient enough, and they taste OK (the Santa Fe Beans & Rice is a particularly good one), but I started feeling weird about all the additives and preservatives (not to mention sodium) in those little black plastic trays.

The wakeup call came when I recognized the irony of eating a nuked meal at my desk while reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." There were so many things wrong with that picture, not the least of which was eating at my desk.

So over the last several months, I've re-committed to bringing a healthy lunch. You'll note the importance I place on a good lunch by observing that it's a regular topic category here on mooth. My favorite destination for recipes has been 101cookbooks.com, where I've discovered all kinds of healthy, hearty and well-balanced salads: white bean/spinach/walnut/goat cheese, roasted squash/farro, fresh ravioli/spinach, quinoa/zucchini. Heidi Swanson favors all kinds of protein-packed whole grains like farro and quinoa, which are satisfying and not overly filling.

Which brings me to today's lunch—and, oddly, back to the microwave. A week or 2 ago, when I knew I wouldn't have time to make a big batch of something to take to work all week, I snagged a couple of Kashi frozen meals from the freezer in the organic section at the grocery. Oh, my, are they terrific! All the ones I've tried are based on Kashi's 7-grain pilaf, which is tasty and good for you. So then, I picked up a box of the pilaf, which (combined with a bit of sauteed onion and red pepper) made a terrific base for seared sea scallops.

I [heart] Kashi.

But be forewarned: Too much Kashi product in one day does not a happy tummy make. Monday, I mixed some Good Sense high-protein/fiber cereal in with my Frosted Cheerios, then snacked on some Kashi 7-grain crackers mid-morning and then had a Kashi lunch. Mph.

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