DIY Quiznos Mesquite Chicken Sandwiches

When I was about seventeen I worked at a Quiznos sandwich shop for about nine months. I somehow became an assistant manager, and actually had a pretty good run there. I love their sandwiches and I could still eat one every day if my stomach and wallet could handle it.

So the other day while looking for something to make for dinner, I realized I had all the ingredients to make a mesquite chicken sandwich just like I used to make at Quiznos! And I have to tell you, mine tasted almost the exact same!! So I decided to share this recipe with all of you just in case you get a hankering for Quiznos, but can't get there.

These are the things you'll need:

1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breast (this can obviously be changed for how many people you're feeding.)

Mesquite seasoning

cheddar cheese

real bacon bits

tomato

onion

ranch dressing

hogie rolls

lettuce

Let's get started:

Preheat your oven to about 250-300 degrees. We don't want the sandwiches cooking to crisps, we just want them to get a little crispy and warm.

Cut your chicken into short strips and season the tar out of it with Mesquite seasoning. My favorite is McCormick's.

Remember, chicken shrinks a bit when you cook it, so choose your amount of chicken accordingly.

Cut your rolls completely in half. I find that if you cut the top completely separately from the bottom it's easier to build your sandwich, and your sandwich will be easier to close.

Put your ranch dressing on one or both sides of each sandwich. I chose to only put the dressing on the top of the sandwiches.

Tomatos and onions go on the top, chicken on the bottom side of the bread. My sandwich has tomatoes, Ander's had onions. He's such a weirdo. He doesn't even like tomatoes!!!

Put your sliced cheddar on top of the veggies

Add your bacon bits on top of your cheese

Here's what your sandwiches should look like before you put them into the oven:

Cook your sandwiches for about 10 minutes or so, or until the bread edges become crispy but the middle of the sandwich is still slightly soft.

Add your lettuce after taking your sandwiches out of the over. No one likes warm lettuce!

And finally, put your tops and bottoms together and slice down the middle. Ta dah! We ate french fries with ours but you can have whatever you like as a side.

Woo hoo! Now you can make a Mesquite Chicken sandwich like a Quiznos pro!!

That's what you get

Since moving here to Texas I feel like I've gotten stronger. In all aspects of my life, really. I feel like my testimony of the Gospel Jesus Christ has gotten stronger, my Master Lash Stylist technique is getting stronger, my personality and individuality is getting stronger...

And then this morning I cheerfully opened my front door to take May-May potty and I found this:

Oh but he was alive of course... very VERY much alive.

He was waiting for me on my welcome mat, no doubt planning his attack on my unsuspecting foot.

I screamed... I dropped May-May's leash and slammed the door. My heart was beating uncontrollably fast, those things are highly poisonous!!! I cracked the door open again, watching. He moved away from me, reaching out with those little feeler antennae of his. His head was a bright orange, obviously a warning to everyone that he was dangerous. I watched his hundreds of little yellow legs move quickly over the ground as he turned the corner. So I did what any level-headed woman would do:

I called my husband.

"There's a huge centipede outside our door! HUGE! He has the orange head and the giant pinchers on his butt! What do I DO?"

Laughs "Well, kill him!"

"How!?! If we only had a shovel!! I could chop him up into pieces!"

"Naw, just use a shoe,"

"Not one of mine! Mine are too small! I'll grab one of yours"

I brought Ander's shoe down onto the unsuspecting spawn of Satan at my doorstep. Again and again I smashed him, cracking his head and pinchers, anywhere I could hit him.

He stopped squirming.

He was dead.

I took a deep breath. "What to do now?" I thought, "well, May-May has to pee, so I'll take her and come back."

May-May was a very good girl. She peed for me very quickly, for I had to come and dispose of the body... the body... 

It was gone.

"Where did it go!? It was just here!!"

Then I saw him... crouched underneath the ridge of the wall where it meets the cement. He was still alive!!

"Oh no you don't!" I cried.

So I called Ander again:

"He's still alive!!!!"

"How alive?"

"I don't know!"

"I mean, is he alive alive? Or just barely alive?"

"Well, he's pretty sad... not moving a whole lot... I really rained on his parade."

"Just hit him some more"

"What do I do with him when he's finally dead?"

"Throw him out into the grass"

"With what?!"

"A piece of paper or something..."

"Can I flush him?"

"Yes, you can flush him"

Then I get an idea.

I came running out of the apartment saying "DIE!" while spraying Raid hornet spray all over the cement. He never knew what hit him, he was already pretty badly damaged.

I nudged him with Ander's shoe...nothing. He was really dead. Really and truly dead. Dead as a doornail.

I thought about disposing of him in my toilet... or throwing him out into the grass. I just couldn't do it. He was too big, too wet, and too scary. I just couldn't do it.

As I walked into my apartment with my giant shoe and can of Raid I turned and took one last look at it lying there in it's pool of poison. "That's what you get, sucker," I said to myself as I walked inside.

