Meatless Main Dish

Recipes a plenty to be posted Thursday over at LifeasMom.com. Check it out. The recipe swap for this week is focusing on MEATLESS Main dishes. I had to think hard about what I make as a main dish without using meat. Aside from Spaghetti or Mac and Cheese the only thing I could think of was...

Spicy Cheesy Sandwich

2 pounds Extra Sharp cheddar
1 small can chopped olives
2 10 oz can Rotel with green chilie
1/2 small jar of pimientos
3 green onions sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 stick butter melted
Salt and pepper
2-3 dozen small french bread rolls or sourdough
1 roll aluminum foil

Slice rolls, leaving one side hinged. Carefully remove the insides of rolls and put them in a large bowl. Add cheese, olives and Rotel to the roll insides. Mix well. In a serperate bowl add melted butter, garlic, green onion slices and pimiento. Pour this mixture on top of the bread cheese mixture and mix well.

Cut aluminum foil into 12 inch sheets. Take a roll and stuff it with 2-3 tablespoons of cheesy mixture. Place roll on aluminum foil and then wrap the cheesy sandwich. Do this to all of the rolls.

These can be frozen. (Highly reccomended, makes a quick dinner) Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 375 F degree oven. These are DE-Lish!

Spicy Beef Dip Sandwiches

Sam's Club has some really yummy whole wheat hoagies. The bread is sooooo good. You can use it for garlic bread, simple with butter, bread pizzas, but my favorite way to use it is for Spicy Beef Dip Sandwiches! YUM, Yum, yum. These sandwiches have recieved rave reviews in the garage.

Most of these ingredients can be purchased at Sam's Club. One stop shop, unless you don't want to buy bell peppers and onions and onions in bulk.

Spicy Beef Dip Sandwiches

Whole wheat hoagies
Jalepeno Jack cheese slices

sliced onion
sliced bell peppers
butter or olive oil
salt and pepper

Sliced Roast beef
Tone's Beef Base
water

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Slice a hinge into your hoagie bread. Open bread without seperating it and top with slices of jack cheese. Pop those in the oven.

Place onion and bell peppers onto a small fry pan and saute a bit and cook on low.

In a pan or pot place slices of roast beef. Cover with water and add a tablespoon or so of beef base. Cook over the stove until beef is warmed and beef broth is created.

Remove cheesey toasted hoagies from the oven. Top cheese with a bit of the b. pepper onion mixture and then top with beef. Ladle some of the broth into ramekins and serve immediately. These sandwiches are perfect for a cold day.

Pizza Grilled Cheese

First for dinner I made some frozen food from Trader Joes. Rob and I are NOT frozen food people. He ate half of his dinner and I nibbled at mine. Later on, I found myself to be hungry. So I made a grilled pepper jack cheese sandwich on sourdough. It was warm, toasty cheesey and garlicy. Simply divine.

Then, I remembered that I had pepperoni and salami in the deli drawer. The Pizza Grilled Cheese was then created.

Pizza Grilled Cheese

Sourdough bread
pepper jack cheese
pepperoni
salami
butter
garlic powder
salt

Pizza Sauce
Grated Parmesan Reggiano

On a microwave safe plate take two pieces of bread. Layer one side with cheese and salami, layer the other side with cheese and pepperoni. Top one side with another piece of cheese. Microwave for 30-45 seconds. Assemble the sandwich and butter each side. Place sandwich on the pan and grill on high heat. Flip and cook. Flip until both sides are toasty and golden brown. Sprinkle sandwich with Parmesan Reggiano.

Serve your sandwich with warmed pizza sauce for dipping. This sandwich is amazing!

Mmm MMMonte Cristo Sandwich

The first time I had one of these sandwiches was on my 29 4ever Birthday celebration at the Blue Bayou restaurant at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It was freaking AMAZING! As my friend Kandy Johnston would say it was a Food Orga_m! Holy Moly! Simply amazing combinations of sweet and savory and cheesy and crunchy. They served this culinary masterpiece with a delicious lettuce salad with sweetened crunchy pecans, cranberries, crumbly cheese, and a sweet vinaigrette! Curly noodled pasta salad and a side of boysenberry jam to spread on the Monte Cristo.

What is the Monte Cristo exactly? Black Forest Ham, Turkey, and Swiss Cheese, battered and fried, then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Sounds a bit weird. But OMG! You gotta get one.

Locally there is one restaurant in the SCV that serves one of these sandwiches. Eggs and Things. They are open for breakfast and lunch. Their sandwich is quite good. They serve theirs with maple syrup and Marion blackberry preserves.

My dear friend Amy, says that the Black Cow in Montrose, Ca has a mean Monte Cristo. I have yet to dine there with Amy. Not for lack of trying to plan a lunch/shopping date. I'll let you know about the experience shall I ever get there.

Tonight I'm hungry. Robby came home and had already eaten dinner with one of his friends. A little bummed. I opened the 'frige and remembered I bought turkey and black forest ham! Yippee. I had bread and three kinds of sliced cheese. So below you will find the recipe for my very own Monte Cristo Sandwich at 28413!

28413 Monte Cristo Sandwich

This recipe will serve 2

4 slices wheat bread
8 slices shaved black forest ham
8 slices oven baked turkey
2 slices mozzarella cheese
2 slices tillamook cheddar cheese
2 slices pepper jack cheese

1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup beer
toothpicks

Oil for frying (I used canola oil)

Powdered sugar
any kind of jam you like
real maple syrup

Heat oil to 365 degrees F. While oil is heated mix batter. In a medium sized bowl mix flour, cinnamon and beer. Stir. Set aside

Take two pieces of the bread. Top each with one slice of mozzarella. Then place 4 slices of Black forest ham on top of mozzarella on each sandwich. Now place a slice of cheddar on the two sandwiches. Layer the slices of turkey on each. Top that with the pepper jack cheese and other two pieces of bread. Put both sandwiches on a plate and nuke for 30-45 seconds.

Remove sandwiches from microwave. Cut the sandwiches into 4 triangle pieces. Pierce each quarter with toothpick to hold it together. Dunk sandwich piece into batter. Use a spoon and cover all sides with batter. Place in hot oil and fry. Remove toothpick and use tongs to flip sandwich. Fry until all sides are golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately with syrup or jam.

ENJOY! I know I did! (: