Lunch, the mostly forgotten meal.

On some occasions it's a powerbar from the vending machine. On others it's an extravagant business meeting disguised as a meal. Many times it comes from a pre-packaged Styrofoam coffin or value menu, and more often than anyone would like to admit, it is simply left off the menu. I'm talking about Lunch. The other daily meal.

So what happened to Lunch? I would postulate that Lunch became a casualty of the busy lifestyle of today. Gone are the feel-good images of mom working in the morning at the kitchen counter and packing a lunchbox with a sandwich, occasionally a coveted fruit roll up, and the cafeteria floor trading blue-chip, the jello pudding pack.

Now that I'm not on the insane schedule of 26 hour days, 8 days a week at Pasadena City College, I decided that I will not continue to relegate Lunch to cheap chinese takeout or Burgerman's greasified, nap inducing 99 cent offerings. At the same time, lunch doesn't (and in my opinion, shouldn't) be a place of fine dining cuisine experimentation.

Rather, I decided to take just a few simple ingredients, and put them into a pack that will keep well without getting funky. I wanted something refreshing for both my palate and my midday meal. So today, here is my take on a (relatively) healthy sandwich for my new (also, relatively) active lifestyle.

Portobello mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and a little butter, with roasted yellow peppers, thinly sliced shallot, fresh escarole and cilantro, and a little smidge of mayonnaise, on a whole wheat pita. Rest assured, this one has some serious flavors going on. Meaty goodness from the mushrooms, subtle but unique sweetness from the roasted peppers, a little bite (but not too much) from the shallot make for a somewhat traditional vege-sandwich. But here's where I had some fun.

Instead of done-to-death iceberg or romaine, I went out on a leaf and chose baby escarole and fresh cilantro for my greens. It was a gamble, but the slightly bitter and peppery escarole in combination with the bright cilantro really turned up the volume on this sandwich. I'm not much of a fan of Mayo, but just a thin spread on the whole wheat Pita gave the whole wheat pita just enough moisture to not dry out my mouth, potentially robbing me of the full experience of my little lunch creation.

All this sound like a little too much work for lunch? Think again. 10 minutes to roast a pepper, and 5 minutes to saute a mushroom is the bulk of the work to make this. After eating it I really wanted to eat another one, not because I was left hungry from eating "healthy" food, but because it was really pretty darned good. And given the longing yet jealous looks in the eyes of my classmates who were dining on, well, college student food (insert fast food brand name here), I am hoping to repeat this lunchtime experimentation, and hopefully bring back some enthusiasm to the oft maligned, and sometimes unanswered question: "What's for Lunch?"

461 dishes to go!