Hello all you lovely people!  I hope everyone is having a great week!  Can you believe it is already halfway through July?  Where has this year gone?  I think I am willing the time to go by more quickly in anticipation of my upcoming vacation.  It is only 52 days away… but who’s counting?? 

I had the best accidental eyeliner day of my life on Tuesday.  It was one of those situations where your first eye turns out great, but it looks like you had a toddler attempt to replicate it on the other.  Liquid eyeliner is so, so tricky.  The problem is that if you mess it up, you have to build it up to correct it.  Then you have to do it on the other eye.  THEN if you mess up again you’re building even more!  Eventually you kind of just want to color your entire lid in black liner and call it a day.  Hey, it’s even now, right??  Anyway, after some extensive building and some doctoring with eye makeup remover, this came about.  I was so happy.  Now, if I can recreate it again it will be a miracle.  I also really loved the lipstick I was wearing (that came in my Ipsy Glam Bag)… but that’s another post for another day!
 I have a retraction to make from my post on the Bloody Mary Chicken recipe I made from Hello Fresh.  I still maintain that I did not find this recipe to be delightful in the slightest.  However, I complained about the frozen produce they sent me.  This week I took a delicious container of fresh strawberries out of the fridge to enjoy.  They were frozen and disgusting.  I am thinking that the frozen Hello Fresh produce was not their doing and was entirely mine.

My boyfriend and I struggled to figure out how to turn down the temperature on our fridge since there is not a dial to be seen.  As it turns out, the area that controls the type of ice, water temperature, etc. also controls the temperature of our fridge.  Who’Da thunk it??  I suppose we are not used to these newfangled fancy iceboxes.  Or maybe we just have the technical capability of Zoolander.. who knows.
 I still do not want to make the switch from Green Chef to Hello Fresh for a couple of reasons.  In my opinion, the quality of the ingredients that Green Chef sends is worth the few extra dollars.  Green Chef has also allowed us to try some truly unique recipes and flavors that I never would have thought to try in a million years.  It is much easier to recreate Hello Fresh recipes as they do not provide any pre-made sauces, dressings, or fillings.  However, today’s recipe contained a pre-made spread that reinforced why I trust Green Chef with the ole sauces.  Spoiler Alert: Super Yum.

You can get FREE MEALS from Green Chef if you use my referral link!  They want you to love their food as much as I do, so give them a shot!  

Vegetable Bánh Mì with Broccoli Salad

Just a warning, the cooking portrayed in these photos is even sloppier than usual.  We had just come home from a hike and I started cooking this at about 8:30 at night.  This was not the quickest recipe I have ever made.  When you’re tired and hungry, ain’t nobody got time for cleaning up as you go and taking perfect photos.

The first step was the blanch the broccoli.  I had no idea what this meant.  For those of you who are just as clueless, I boiled the florets in salt water for two minutes and then ran them under cold water to stop the cooking.  It definitely makes a tasty texture for broccoli salad.

The next step was to slice the zucchini evenly into planks.  I failed miserably at this.  But they’re just going to be in a sandwich, so who cares?  I then seasoned them with salt and pepper.
Next, I had an excuse to use my Microplane for something other than latkes!  I’m sure it was thrilled to be used more than once this year.  I used it to shred the carrots.  For such a fancy grater, I assumed the carrots would turn out much prettier than they did.  Although this was most likely user error.  Again, they’re going on a SANDWICH.  A side thought: I had no idea that one carrot could produce so much shredded carrot.  I swear that the volume of shredded carrots had to equal at least five whole ones.

The next step was to prepare the heavenly spice mixture for the zucchini.  I mixed two tablespoons of olive oil with the Thai Spice Blend.I then used my beloved rubber basting brush to schlop the mixture onto the zucchini.  I placed them under the broiler.  A regular Iron Chef, I am.
Then I sliced the adorable, teeny, tiny, bell peppers for the broccoli salad.  They were almost too cute to chop!The next step was to slice the scallions and roughly chop the herbs.  See that mint there?  I didn’t realize that the mint was not supposed to be used in this recipe until we needed it for the next one.  Oops.  It still was a very tasty addition to the broccoli salad.  I do not regret it. I also roughly chopped the peanuts.  This was fun.Just look at this zucchini.  It smelled just as amazing as it looked.  The next step was to toast the bread under the broiler, so I thought I would get creative and sop up the remaining olive oil and spice mixture with the bread halves before toasting.  I’m not sure this made much of a difference in the end, but it sure sounded like a cool idea!
I tossed the broccoli, bell peppers, scallions, fresh herbs, and peanuts with the dressing.  It was a perfect combination of flavors.The final step was to assemble the sandwiches.  I spread the bread halves with THE MOST DELICIOUS CREAMY JALAPENO HUMMUS YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE.  I am not ashamed to say that I cleaned out this container with my finger.  There was no way I was ever going to waste a single drop of this stuff.
Next up was my ugly carrot pile.Then was the Do Chua which is code for deliciously pickled cucumbers and peppers.  So good.
Finally, I adorned the most expensive sandwich I have ever made with the beautiful zucchini planks and served it alongside the broccoli salad.
Voila!  There you have it, a Bánh Mì.

They were very, very tasty and so was the salad.  They referred to the bread they provided as “baguette” but it is really just a very dense hoagie roll.  I couldn’t finish this much bread if my life depended on it.  I am happy to report that it did not go to waste.  My boyfriend loves when I can’t finish all my food…

On an unrelated note, have any of you heard of the Clown Contouring thing going around?  Well you’re gonna!  I’m going to take a stab at it this weekend.  It’s kind of a cool, fun concept when it comes to face makeup!

Thanks for stopping by!  See y’all next time…

Marissa