Roasted Red Pepper Sandwich

Jeez I've been a slacker, with blogging AND cooking.

Thursday night my mom and I ended up at the mall looking for all things wedding related. She's not convinced the dress she found a couple of weeks ago is THE dress for my sister's wedding, even though my sister and I swear it looks like it was made for her. She's also attending a wedding next weekend, so she wanted to pull together the bits and pieces of what she'll wear. After shopping we met up with my dad at California Pizza Kitchen.

I ordered the vegetable pizza with japanese eggplant and a beer (of course!). A lot of times I do end up ordering a meatless option or vegetarian option when eating out — especially pizza. As you probably noticed, I don't eat much meat because it can be pretty costly. So, I guess when I'm out I tend to gravitate toward the same foods I'd probably make myself? I don't know.

My parents tried my pizza and liked it. Even my dad, who contantly picked at it and asked, "Eww.. what's that?" (Answers: sundried tomatoes and broccoli.) He ate it even though he seemed to suspect that I was trying to trick him into eating gross vegetables he doesn't like.

Last night's dinner is grocery store sushi because at the last minute my parents requested I spend some quality time with the pup after work while they were out of town for the day gambling away my mom's inheritence. Just kidding. They didn't gamble it ALL away. Just some of it.

So that makes Wednesday my last home-cooked meal. If you call it that. I prefer to call it "assembling." There wasn't even a recipe. It's a mash up of two sandwiches: Roasted Red Pepper Subs from Eating Well and Panera's Mediterranean Veggie.

It had jarred roasted red peppers tossed in olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. The peppers went on Great Harvest Dakota bread with hummus, olive tapenade, red onion, romaine lettuce and swiss cheese. The original inspirations had goat cheese and feta respectively, but I didn't have either on hand. Swiss seemed the best choice considering it was either that or shredded pepper jack. But a provolone might also be good.

There were a lot of different flavors going on in this sandwich. Maybe too much. Each bite had a little something different to offer, though, and I kind of enjoyed that. The hummus added some protein, the bread was loaded with whole grains and the olive oil and tapenade had lots of healthy fats and it was chock full of veggies. So, I think it hit all the necessary food groups. I even got a fruit in with a nice crunchy apple on the side.

I will resume today, promise!

Until then, enjoy your weekend!