Up and at them!!!

Nope.

I don't feel like getting "up" or "at" anything.

About six months or so ago I was on fire. I worked out every night, I ate healthy, I enjoyed the workouts that I was doing and I was really please with the way I was beginning to look and feel. I got that wonderful question, "Have you lost weight?" more often than not, and my clothes all started to fit better. I could walk up a flight of stairs without feeling winded, and I could load and unload groceries without batting an extended eyelash...

Fast forward to July 2012:

Now I have none of that going for me at all. I just looked at myself in the mirror today and saw some serious pudge going on in my midsection. Actually, it has never really been my middle that had needed work, it's my hips/love handles. Or as I call them, my hate handles.

I can't really figure it out. Why was I so on the ball back then? What changed? I still work just as much as before, I still love my job, I still have the same amount of stuff to do regarding my church calling, but why am I such a slug?

I really wish I could find some sort of cardio activity that I just love. I've never been a runner, swimming gets boring, I suck at any sport, and my dancing is still super fun but there are only so many times I can dance to the same song on my dance games and feel satisfied. I think back to my gymnastic days when I was little and remember how fit I was. I loved that stuff! But what sort of future is there in gymnastics? No... it was never practical to keep that up.

Walking I can do. Uphill, downhill, with May-May, with Ander, by myself, on a treadmill... I can do that. The problem is that it is SO HOT here in Austin I feel like my brain is melting when I'm outside.

My other problem is Pinterest. I LOOOOOOOVE Pinterest as much as the next crafty girl, but my problem with Pinterest is this: that website is so full of awesome inspirational pictures, quotes, recipes, and workouts for women. But on the other hand Pinterest is chock full of recipes that are basically guaranteed to put the pound ON. What sense does that make? It's incredibly irritating, and what's even more irritating is that there is no way to fix it.

Forgive me for my rant, but I am bummed that I lost that fire under my little behind. I was so good at it for a while! People even noticed! But now all I want to do is lay on the couch with my hubby and my puppy and watch a movie. OR even worse, I want to just read or play a video game. This is a problem, because my job is completely sedentary, so my home life shouldn't be. I have got to get active again, but it's so hard. Being fit is a decision and it's a lifestyle. It can't really be something that you just do every once in a while. I guess I just have to suck it up and do it one of these days... the first step is always the hardest.

So I guess I'll start tomorrow... or the next day... or the next day... or the next...

I told her to wait for me because I'd be right back from getting the mail. Apparently she did.

Face to face

Ander and I were messing around the other day and made some stupid videos. They're pretty stupid, but they made us laugh.

Somethin' about squishy faces... I don't know.

Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses

This last Friday night Ander accompanied me to the nerdiest thing we've ever been to in our lives. We attended the Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses concert at the Long Center in Austin. It. Was. Fantastic.

I've always been a huge Zelda fan. Honestly, I remember my dad and brother playing the original Zelda together and I've been a fan ever since. It doesn't really get much better than a little guy dressed in green running around with a sword. And he sure has come a long way since the old Nintendo days.

1012

1987            

Link is the perfect video game silent protagonist. He can basically do anything. There really hasn't been a bad Zelda game yet, although Majora's Mask for the N64 didn't ever really interest me. The music is classic, and at this concert they pulled out all of the stops.

 The Austin Symphony were the ones that played the music all night, and on that big screen behind them they showed gameplay and scenes from every single Zelda game that has ever been released. It was even timed perfect with the music. It was really impressive.

 The second kid from the front of this balcony is wearing a little pointy Link hat... I don't know if you can see it very well, but... there were a lot of those. A lot of people in full on green tunics/tights/boots too. And just in case any of you are wondering: I do draw the line somewhere. I wore nice jeans, a dressy top, and heels. No costumes for me.

 This was the line for the bathrooms. Cell phones all around. It blows my mind that this generation is in a perpetual state of looking down. No one looks up and around anymore... they might miss something on Facebook Mobile.

 The line for the bar during intermission was huge. I don't really know why, I thought these people were enjoyed the night, not trying to dim it by alcohol.

This was the most impressive costume of all. This girl MADE this whole thing herself and subjected herself to every nerd's dream by standing there in the middle of the foyer and letting everyone take pictures of her (and with her). Of course she loved every minute of it, and milked it for all it was worth. I was very impressed with her sewing skills.

The concert was so magnificent, I loved every minute of it. Even though we were surrounded by people playing their Nintendo DS's during the intermission, and people in full costume, it was TOTALLY worth it! The music arrangements were to die for. What better music for a symphony to play than the classic Zelda theme?

Original

Symphonic

Big purchase

This is the new 39 television that Ander FINALLY let me buy. I've been begging him for a new TV for a long time, and he finally made that dream of mine a reality. I'm amazed how much of a different experience it is when you watch a movie or play a video game on a large screen. Hopefully someday we'll just have a projector and use one wall as our screen, but this is so wonderfully perfect for now. I'm so happy!