Making Subway at Home!

Tonight it's time to eat fresh and have Subway at Home!
Did you know that Subway is the largest restaurant chain in the world with 41,512 locations! Bigger than McDonalds (38,695)!

For the most part, Subway at home should be pretty easy. Homemade Subway bread rolls and cookies, right?
Except for those people who don't care for veggies. <slowly raises hand>
Subway is usually wasted on me. If I get a regular sub from there, it's meat, cheese, and condiments. No veggies, so totally not a good deal.
That's why I always order a meatball sub! So, Subway for me means that I've got to make meatballs and marinara sauce!
I'm using a recipe from sidechef.com for the meatballs and the sauce.

The sauce was pretty easy to get together. I added a few extra red pepper flakes because I'm a fan of the spicy!

The meatballs were pretty simple. Ground beef, salt, and olive oil.

I formed them into golfball sized balls and tossed them into a hot pan.

These are getting a good seer on them.
From the kitchen, I heard the kids calling me to the front yard.

Hey guys! What did you build?!? That looks awesome! They said it was like Phineas and Ferb with their Giant Treehouse Robots, except this was a giant Playhouse Robot! I love that they're creative like that!

What's this? A surprise fighting feature!

Hey!!! You're getting me soaked!

Back inside, I combined the sauce and the meatballs, and they'll sit for the next couple hours.

You can't forget about the bread! I've got to make this at home of course!
The Homemade Subway Bread Recipe is coming from blessthismessplease.com.

Yes, I had to do a wardrobe change because I got soaked by that Playhouse Robot.
My dough has risen, it's time to divide it into loaves and prep them for their second rise.

I've got two baking trays ready to go.

I rolled it into loaves as evenly as possible, as placed them onto the trays to rise. I also used an extra long piece of parchment and butted them up against each other to help the rise upwards and less outwards.

30 minutes later, these have risen and they're ready to bake.

Because I pinched the parchment together, I was able to pull it apart for them to bake and it didn't deflate them.

After 25 minutes, these were smelling fantastic and ready to come out of the oven. The recipe suggested rubbing the tops with butter immediately after coming out of the oven, and then covering them with a kitchen towel. The steam will make these loaves soft when it comes time to eat them.

A little short of 11 inches. Can't quite call them a foot-long I guess.

There's a few other things we're going to need. For dessert, Subway has fresh baked cookies. We're doing that too. Yum!

And you can't forget that white triangle cheese that goes on top of the subs. We're using Monterey Jack, just like they do. I used my wire cheese cutter on the small loaf to take a few layers off of it.

Hello, welcome to Subway. I'll be your sandwich artist for the evening.

For our breads, would you like white, white, or white?
White bread? Good choice.

For your meats you've got turkey (Richard's favorite), or roast beef.

A container of meatballs and marinara. Yum.

Theresa was in charge of setting up the veggie station. All her favorites including spinach, onions, tomatoes (from our garden), olives, pickles, and jalapenos.

Can't forget about the condiments either. Grated parmesan, mustard, mayo, oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

So there's two ways Subway cuts the bread to make a sandwich. I remember they used to always cut it in a V, but recently I've seen them just cutting them in half.

Lots of turkey and cheese for Richard's sub.

Topped with veggies.

And then drizzled with vinegar. That's a pretty looking sandwich.

Alli wanted all the veggies except jalapenos and onion. Good job girlie. I love that you love vegetables. Ian's sandwich was similar.

Theresa's modus operandi at Subway is to always ask for more and more veggies until the sandwich can't close.
Theresa - If the sandwich can close, you're not doing it right.

I'm making two subs for myself. The first is roast beef. I'm coming around to liking vegetables more and more, so this one has tomato, onion, and jalapeno on it.

For my meatball sub, it just makes more sense to cut the bread into the classic V shape. It leaves a little well for the meatballs to sit in, without risking falling out.

There we go. That's how you cut a Subway bread loaf.

I was just able to squeeze all 8 meatballs onto the bun. Topped with a little extra marinara, cheese, and parmesan. A little mayo on the bun, and yes, this is bringing back memories.
Three specific memories come to mind. 1. Traveling with my family on car road trips. We'd always stop and get a footlong meatball sub. Half to eat now, and half to eat in a few hours. 2. Skiing or hiking in Colorado with my dad and brothers. Dad would drive us up to the mountains and on the way home we'd stop by one particular Subway. 3. Every summer on Father's Day at the Pasadena Chalk Festival, taking a break from the heat and going with Ruston to the nearby Subway. I'd drink 3-4 cups of Dr. Pepper to rehydrate and eat my meatball sub.
All good memories.

Dig in everyone! To go along with our meal, we'll have a bag of chips. The classic accompaniment to a Subway sandwich.

Theresa did indeed have a hard time closing hers.

Mine looks just like I'd remembered it. And it tasted so good! The cheese, mayo, and parmesan, against the spicy meatballs. Mmm. So good. And the bread is delicious!

Chi made her own salad. Yes, I think we can still count that. They've got salads at Subway too.

And these warm cookies are waiting for us as dessert.

Richard and Chi thought it was really good. Seems like everyone has a Subway story. Theirs was a particular Subway they'd go to when they lived in another state. And another story about getting Subway for a road trip.

Ian is enjoying his.

Theresa loved it.

Wow, he's almost done already?

I made quick work of my meatball sub, and the roast beef was tasty too.

Everyone who finished their meal gets a cookie!
Ian said this was one of the best meals I've made.
Better than Olive Garden?
Ian - Well, not better than Olive Garden.
Better than Burger King?
Ian - It's one of the best meals you've made.

Someone is happy for her cookie. Subway was tasty!