What's for Lunch?

I love to cook. Anybody that knows me KNOWS that I love fresh ingredients that I can put together to make a delicious meal. So often, I find that so MANY people, especially women (what's up with that, by the way?), can't find their way through a kitchen.

SOOO, in an effort to help out my fellow female friends (alliteration again!), I decided that I would do step-by-step instructions on some of my favorite recipes, whether they have been handed down, are from a cookbook or are just made up.

With that said, you MUST make the following recipe for a delicious sandwich. Why, you ask? Well because I said so. And because it comes together just as easily as a ham and cheese sandwich. (SIDE NOTE: I absolutely DETEST ham and most pork products so you probably won't see much of that on any of my recipes. Don't ask me to tell you what I think the taste, smell and texture are to me of pork, specifically ham...you will be equally disgusted and turned off by pork products FOREVER! And perhaps disturbed by my thoughts on the above.) Also, this sandwich is oh-so good for you! You get AT LEAST two servings of veggies, which we all need more of in our diet.

The line-up of ingredients: Hummus, Whole-Wheat Bread, Tapenade, Cucumber, Grated Carrots and S&P.

I love whole-wheat bread, especially double-fiber and multi-grain. Let's face it, I'm not getting any younger and the more fiber I get in my body now, the better off I will be in the future! I also LOVE hummus. I prefer the Sabra brand with Roasted Garlic. Take a few spoonfuls of the hummus and generously spread on one slice of the bread.

Take the other slice of bread and spread a tablespoon of store-bought tapenade on it. Tapenade is essentially finely chopped olives, with a few other ingredients added.

Next, you'll need 1/4 of your cucumber.

Now slice it very thinly.

When I mean thin, I mean THIN (think Karen Carpenter-thin and if you don't know who she is, you're either too young or you were living under a rock in the '70's).

Top the hummus with the thin slices of cucumber.

Grab a handful of the store-bought grated carrots (your hands and knuckles will thank you later!) and put on top of one of the slices. It is much easier to put BOTH the cucumber and the carrots on the same slice of bread...you'll see why soon. Obviously, I like to make things difficult.

Season both slices of bread to taste. You can probably already see the dilemma I'm about to put myself in...I need to put the sandwich together and the way I put it together, the carrots and cukes are going to be all over the place!

Whew! I avoided any severe damage to my sandwich and look at how beautiful it looks when you cut it half! Martha would be proud.

I should say this was a wonderful recipe out of the pages of Everyday Food, a MS publication.