Girl with Computer

I’m always running behind schedule because I got too absorbed in project x or y and forgot to keep track of the time. I have two jobs I have to actually go to (and one I do from home), so I’m crunched for time on days where all three jobs collide. Still, I manage to find time to get absorbed in a crochet project or oblivious to everything because I’m working on some code. Then, I look at the time, and I have 5 minutes to shower, eat, and dress myself in a somewhat appropriate manner for the workplace. Sometimes I work 10 hour shifts between the two jobs, and I need to make sure the vitals are covered before walking out the door in a hurry: apply deodorant, brush teeth, eat.

The most important of those three vital components of the pre-workday is my personally favorite verb in the English language: eat.

Like most people, if I eat a lot of shitty food, I gain a lot of weight. I’m not much (or enough) of a health nut; on the contrary, I usually just grab what’s already prepared (even if it’s just a piece or two of bread) and run out the door. I’m pretty good about putting together balanced meals for dinner in a jiffy, but I am not as much of a breakfast/lunch person, due to the fact that I’m always in a hurry before going to work. And I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Today I am in a little less of a hurry (so far), so I decided to take a minute, breathe, and make a good decision about the food I am going to run on for the next 5 or 6 hours of the day.

One of my personal favorite things to eat before running out the door is tuna. It’s packed with protein, and virtually carb-less. I hate to put it between two pieces of bread and glutenize it, but sometimes that’s just the most convenient thing to do. Enter red peppers: another favorite snack when in a hurry. I eat them as if they were apples (after cutting out the center) and nomnom them to death. Today, I realized I had both of these ingredients (because when don’t I? I love tuna and red peppers and they are a staple on my grocery list), so I whipped this up:

Ingredients:

1 Red Pepper

1 Can of chunk light or solid white tuna

Light ranch dressing to taste

Directions:

Cut the stem end of the red pepper and scoop out the inside seeds.

Drain tuna. Empty contents of can of tuna into the open end of the red pepper.

Drizzle Ranch dressing on top of tuna or pour dressing onto plate for dipping.

Eat red pepper as if it were a wrap, dipping into ranch dressing or other sauce as desired.

YES! It was amazing. And there are so many variations one could take on this simple recipe. If you don’t like tuna, you could stuff the pepper with lunch meat, lettuce, and cheese as well. I am adequately full, feel great, and am ready to take on the workday. And… writing this blog post will probably result in my being late for work (but at least I ate already.)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 11:47 am and is filed under food hacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.