Today is Buck’ birthday! It’s a big one, a new decade. I’m taking the easy route and not cooking complicated, new, or fun recipes. One reason is because the group here at the ranch aren’t big foodies (like I am). They like simple food, which is sometimes difficult for me. The other reason is we are out of water. Buck is working today to figure that out, no rest on a ranch, even on your birthday. We’ve been on well water for the last couple months, Buck is going to switch us over to river water today. Either way I decided to buy most everything as pretty much heat and serve. I haven’t found a place that caters and will sell their dishes ready to heat so off to the grocery store I went. We are having preseasoned tri-tip, Beecher’s mac and cheese, my sautéed mushrooms (which I’ll cover another time), corn on the cob, packaged Caesar salad and frozen Texas toast. So it will be a feast, just a store bought one. All birthday festivities aside, this chickpea salad is what I’ll make for a quick healthy lunch. I found this recipe at https://www.skinnytaste.com/chickpea-salad/

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups diced cucumbers, partially peeled
• 1 cup tomato, seeded and diced
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
• 1 tablespoon EVOO
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
• 15 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients together and toss well.