BLT minus the T plus E and C (The Spanglish)

So apparently these sandwiches are called the Spanglish (because the chef prepared them in the movie Spanglish). But I've never seen the movie. And the idea for these sandwiches doesn't seem that far fetched that the movie would have been the first time to make them.

But I was inspired by the picture I saw on pinterest. And the sandwich turned out so good that Nate and I had them for lunch on Saturday and again for lunch on Sunday.

Of course if you like tomatoes you could add that to your sandwich as well, but I'm  not a huge fan. Even though my tastes are expanding and I now things with tomatoes in them (such as tomato basil soup and chunky salsa). I still can't bring myself to eat them plain or in sandwiches or salads. But if you like tomatoes, then you'll probably like this sandwich with them added as well.

For one sandwich: *

2 slices of bread**
3 slices of bacon
2 pieces of lettuce
1 egg
2 slices of cheese **

*Obviously, if you want to make a sandwich for more than one person this is the easiest recipe to double, triple or quadruple depending on how many you need to feed.

**You can pick any type of bread or cheese that you like for this sandwich. I used mozzarella, but Nate used first bleu cheese and then goat cheese and said both were divine. We both used a three cheese semolina loaf.

1. Cook bacon in a frying pan over medium heat until crispy, flipping occasionally.
2. Preheat panini press (because warm sandwiches are better than cold)
3. Cook egg according to 'how to make the perfect dip egg' instructions.
3. Layer sandwich with bread, lettuce, bacon, egg, cheese and bread again.
4. Place sandwich in panini press and grill for about 3 minutes, until golden brown.
5. Enjoy.

Yum Yum. I think this would be divine with avocado too.

What's your favorite type of sandwich?

Ground Chicken Burgers

So, as mentioned here, I got 4 new kitchen aid attachments for my birthday. And one of them was the meat grinder attachment. So the first thing we decided to make was ground chicken burgers. Now, I have actually never had a burger that wasn't made of ground beef (no turkey burgers or anything), so I wasn't exactly sure if I would like a chicken burger. But after a few bites of getting used to the different texture, this burger tasted great. We ate our chicken burgers plain so that we could really see how the burger itself tasted, but of course this would taste great topped with any of your favorite sandwich or hamburger toppings.

1 lb ground chicken
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 onion, diced finely
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 TBS seasonal all
1/4 TBS onion salt
1/2 TBS garlic salt
1 TBS salt
1/2 TBS mesquite BBQ seasoning
 ranch dressing

1. Preheat grill (charcoal, electric or gas)
2. Place all ingredients, except ranch, in a large mixing bowl and mix together with hands or a wooden spoon.
3. Divide chicken mixture into 4ths.
4. Form mixture into patties.
5. Cook patties over grill as you would a hamburger, flipping occasionally.
6. Coat burgers with a little ranch dressing each time you flip them to keep them from drying out.
7. Chicken burgers are done when their temperature reaches 165 degrees. **
8. Enjoy.

**Even if you didn't win our giveaway this morning for the meat thermometer you can buy your own from amazon here.

Enjoy this chicken burger as a healthier alternative to the traditional groundbeef burger.

What are some healthy alternatives/substitutes that your family likes to make?

Meatball Marinara Sandwich

I saw a version of this recipe here, from the Pioneer Woman and decided it looked to delicious not to try it for ourselves. I slightly adapted the recipe to make it more my own, and also decided we might as well eat the sandwiches on deli buns, instead of eating 3 or 4 dinner rolls. Either way, this turned out really tasty.

1 lb ground beef

1/2 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 TBS garlic

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 TBS olive oil

1/4 of an onion, chopped

16 oz marinara sauce **

**You can use a jar of sauce, or make your own. I chose to make my own similar to this recipe, but I left out the salt, pepper and garlic since the meatballs had so much flavor already.

deli rolls

mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Put ground beef, bread crumbs, garlic, salt, pepper and milk in a large bowl.
2. Knead together with hands, mixing thoroughly.
3. Roll meat into tablespoon sized balls.
3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
4. Add onions and saute for 1 minute.
5. Add meatballs between the onions and brown for 1 minute. (I had to do this in 2 batches).
6. Flip meatballs over carefully and brown for 1 minute.
7. Pour marinara sauce into the pan.
8. Put lid on pan and shake gently to mix.
9. With lid on pan, allow sauce to simmer for 20 minutes.
10. After 20 minutes, cut deli rolls open in the middle.
11. Put about 6 meatballs on each roll, with extra sauce.
12. Top meatballs with desired amount of mozzarella cheese.
13. Eat immediately and enjoy!

This makes enough for about 4 sandwiches. We each had one sandwich and we were still a LITTLE hungry, (especially Nate because he only had eaten plums for breakfast/lunch). So Nate asked if I would share one with him. I told him I wanted less than half, but he told me I had to eat half. Anyway, we had a good amount of sauce left over and a few meatballs (which would have been perfect to freeze, and enjoy on pasta later). But I forgot. And we went to Lowe's to get a light bulb, and then to get dessert and it sat on the counter the whole time. So needless to say, our dog, Aspen, enjoyed some of it this morning on top of his breakfast (of dog food of course). Lesson learned. Put leftovers in the fridge right away, because it really is a shame to waste them.

What's your worst story of accidentally wasting food?

