As a person who delights in partaking of interesting and delicious food and drink, my qualm with lunch has been that it usually feels like simply a means to an end. When you’re short on time and/or money, lunch becomes merely about filling our bellies until dinner, when the slightly more interesting food can be prepared. This doesn’t apply to all lunches, to be sure. When you have time and means to go to cute cafes or treasured hole-in-the-walls for a mid-day meal with friends, lunch can be a marvelous end unto itself.
When I’m simply at home with my girls — who much prefer peanut butter to aforementioned interesting and delicious foods — it rarely seems worth it to make two separate lunches. Plus, let me be real here, I like peanut butter more than the average adult. Hence, the repetitive, un-creative food doesn’t really bother me until my husband is home for lunch. My husband also particularly delights in food but, unlike me, he has a knack for creating interesting flavors and textures. When he’s home, lunch becomes a little more elevated. He’ll do things like cook tortilla chip fragments into scrambled eggs then top with salsa — I would not have thought of that. Or if we’re having hotdogs, he’ll whip up a chipotle mayo or some other unique topping combo. This is a man who reads cookbooks in bed (I picked a good one, amIright?!).
As far as quarantines go, we have it good — I know we do. We’ve had sunshine every day and are able to get everything we need and most of what we want. Still, three meals at home, everyday for an indefinite amount of time — this could cause angst in the core of any person called upon to feed themselves or others. In our home, however, with my husband at home and able to apply his creativity and skill to more of the meals, we are feeling thankful for extra time in the kitchen. So lunch — even lunch — is an unsuspecting benefactor of this pandemic.
You may have noticed that my lil' 40 Day exercise is going to stretch well beyond 40 days. With everything going on, I have given myself permission to take a few days off, when I need. Thanks for reading along and I hope that you are finding spaces for gratitude and permission to let a few balls drop, here and there. Grace and peace to you during these wild pandemic days!
hope for the sojourn 