Ants on a Log

As a defiant response to Sad Desk Lunches, the Food52 team works to keep our midday meals both interesting and pretty. Each week, we'll be sharing our happiest desk lunches -- and we want to see yours, too.

Today: Food52's Assistant Editor Sarah Jampel makes a case for eating ants for lunch.

I know what you're thinking as you look at this photo: This is not an okay desk lunch. You're also wondering, "How old are you exactly?" I won't answer that second question, but I will speak in defense of my choice to make everyone's favorite insect-themed, this-really-shouldn't-work-but-it-does-anyway childhood snack...at my workplace...as a grown person...for lunch.

1. It has vegetables; it has protein; it has fruit. If that's not a "balanced meal," I don't know what is. 

2. You can easily turn this into a more "mature" food: Bring some homemade nut butter to the office and use it in place of peanut butter. Substitute the raisins with dried figs. Add a drizzle of artisan honey. Serve it with a glass of whiskey on the rocks. (Kidding.) 

3. Celery needs peanut butter as its great redeemer. Any vegetable that's more water than substance needs something sticky and slightly sweet to validate its place on my plate. 

More: 5 ways to make eating celery worthwhile.

4. And the most valid reason of all: This lunch will remind you of the time in your life when you wore leggings without making a fashion statement, when you opened your lunchbox to find a note tucked inside, and when you weren't pretending to be an "adult" who has it all figured out and who only shops at the farmers market and who prefers to eat salty, bitter, stinky foods over good old peanut butter and raisins.

If eating ants on a log makes you happy, then it's a happy desk lunch -- at least in my book. And if you're still hungry, make yourself a peanut butter and jelly, too. 

Tell us: What childhood snacks are you still snacking on?