Chicken Onion Teriyaki Dip Sandwich

2 chicken breasts
1/2 onion chopped
2 TBS apple vinegar
1 TBS red wine vinegar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 TBS brown sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki Sauce
1/4 tsp salt

a sprinkle of black pepper
a sprinkle of garlic powder

2 small loaves of french bread (or something else delicious)
4 oz cheddar cheese

1. Cut each chicken breast into 2 pieces (not necessary probably, we just wanted it to cook faster)
2. Put chicken breasts, onion, vinegar, corn syrup, brown sugar, lemon juice, teriyaki sauce, salt, pepper and garlic powder in crock pot on high.
3. Stir mixture together.
4. Cook for about 2 hours, until chicken is thoroughly cooked.
5. Cut loaves of bread in half, like a sandwich
6. Top bread with chicken and shredded cheese.

7. Toast in the oven (at 350) for about 5 minutes.

8. Dip sandwich in remaining sauce as you eat.

 

These sandwiches turned out really great, and they were kind of an experiment based off of  Subway's sweet onion teriyaki sandwich. Now, I'm not going to claim that these taste like Subway's sandwich, but they do in fact taste delicious. Plus, what's great than throwing something into the crockpot and having it ready 2 hours later. These sandwiches were so filling we were only able to eat 1/2 each. Nate ate the leftovers yesterday and said it was just as good to eat the second time around. He also said this is definitely a meal we'll have to make again.

I feel like nothing can beat a hot sandwich off the grill (/oven). What's your favorite kind of sandwich?

Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich

Last week we decided to thaw some of our smoked turkey and make some delicious turkey, bacon avocado sandwiches. Although, I can't really claim to having "grown up" there, I did live there for 4 years, and the wonderful Fallbrook is the "avocado capital of the world".  So, naturally I love avocados immensely.

For Christmas I got Nate a panini press, which made it extra easy to have delicious hot sandwiches to eat, but if you don't have a panini press, do not fear, here's a link to help you.

Turkey Bacon Avocado Panini
foccacia bread (of course, regular bread could work too - we used round foccacia bread we found from target's bakery, it was about the size of a plate)
4 slices of cheese (we used cheddar, I think provolone would rock though)
6 slices of bacon
1 avocado (make sure that its ripe!)
turkey
ranch dressing


Cook bacon in a large pan on the stove over medium heat until slightly crispy.
Cut avocado in half, removing seed.
Cut slices of avocado (long wise), about 8 per half.
Scoop out slices with a spoon.
Cut foccacia bread in half, hamburger style (depending on the size of your bread you might have to cute it a few times hot dog style too, to get it the right size).
Layer bread with turkey, avocado, bacon and cheese.
Close with the top piece of bread.
Grill in your panini press (or other method) for about 5 minutes.
Dip sandwich in ranch dressing as you eat.

This sandwich tasted delicious hot, AND delicious cold the next day too. We didn't have any lettuce, so we ate these without, but I'm sure lettuce would be good to. And for those of you who like tomatoes, they'd probably be a good addition as well.

Enjoy.

(Will probably make this again soon, and will make sure to take pictures)

Mediterranean Chicken Wraps

1 chicken tender (from Costco of course)
1/2 cup Italian dressing
1 your favorite wrap (I used a wheat tortilla)(if it is dry, sprinkle a little water on it and zap for 10 seconds in the microwave)
3 TBS Sabra Hummus (I used jalapeno hummus)( I love plain hummus, Greek olive hummus, and roasted red pepper hummus too)
1 romaine lettuce leaf (torn in bite size pieces)
1 small tomato (sliced)

1. Marinate chicken in Italian dressing (for a couple of hours)
2. Grill chicken thoroughly
3. Cut or tear chicken into bite size pieces
4. Spread hummus on the wrap, covering all of the wrap
5. Place lettuce, tomato, and chicken on top of the hummus
6. Roll the wrap and enjoy

Hummus is my new favorite snack.  I love to eat it with wheat thins.  It is a quick snack and filling.  My favorite brand is Sabre.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

I found this recipe on Jamie Cooks It Up! and fell in love with it. Maybe I thought it was so delicious because it was or because I was starving because I had been fasting since Saturday. It made enough for Craig and I both to have 3 lettuce wraps and leftovers for a another whole meal. (I modified it a little bit)

Asian Lettuce Wraps

6 chicken tenderloins (cut bite size)

1/2 red or green pepper (chopped)

1 to 2 cloves garlic (minced)

3/4 C. carrots (chopped)

1 C. celery (chopped)

1/3 onion (chopped)

1/2 cup whole almonds

1 head butter lettuce (you can use Romain also)

Sauce

1 T peanut butter

2 tsp. hoisin sauce

2 T teryaki sauce (or soy sauce)

1/4 C sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

1 tsp. sesame oil

pinch red pepper flakes

1. Cook cut up chicken tenderloins in a hot skillet with about 1 T. olive oil. Add a bit of salt and pepper into the pan as well. Cook until the chicken pieces are a nice golden color.

2. While your chicken is cooking, chop up all your veggies so they are about the same size. (I made my about 1/2 inch size)

3. When the chicken is done remove it from the pan and place it on a plate. Add veggies to the pan and cook for about 15 minutes on medium high heat, or until the veggies are crisp tender.

4. Add all of the sauce ingredients into a small bowl and whisk it together until smooth.

5. Add the chicken, sauce and almonds into the skillet with the veggies. Stir everything around until it becomes incorporated. Cook it until everything is heated through, about 2-3 minutes.

6. Eat inside a nice lettuce leaf, with rice on the side. (Dad put the rice in his lettuce leaf with the chicken and veggies, I let my extras drip out of my leaf onto my rice to eat)

YUM