WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR, RECIPE #1, OR THE SPINACH AND RICE THING

Quick Easy Forgiving Adaptable

The recipe came from Real Simple and was called Wendy’s Brown Bag Lunch. She made a lot of brown rice on Sunday, and used it as the basis of her to-work lunch the rest of the week:

The original: sauté garlic, scallion, jalapeno, carrot, red and green peppers, and snow peas in olive oil. Add salt and pepper and about a cup of brown rice. Add 2 or 3 handfuls of fresh spinach and a cup of salsa. Heat thoroughly. Toss in a few chunks of Cheddar cheese, which will melt from the heat. Add some sliced avocado if you have it.

The boyfriend really likes this. We probably use more cheese than Wendy. Cheese freaks, and surely we will pay for it. When I am not going to be home for lunch, I sometimes make it up and leave it on the stove. And it is good heated up, if you are not against microwaves.

Use what you have. I always use garlic, onion (my basics), mushrooms and carrot. And spinach. I try to have the snow or sugar snap peas…they have a great crunch, but so would water chestnuts. We don’t usually have salsa. Rotel tomatoes can work. Petite diced canned tomatoes can work. Fresh diced tomatoes can work. Bottled spaghetti sauce can work. My friend swears by green olive salsa, which I want. Oh, so probably olives can work. I use red pepper flakes instead of taking the time to chop jalapenos, which I usually don’t have. Got it? And if you have the avocado (no, the boyfriend does not like it, did you think he would?) throw it in and head out for a picnic. You can pretend you’re a sixties hippie lunching at Audubon Park in New Orleans. No fringe or beads required, because you are what you eat.

TIP: Fresh spinach really is much tastier than frozen spinach, but it's really up to you. If you go the frozen route, thaw and squeeze dry, and make sure the spinach doesn't all clump in a couple or five places.