Saturday's bag lunch

At YB, Saturday means pizza. The staffers are treated to a wonderful pizza lunch, paid for by the office's petty-cash box and gobbled with relish by the tutors (well, most of them, anyway; one very skinny tutor normally abstains), office personnel, and students. The pizza comes from Bella Pizza, right next door to our center, and always arrives hot and fresh and screaming to be eaten.

Thanks to my conversion to the Taubesian religion, I can no longer enjoy our Saturday pizza, which means I have to pack a lunch. Tonight, I baked some chicken breast and sausage, and made a spaghetti-squash "Bleufredo" (Alfredo, but substituting bleu cheese for Parmesan) to act as the bed on which to rest the breasts. The chicken was from Costco: Kirkland brand's over-large, immodestly sized chicken breasts. As is my wont, I stuck the breasts into the roasting pan while they were still frozen, scored the rock-hard surface with crisscrosses, and basted the meat with my patented spice-and-seasoning mix: salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and red chili flakes, all unified by olive oil. I dumped in a package of spicy Italian sausages as well. I baked the chicken and sausages for an hour at 360 degrees, turning the breasts once at the halfway point. They came out perfectly tender and positively juicy, as usually happens when I start the meat off in its frozen state. I layered sliced chicken breast onto the bed of spaghetti-squash Bleufredo, sprinkled some frozen peas over the whole thing (can't have too many peas, alas; they're carbaceous), and packed the result into the fridge. Now, I just need to remember to take my lunch tomorrow: I have a nasty habit of bolting out the door without my food.

If I can—if I don't forget—I'll take a picture of lunch before I consume it.


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