LUNCH IS BORING. This is one reason why I don’t like preparing it and why I rarely enjoy eating it.
The other reason is that, during the work week, there’s just an hour to get home, make lunch, eat and get back to work, so lunch also has to be very simple.
I’ve tried many things throughout the years.
Sandwiches are good in a pinch, but they don’t vary too much and bread seems to go bad too quickly in my home.
I’ve done the fast-food thing at lunch more often than I care to admit. It’s definitely fast, but I’m not sure how much actual food is involved.
I’ve heated up frozen meals as lunch, made soup or chili, and sometimes gotten leftovers from the previous night’s dinner out.
Still, after all these years, I honestly haven’t found a better lunch option than anything that was fed to me at my high school more than a decade ago. To be fair, that school had pretty great food.
Lately, my lunch go-to has been pinwheels.
I’ve bought these sandwich rolls in stores and always enjoyed them. A few weeks ago, I thought “How difficult could it be to recreate these at home?”
Not difficult at all, it turns out.
The great thing about pinwheels when you make them at home is that you have total control over what goes in them.
And you know how healthful the ingredients are as well.
My favorite pinwheel so far is quite simple: I use cream cheese, Provolone cheese, red leaf lettuce, chicken deli slices, turkey deli slices and roasted red peppers. I also buy carb-balance tortillas.
The easiest way to roll this all up that I’ve found involves covering one side of the tortilla in a light layer of cream cheese, and then placing the Provolone cheese at one edge.
On top of the cheese, layer the lettuce and deli slices. Next, scoop out a roasted red pepper from the jar and slice it so it’s easier to roll.
When all of that is layered, start at the end of the tortilla where everything is. Roll the start as tightly as you can and continue that tightness through the remainder of the roll. The cream cheese should work to seal the roll at the end.
Finally, just chop the roll into the number of pinwheels you wish to have and voilá! A quick, fun lunch.
For more nutrition and to make lunch more filling, I usually have this with a side of raw vegetables and/or a small serving of fruit.
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Emily Hanson is a copy editor/paginator for the Peninsula Daily News. She is also a beginning baker and clumsy cook. She can be reached at 360-452-2345 ext. 560-50 or ehanson@peninsula dailynews.com.
