Hey What're We All Having For Lunch?

Cooking for me has always been a social act, a way to care for someone else through my time and my labor. I enjoy cooking for my friends, not myself. I miss it desperately. What’s more elemental than nourishing the people you love through food? Which is partly why, when it comes to feeding myself and keeping myself alive, I have for years relied on what I call “three-ingredient meals,” which are exactly what the term sounds like.

For example, the photo above is the lunch I threw together for myself today. Jezebel editor-in-chief Julianne Escobedo Shepherd described this as a “scarcity lunch,” but I would have to respectfully disagree. These three-ingredient meals taste good (I would dare to say even delicious), require a minimum of “cooking” and cleaning, and spare me the dilemma of asking myself, “What am I going to have for lunch,” a question that none of us should be asking ourselves in the midst of all of us dealing with so many other, more pressing questions and concerns.

To that end, here is a list of the three-ingredient lunches I have been putting together for myself in recent weeks, in hopes that they may inspire you:

• Rice, green peas, boiled eggs
• Rice, green peas, tuna fish
• Bread, boiled eggs, green peas
• Rice, bacon, broccoli
• Pasta, bacon, green peas
• Bread, boiled eggs, three clementines
• Bread, avocado, Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp