The easy: The hummus whips up in 5 minutes. Beets are easy to roast - and keep well in a lidded plastic container. Or you can just grate them on without cooking.
The cheap: For the hummus, a can of chickpeas will cost you about €1.20. If you keep a jar of €3 tahini in the fridge, you'll have enough for 15 or 20 portions. Lemons, olive oil, salt and pepper are general pantry items. 1 large beet - ? - less than a euro, right? Wholewheat bagels are only slightly more expensive than regular. They have similar calories, but the wholewheat has almost 4x the dietary fibre. If you have the time, you can easily make your own wholewheat rolls.
The healthy: Well, there's the fibre in the bagel. If you don't want all the bread in the bagel, you can put all of this on a wrap. (I wanted a wholewheat roll, but couldn't find any I liked, so I made my own! They were great - but time consuming. You have to have a morning or afternoon when you're around the house to allow for the rising, etc. Worth it, though. I'll include the recipe below, too.) Hummus provides protein, fibre, heart healthy fats, calcium, magnesium phosphorus, zinc, folate, iron. And when you're using hummus, or other legumes, in place of meat, you're having less saturated fat. Beets. You'll find beets on every "10 best foods you aren't eating" list. They are a great source of folate and betaine, which work together to "lower your blood levels of homocysteine, an inflammatory compound that can damage your arteries and increase your risk of heart disease. Plus, the natural pigments -- called betacyanins -- that give beets their color have been proved to be potent cancer fighters in laboratory mice." (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ColdandFluNews/story?id=5334734&page=1#.UFd3bUKaBPU) So start defying those lists and get eating beets!
The how:
You can always just buy hummus, but please please please try making your own so you can see how simple it is. This is the way I make it, simply, but it's very easy to add other flavors as well.
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1 heaping teaspoon tahini
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
glug of olive oil (approximately 1 tablespoon)
pinch of sea salt
splash of water (again, approx 1 tablespoon)
garlic - optional
Beets:
Roasting beets is a snap. Just wash the outside, cut off any extra root, rub some olive oil on the skin and wrap loosely in foil. Roast in oven for 45 or so, longer if it's larger. If I'm roasting 1 large beet, I cut it into chunks and throw it in the foil. It roasts more quickly - 20 minutes. I don't even rub olive oil on it - and I don't miss it. When I remove the beet from the oven, I just cut or rub off the skin.
Alternatively, just grate the beets and put them on the sandwich. Easier and actually better for you as it retains more antioxidants! Heating can damage or reduce the amount of antioxidants.
Rocket - a.k.a Arugula:
This leafy veg has loads of goodness in addition to its peppery flavor. It's a source of phytochemicals, folate, Vitamins A, B complex, C, K and minerals. I love to pile it on; the more the merrier.
Join me for lunch! (I'll post the wholewheat rolls recipe in the morning!)