Out of all the foods I cook and enjoy, I bring sandwiches more often than any other lunch. They’re versatile, easy and most of all delicious. Unfortunately, sandwiches are difficult to transport, especially inside a backpack that’s constantly slamming onto the floor and being flung over back. Achieving sandwich perfection, or rather finding sandwich perfection when you open your lunchbox at lunch time, is no easy task.

One easy solution: Assemble on site. Have you ever tried bringing a sandwich with tomatoes, or any other wet vegetable to lunch? If you have then you probably know that it becomes a sloppy, wet mess by the time you reach lunch block. So, cut your tomatoes and produce and package separately either in a plastic bag or in a container. In addition to keeping your sandwich dry, assembling during lunch keeps the ingredients fresher, allowing the individual ingredients to have more distinct flavors.

One sandwich that is easy and delicious is a pesto and tomato sandwich. This is the perfect sandwich for when you want to treat yourself to something special and a little bit fancy.

Although this sandwich is easy, you need to start prepping for the sandwich by making a pesto infused tomato salad the night before. Mix two diced plum tomatoes in a bowl with one teaspoon of olive oil and one teaspoon of red wine vinegar. Put the salad in your fridge and let it marinate overnight. The next morning, cut up slices of mozzarella cheese and sandwich them between two pieces of high quality bread. Add a tablespoon of pesto into the tomato salad. If you don’t have pesto, the sandwich is fine without it. Package the salad separately from the cheese sandwich and at school the next day, spoon your flavorful tomato mixture inside the bread.

At lunch, all your friends will be jealous of your light, fresh and zesty sandwich.