March 27, 2010

Welcome, fake spring

Well, folks, we’ve reached fake spring. We had a week of glorious weather, but it was all a trick. It’s cold again, fake cold. You see, it looks nice out, but it still feels freezing. I think it just might snow again. It is still only March, after all. Warm weather seems dreadfully far away, and yet this tricky, tricky, stupid week of nice weather gave me a false sense of hope … ah yes, but hope! Rather than being just plain malicious and mean, I think that this week actually functions to remind us that winter and its crony, the freezing cold, are not in fact interminable.

Feeling slightly overzealous about the relatively toasty weather, I decided to eat as if it really were warm. And sometimes, I just want a sandwich. Sometimes, I think there could not be a more perfect food. There are two sandwiches in particular that I could eat everyday. In fact, I did eat these everyday for a year. You see, before my current job, where I happily get hot lunch daily, I was a paralegal, working on federal, criminal defense — securities fraud, drug trafficking, extortion … fun stuff. Anyway, paralegals are neither highly paid nor do they get much of a lunch hour. So, in an effort to be both cost efficient and efficient with my time, I would bring lunch. I would have a cup of tea, a fruit, and a sandwich — either cream cheese and sprouts, or apricot and almond butter. With a bit of protein and some fruit/vegetable/fiber all stuffed between two hearty slices of a dense, whole grain loaf, they are filling and nutritious; not having too much water, they never got soggy. Voilà, the perfect portable sandwich.

Cream cheese and sprouts sandwich

  • 2 slices bread from the densest, heartiest, multigrain loaf you can find
  • cream cheese — full fat or low fat; I usually used neufchatel 
  • sprouts of your choice — alfalfa, broccoli, clover, etc.

Spread a generous pat of cream cheese on one side of each slice of bread. On one slice, pile as many sprouts on top of cream cheese. Top with other slice and squish in as many sprouts as you can fit in.

Apricot and almond butter sandwich, or, the crunchy, hippie, grown up’s PB&J

The sandwich as shown here is on multigrain, though you could use any of your choice. It is also quite delicious, if a tad bit messy, on rice crackers.

  • 2 slices multigrain bread
  • apricot jam
  • almond butter

Not that you need directions, but here you go: Spread a generous glob of apricot jam on one slice of bread. Spread a generous blob of almond butter on the other slice. Smash together two slices, and dig in!