Brown Bag Lunch - Adult Style

It's time for another Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Grocery Bag section! The July/August issue of the mag was pretty decent. I was only interested in cooking 3 of the 5 recipes, but that was enough to get me going.

I figured I would start out with the easiest recipe to bring to work for lunch: Toasted Turkey Sandwich with Quick Cucumber Pickles.

I have to be honest and mention that I took a lot of short cuts on this recipe, but I was still happy with the outcome. (Since I'm sure you'll want to know what I did differently, I'll side note it below.)

Recipe:
- 1 country-style round bread loaf, sliced in 1/2 horizontally, insides scooped out. (I couldn't find this so I planned to use white bread but was pleasantly surprised when freshly baked whole grain breads came out of the oven at work the very same day.)
- 1/3 cup tapenade (I skipped this all together...couldn't find any at my grocery)
- 1/2 lb deli turkey, thinly sliced
- 1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
- 1 large tomato, thinly sliced
- 4 oz provolone, thinly sliced
- 2 medium cucumbers, cut lengthwise into thin wedges
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover inside of both bread halves with an even layer of tapenade. Arrange turkey on bottom half of bread. Top with zucchini, tomato, and cheese. Sandwich with top half of bread and wrap tightly with foil. Place on a baking sheet and bake until bread is toasted and cheese is melted, 25 minutes.
2) Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss cucumbers with vinegar and sugar; season with salt and pepper. Let sit at room temp, 20 minutes.
3) Unwrap sandwich and cut into 4 wedges with a serrated knife. Serve with pickled cucumbers.

*Obviously, I couldn't follow the directions on this one since I was preparing it at work so the night before bringing to work, I grilled the zucchini and packaged all the ingredients in sandwich baggies. At work, I toasted my bread, assembled and enjoyed!

A Great Appetizer in a Hurry!

After a long week of work and lots of surprises, I couldn't wait for the weekend. To put the icing on the cake, Saturday night was LADIES NIGHT! Aside from dancing and drinks galore, everyone brought great appetizers to pass.

I wanted to make something very flavorful, quick to make and easy to transport. I found an amazing recipe from Giada on Food Network: Mini Pesto Club Sammies!

Recipe:

1 loaf focaccia bread

pesto sauce

1/2 package of bacon

thinly sliced white turkey

Provolone

1) Slice focaccia in half, creating top and bottom slices. Toast bread in a dry frying pan on med-high heat. Spread pesto on both sides of bread and set aside.

2) Cook bacon, degrease with paper towel when finished, then place long-ways on focaccia.

3) Lay turkey on top of bacon, slightly overlapping itself. (The goal is to not have one layer over power the other, but to fully cover the bread.)

3) Lay provolone over meats. Top with other half of bread, that was already coated in pesto.

4) Cut into small cubed sammies, and serve!

Check out how great the layers look!

These are great for any party, especially with the holidays just around the corner.

Blame it on the rain!

New York was drenched with rain this week. It was annoying, cold and depressing. To brighten up my mood I channelled my inner summer self and decided to make the perfect summer-in-the-fall meal!

A Tomato, mozzarella and basil pesto sandwich on fresh Italian bread with summer chickpea salad to boot! As Rachel Ray would say, "Yummo!"

Summer Chickpea Salad Recipe:

1 1lb can of chickpeas

14 grape tomatoes (more/less depending on preference)

1.5 tbsp's of finely chopped red onions

6 leaves of cilantro

1/2 extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

Combine ingredients in a medium size bowl. Serve chilled.

Sandwich Recipe:

1 large loaf of fresh Italian bread

1 lb fresh mozzarella

1 large tomato

basil pesto sauce/spread

Arugula

1) Slice loaf of bread longways in half and spread basil pesto on one side.

2) Cut mozzarella in about 2 centimeter slices and lay over pesto

3) Slice then lay tomato over mozzarella and lay arugula on top.

My boyfriend is a big meat-eater so I grilled up a thin piece of chicken cutlet and added that to his sandwich.

I hope this help you forget about fall as much as it did for me!

Enjoy!