Bacon-Turkey Subs

I stood at the kitchen window this morning and watched the light come up over Mount Timpanogos and thought, again, that I have lived inside this view my whole life and never once gotten tired of it. The week was a fall week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

The children are doing what they do, which is the central report of every week of my adult life. Ethan is 21, in Manila on his mission, and his last email mentioned a chicken adobo so good he is going to make me make it when he comes home. Olivia is 19, at BYU studying elementary education — the path she chose at age seven and has not deviated from once. Mason, 16, is in Brazil on his mission. His weekly emails are short and full of jokes. He does not write much about the work. He writes about the food. Lily is 15, in high school, asking the kind of questions in Sunday School that make the teachers uncomfortable, which I find difficult and also, secretly, admirable. Noah is 12, the comedian, the performer — the kid who does an impression of my disappointed face in front of company, and gets away with it. That is the family report. I do not have a system for these reports. I just listen and remember and call back when I said I would call back, which is most of the time and not all of the time, and the difference between most and all is the territory of motherhood.

I do not preach in this blog. I never have. My faith is in here the way air is in a room — invisible, essential, not discussed. I am still a Latter-day Saint. I am also a woman who has sat in front of a casket the size of a bread box. I do not see those two things as contradictions, but I do not pretend they sit easily together either. The bench in the chapel where I sit on Sunday is the same bench. The woman is not. The faith makes room for the woman. That is what I have learned to ask of it.

The recipe of the week was focaccia, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. I taught a freezer meal class this week and someone cried at the cost-per-serving column on the handout. I took the cry as a compliment. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

The week ends the way most of them do — with a labeled bag, a tomorrow, a kitchen light I leave on for no one in particular, and a quiet that holds.

The focaccia fed eight and cost under fifteen dollars, and that is the kind of math that makes me feel like the week was worth something. But not every night calls for a slow bread — some nights call for something already wrapped, already labeled, already waiting. These Bacon-Turkey Subs are that thing for me: the workhorse recipe I reach for when the prep notebook says the oven is busy and the family is not. Brandon would take one for lunch without being asked. Noah would eat two and claim he only had one. That is the review that matters.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 hoagie or sub rolls (6–8 inch)
12 oz sliced turkey breast
8 strips bacon
4 slices provolone or cheddar cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow or Dijon mustard
1 cup romaine lettuce, shredded
1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook the bacon. In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon strips 4–5 minutes per side until crisp. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Once cool, break each strip in half.
Mix the spread. In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise and mustard until combined. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Prep the rolls. Slice each sub roll lengthwise without cutting all the way through. Spread the mayo-mustard mixture evenly on both cut sides of each roll.
Layer the fillings. On the bottom half of each roll, layer 3 oz turkey breast, 2 strips of bacon (4 halves), and 1 slice of cheese. Top with shredded lettuce, tomato slices, and red onion.
Close and serve. Press the top of each roll down gently. Serve immediately, or wrap tightly in foil for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. For freezer prep, wrap before adding lettuce and tomato; add fresh toppings after thawing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Bacon-Turkey Subs — Built for the Week Ahead, Just Like Everything Else