Millie Likes Chicken

A lunch I packed for my husband, clockwise from the top: steamed broccoli rabe with balsamic vinegar, hard boiled egg with salt and pepper, baked sweet potato, hummus (chick peas, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, onion powder, dill), pickled raw beets an red onions (made simply by salting the chopped veg along with a handful of yellow raisins and dousing with red wine vinegar), and in the middle, onions, garlic, pinto beans, and a variety of vegetable stems, chopped and sauteed in olive oil

It's a rare day that finds meat cooking in my house, but I stewed a whole chicken recently, used the broth for soup, and reserved some meat for this chicken salad, which I ate over mixed greens and Jim stuffed in a big whole wheat tortilla to take to work. In it: capers and pickled red onion (see above) for their tangy salty bite, chopped celery and red bell pepper for their indispensable crunch, fresh chopped parsley black pepper, and a curried honey-mustard dressing.

"I like chicken."

Here's that soup I was talking about: made with chicken broth flavored with ginger, rice vinegar, and salt and pepper. Added to that: onion, celeriac, garlic, tofu, carrot, and broccoli rabe. Clean-tasting and hearty at the same time.