We have been so spoiled with our weather lately, that when I went to take our dog for a walk yesterday morning, the blast of cold air nearly knocked me over!  I had to get a hat, gloves, winter coat.  I was kind of pissed, but then I had to remember it is December!  When I got back from our 10 minute walk I checked the weather and it was a chilly 23 degrees. Freezing

I love adding shredded zucchini to my eggs for a breakfast sammie – for some reason the eggs taste so fluffy and almost soufflé like.  I had two open face breakfast sammies.  The rosemary ham on the bottom was delicious – ask for it the next time you go to the deli – its so good!

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I decided to do another interval on the treadmill using the HIIT app on my phone.  I typically watch The Chew while working out, so my headphones are plugged into the t.v.  While I was running every few minutes I would hear a whistle blowing, and I kept looking around thinking “who’s phone is whistling??!!”

Um, turns out, that would be mine!  I didn’t realize that when the interval switched, it whistles at you to switch gears.  Doh!  My fastest run split yesterday was 6.5 mph.

interval

It’s kind of funny when I look at the things I eat now, that I never would have touched 15 years ago.  The only ethnic things I ate were Mexican tacos and Italian spaghetti!  Now I love chicken tikka masala, butternut squash with ginger shrimp soup, and artichoke pasta, just to name a few.

Now when I get a magazine that has interesting ethnic recipes, I no longer look the other way.  A while back Bon Appetit had a recipe for a bahn mi meatball sandwich with pickled veggies.  The first time I made it, I left the veggies chopped too big, my bun was too hard and it was difficult to eat.  I also left off the mayo, but I left it below in the recipe anyway.

This time I shredded the carrot and daikon radish, and I used a soft hot dog bun.  The result?  Pure deliciousness!  And for some reason I didn’t post the recipe last time either – it was back in 2009, and I am not sure I even knew how to link to anything back then.  Yep, still not the most technical!

Bahn Mi Meatballs

  • 1 poundground pork
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 green onions, finely chopped (I left this out)
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)
  • 1 tablespoonhot chili sauce (such as sriracha)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Sandwiches

  • 2 cup scoarsely grated carrots
  • 2 cups coarsely grated peeled daikon (Japanese white radish)**
  • 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
  • 4 10-inch-long individual baguettes or four 10-inch-long pieces French-bread baguette (cut from 2 baguettes) (I used a hot dog bun)
  • Thinly sliced jalapeño chiles
  • 16large fresh cilantro sprigs
  • *Available in the Asian foods section of many supermarkets and at Asian markets.
  • **Available at some supermarkets and at Asian markets.

Preparation

hot chili mayo


  • Stir all ingredients in small bowl. Season with salt. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

     

meatballs


  • Line rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap. Gently mix all ingredients in large bowl. Using moistened hands and scant tablespoonful for each, roll meat mixture into 1-inch meatballs. Arrange on baking sheet. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

     

sandwiches


  • Toss first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour, tossing occasionally.

     


  • Preheat oven to 300°F. Heat sesame oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of meatballs. Sauté until brown and cooked through, turning meatballs often and lowering heat if browning too quickly, about 15 minutes. Transfer meatballs to another rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven. Repeat with remaining meatballs.

     


  • Cut each baguette or baguette piece horizontally in half. Pull out enough bread from each bread half to leave 1/2-inch-thick shell. Spread hot chili mayo over each bread shell. Arrange jalapeños, then cilantro, in bottom halves. Fill each with 1/4 of meatballs. Drain pickled vegetables; place atop meatballs. Press on baguette tops.

     

 

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This version turned out way better and it was much easier to eat – the meatballs are spicy, but still had a bit of crust on them from when I cooked them in the cast iron skillet.  And the balance of the pickled veggies is amazeballs too – I did end up adding a touch more sriracha to the sandwich when I got to my desk, but this one is a keeper.

It makes a lot of meatballs, so I made toothpick mini versions of them and walked around the office asking who wanted to taste my balls.  Ha, I am so funny!  But I thought this could be a nice appetizer at a holiday party – I put a drop of sriracha on each meatball, topped it with a little of the carrot/daikon mix, covered it with a piece of cilantro and put the toothpick in.

Work has been busy the last couple of days, which makes the afternoons go by so much faster.  Dinner was going to be super easy because I ended up making a beef brisket chili from the leftover brisket we had on Sunday.

I put Tony’s in a bread bowl.  He’d never had one before!  Our store sells them every couple of weeks:

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I toasted it in the toaster oven after taking out a lot of the filling.

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He likes Parmesan cheese on his chili – so weird!

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He was a bit underwhelmed with the bread bowl concept – he maybe ate about 1/8 of the bowl after eating the chili – the chili he liked though, beans and all! Open-mouthed smile

I decided to have an ounce of tortilla chips for dipping – I like to put a spoonful of chili on a tortilla, dousing it with Tabasco, and eating my chili more like a dip.  So good – except I am seriously almost out of the buffalo Tabasco sauce already! Sad smile

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So I ended up earning 50 points in the Skinny Snowman Challenge – not bad!  I’ve been happiest about keeping up with the drinking of water – most days I have a minimum of 80 ounces. Just kidding

Alright, I have to jump in the shower and get my shit ready for work – it’s overcast and cold today – what I really want to do is go back under my down comforter and go back to sleep!