I spend a lot of my working hours at home by myself. And while a lot of that time I end up tasting recipes I'm working on and just skipping lunch altogether, when I do cook for myself I love anything with tinned fish. And sardines are a personal favorite. In fact, if you were to check my purse at this very moment there's a 90% chance you'd find a tin of sardines. This is an interpretation of a kedgeree, as it's served tossed with crisp iceberg. But I think it's a worthy play on a classic.

Serves 1

Drizzle of oil
2 scallions, finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 cup cooked rice
4 sprigs parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
​Wedges of lime
1 can sardines, packed in water
1 egg, hard boiled
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced

1. In a small skillet heat a drizzle of oil over medium high heat until shimmering, then add scallions and curry and cook until scallions begin to soften and curry smells toasted, about 5 minutes, add 2 tablespoons of water and cooked rice and mix until evenly incorporated. Remove from heat and add parsley. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lime juice.
2. Drain sardines and toss with rice mixture. Slice hard boiled eggs and fold into rice mixture as well. Toss everything with thinly sliced iceberg and eat in front of your laptop.

Something simple and filling - inspired by my CSA veggies and leftover corn from the weekend.  Easily becomes vegetarian by substituting the bacon for 4 T butter.

Serves 4-6

3 ears corn
4 strips bacon
1/2 c white wine (or water or stock - for deglazing)
2-4 scallions, thinly sliced (reserve green ends as garnish)
1 small bulb fennel, diced
1 carrot, diced
4 heaping T flour
4 c milk
1 can creamed corn
3 potatoes, diced
salt and black pepper

1) Preheat grill to medium high, remove husks from corn and grill until just beginning to char.  Once cool enough to handle remove kernels from cob and reserve.
2) Cook in large stock pot (big enough to hold all ingredients) bacon until just crisp, remove reserving fat in bottom of pit.
3) Add sliced whites of scallions, and some of the greens to rendered bacon fat and cook until soft. Deglaze with wine.
4) Add fennel and carrot and sweat for 4-6 minutes until beginning to soften.
5) Sprinkle cooked veg with flour and cook stirring constantly until veggies evenly coated.
5) Add milk, stirring constantly.  Once milk thickens slightly add creamed corn and diced potatoes and simmer 20-30 minutes.
6) Season with salt and pepper, serve with cold white wine and tossed salad.

*I've got to point out that depending on personal preference for flavour and texture veggies can be added or taken away, and the liquid amounts (less liquid for a thicker chowder, more for a thinner one) and types (wine, stock, water, cream etc) can be changed.  This is just a very basic outline of what I came up with using the ingredients I had on hand.

My apologies for the blurry picture, all the batteries in the house have simultaneously gone dead, so this was taken with the built in camera on my computer.