Your Best Brown Bag Lunch

When blanching beans -- or any green veg -- make sure to generously salt the water, as you would for pasta.

A minute or two is all these haricots verts need.

Amanda actually cut herself on a sharp edge of the baguette as she was rubbing it with garlic. Who knew sandwich-making was such a bloodsport?

Stemming the flow.

Back in action, Amanda hollows out the baguette and brushes it with a good amount of olive oil (part of the whole "bathed bread" thing).

As you can see, we didn't hold back with the basil.

Merrill recalls her recent wedding for a brief moment.

It's important to use good-quality tuna here -- we like ours packed in olive oil.

All the makings for the tuna salad.

Scratch that. We were missing the parsley and artichokes!

A simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil lets the other ingredients shine.

We used almost, but not quite all of the dressing. But it's up to you and how "bathed" you want your sandwich to be.

You want to pile on as much of the tuna salad as possible without having the whole sandwich fall apart.

Yet another two-person job...

Merrill pokes an errant pepper into submission.

A tight wrap is key.

And then a heavy weight. We used what we had.

Nothing fancy: just tahini, scallion, lemon, chickpeas (from a can), zucchini, garlic, yam, and parsley.

Merrill cubed the yam -- about 3/4-inch cubes.

Cubed zucchini with lemon onlookers.

Rivka has you saute the rinsed and drained chickpeas with a little olive oil and garlic -- a step that really transforms them into a flavorful contributor (no more can taste!).

Amanda and Merrill seasoned the yams and dressed them with oil before roasting.

Um, where will they fit?

Amanda talked to her best friend, her coffee mug, while Allie worked hard in the background.

Merrill sliced the scallions ... so thinly!

The garlic that sauteed with the chickpeas got a second use -- chopped and added to the dressing. No waste!

Amanda juiced the lemon.

Everyone at work, while Merrill measured out the tahini for the dressing.

Lemon juice, lemon zest and tahini were blended first.

Then we whisked in the oil, and a little water.

Once the yams were nearly tender, we added the zucchini (and more seasoning) to the pan.

It was time for Amanda to whip out her king of pot holders!

The fully roasted yams and zucchini.

It was time to pull everything together -- the vegetables and chickpeas first.

Next, the dressing with the scallions and parsley tossed in at the same time.

We were getting ready to food style.

A fine brown-bag lunch, don't you agree?