Let’s talk about moving for a second.

How the heck are you supposed to pack your kitchen?Seriously, your cooking options are so limited when you have a week left to pack, and you have to decide if now is the appropriate time to box up your blender. And when do you pack up the knives? There are so many parts and pieces to a kitchen that deciding what to live without was probably harder than hunting for my new apartment.

Maybe a slight exaggeration, yes. But really! For someone who loves to cook, and someone who does not procrastinate, I quickly found myself struggling to come up with creative dinner ideas.

Add that to the fact the window AC unit in my old apartment bit the dust back in June, and multiple July heat waves passing through, I had to get creative with few tools, and absolutely no desire to heat anything. Ever.

Luckily, I was saved from a month-long diet of ice cream by this bean salad.

It’s fast, easy, and requires nothing more than a large Tupperware, a knife, and a cutting board.

Eat it on its own, or whip up some fast bean tacos topped with avocado and salsa and you have a heat-free, light, but filling meal. Even my very non-vegetarian boyfriend gobbled them up.

Ingredients: (recipe modified from Terry Walters’s Clean Food)

• 2 cans (or 2 1/2 cups) cooked black beans
• 1 can (or 1 1/2 cups) cooked kidney beans
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 1/2 cups corn, fresh or frozen
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• Juice of one lime
• 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. If using fresh corn, make sure you cook it before adding to the salad.

2. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside or refrigerate to allow the flavors to blend, then serve cold, or at room temp. This salad can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days.