Hot lunch: meatball sandwiches

A little extra time this morning (surely I should be doing something, there is a pretty long list) after another night with not enough sleep.  Spectacular line of storms rolled through just before bedtime last night.  Everyone was tired so despite the tornado warning, I let them sleep and the cat and I stood on watch.  I had the guinea pig and the flashlight ready to join the wise feline in the basement.  The big humans would have been harder to carry, but it turns out they weren't sleeping because of the storm anyway.

Here's a little post regarding an everyday lunch that is a kitchen staple at my house.  Sara and I are not particularly fond of cold food unless it's salad or fruit or super hot outside (it is not, today is going to be in the chilly 50's because there is a lacrosse game to be played on a whippy field this evening).  Last year we discovered the herb foccacia thin buns from Costco.  They were just a summer and early fall item last year, so when they reappeared in the bread section a couple of weeks ago many were purchased and double wrapped for the freezer.  Far superior to those horrid little thin buns usually found (really, just eat good whole grain bread those things are like torturing yourself) they make fabulous cold or hot sandwiches.

Okay, so buy the buns and then buy the Italian chicken meatballs from the prepared food/deli cases at Costco.  They are really yummy too and much easier to heat up than the frozen ones.  Everything else you need you may already have on hand:  pizza or marinara sauce (we are partial to Muir Glen tomato products and their canned pizza sauce is excellent), provolone cheese slices and or mozzarella slices or shreds.  You know we always have on hand red/yellow/orange bell peppers (Costco again, or the grocery if the price is right) and every week we cut them up with onion and roast a nice pan full in the oven with a little olive oil and kosher salt.  If you have them on hand (jarred roasted red peppers in water from Trader Joe's are a good pantry staple instead) they are a good addition to this sandwich.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees (convection is nice for this to keep it fast).  Another fast tip is to heat the meatballs in the sauce in the microwave or in a pan on the stove.  Then all you are really doing is melting the cheese in the oven.

Tear a nice sheet of non-stick foil and open up your bun spread with sauce, top with slice of provolone, 5 or 6 meatballs, peppers and onions if you want and a little mozzarella if you like double cheese (or skip the provolone and just use the shreds to keep the fat content down).  Place the bun top on and wrap up your sandwich with the foil sealing pretty tightly.  Bake until cheese melts.  Maybe 10 minutes.

There you go.  Fast food that everyone likes for a warm lunch or a quick dinner.  I'm sure to make them again soon and promise some pictures.

This is not a hot lunch unless you are a neighbor cat or dog.  I was fertilizing
our grass plants before the rains and found a bunny den with 5 babies sunning
themselves in the center of the big grass plant.  They were a little sprinkled with 5-22-5
and ran off into the plant and down into the den.  See the little guy hiding from me?  Cute.