fruit in unexpected places

I love fruit. I especially love it when fruit turns up in places it wouldn't normally be. For example, a few weeks ago I had the most amazing salad-- with grilled peaches. It sounds weird, but it was SO GOOD. It was so tasty because of the surprise factor, I think. I mean, who grills peaches? The taste of the grill, a little bit of oil and a little bit of that burned flavor, was perfect with the sweet, soft, juicy peaches.

So, I've taken to putting fruit in unexpected meals when I cook for myself. Yesterday, I had a delicious sandwich: ciabatta bread (er, sorry if that's misspelled), avocado, spinach, summer squash, and raspberries. It was perfect.

Fabulous Lunches

Today, JewishGuy told me that I eat some fabulous lunches after seeing what I made for lunch today. (I offered to make lunch for him but he doesn't like fabulous lunches, just pbj for him)

Here is what I had today:

S.H.E.P Sandwich
I like to name my sandwiches with acronyms based on their contents.
Rosemary sourdough bread (from Whole Foods) - one large slice, halved
Fresh spinach
Hummus
Hard boiled egg slices
Yellow bell pepper

Salad
Fresh spinach
Yellow bell pepper
Cherry tomatoes
Scallions
Low-fat Italian dressing

Sides
No-butter-low-salt-low-fat popcorn
A few dried apple rings
A tablespoon of semi-sweet chocolate chips (to satisfy the junk food chocolate craving)

I had a small portion of everything so I got a wide variety of tastes and texture, a mixture of salty, tart, and sweet, etc. Apparently you crave snacks less if you get all kinds of variety in your meals.

This is basically like all of my lunches that I have when I have the luxury of eating lunch at home. I try to prepare a lot of things in advance (like hard boiled eggs, roasted cauliflower, etc) so that I don't have to spend too much time making food when I'm hungry. The biggest difference is that I don't usually eat sandwiches on regular bread; I eat whole wheat pita basically every day but we're out right now.

I'm always a little sad when I have to have lunch on the go... I end up with pbj, string cheese and dried fruit. I mean, that's all right, like I said I love string cheese and I am falling in love with dried fruit salads, but it's just not the same.

Ultimate Portability (yet, oddly disturbing)

Col-Pop: The Future of Fast-Food Technology from Adam Kuban on Vimeo.

One question, though: would the chicken warm the soda or would the soda chill the chicken? Because, either way, I think this is somewhat of a major design flaw.

Winner: Tomatoes!

While tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and peppers are all berries, TOMATOES have clearly won the battle of "Berriest Vegetables"! Congratulations, you seedy, red, squishy things.

One of my favorite things to do with cherry tomatoes is to cut a slit in them and then squeeze them so it looks like a red Pac Man throwing up its guts. I know that is gross but I've been doing it since I was a little kid. I don't do it every time, just when I'm with casual company.