photo via A Life (Time) of Cooking

Sometimes you are so busy and so tired and so not thrilled with the idea of standing up any longer that the easiest and happiest thing in the world is a prepositional kind of dinner proposition--take out, drive through, sit down and wait for someone to open your mouth and put the food in. That is the kind of tired that you don't want to indulge too often (why are you so tired? Please take a vitamin and take care of yourself, okay?) but sometimes, it just can't be helped.

That's the kind of tired that makes an incredibly simple, miraculously nutritious and startlingly delicious meal an absolute raging triumph of epic proportions. And if that doesn't wake you up (or, perhaps, send you to sleep with a smile on your face instead of an anguished scowl) then you need to work on your sense of perspective and your capacity for joy. It is strange that a chickpea salad, like this so-simple idea from A Life (Time) of Cooking can be a vehicle for joy, but take your blessings where you find them. The flavors are fresh and interesting, the food is fast and so easy even I can make it, and you just have to keep yourself from falling asleep with a fork in your mouth.