Lunchbots Quad #19

 

A nice, compartmentalized bento: Apple slices, Cocomel chocolates, crunchy peanut butter, cucumber spears, baby cut carrots, and lentil hummus and arugula pinwheels.

I had a surplus of lentils, which explains the lentil hummus, following this recipe from Hello Spoonful. For some reason, I thought it would go well with arugula; it was amazing with arugula. Arugula is growing on me.

The rest is nothing special, just snacky things I already had. I'm starting to get back into a long-forgotten groove with buying groceries and packing lunch. I try not to be too redundant with myself, so I ensure I get a varied diet for the maximum nutritional benefits (or with you, so you do not get bored of an endless parade of sandwiches and carrot sticks), but there are some basic outlines I return to again and again. I probably have made a lot more pinwheels lately than I have in the past, but they're different pinwheels. And I have plans for more pinwheels. Long live the pinwheel!

If you get intimidated by cooking chickpeas and want to get the cost benefits of cooking your own legumes, incidentally, lentils are a good choice sometimes. They make a surprisingly good hummus. (And this is perhaps an appropriate time to acknowledge that yes, I know the original word "hummus" means "chickpeas" in Arabic. But that's not what it means in English, and we use the word "hummus" to describe "bean dips/spreads with tahini." It is what it is. Besides, if you ordered hummus and they gave you straight up chickpeas, you'd probably be confused. Even "hummus" isn't straight up "chickpeas." So. Lentil hummus it is.) And if arugula (or "rocket," as much of the English speaking world refers to it) is cheap and plentiful, stick it in a tortilla with the lentil hummus, and there you have the beginnings of a great, cheap lunch.