Chicken Pesto French Bread Sandwiches

Pesto....mmmmm.

Chicken Pesto French Bread
(open faced sandwich)

French Bread Loaf
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts
salt and pepper
onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup pesto
2 cups mozzarella
1 cup parmesan


Cut chicken into cubes.  Warm up your pan, add the olive oil, garlic and chicken.  Season it with salt and pepper.  Let cook until the chicken is golden, then set aside in a bowl.  In the same pan, place 2 Tbsp butter and sliced onion.  Cook until they are golden and caramelized in appearance.
Cut your french bread lengthwise to have make your sandwich top and bottom.  Spread pesto on both halves of bread.  Next layer the cooked chicken, onions and then top with cheese.
Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.  Until cheese is golden brown.

Yummy!


 

Apple Pork Loin Hoagie with Caramel sauce

Ok, I had posted this before, click here for the original post.  But at the end of the post I mentioned some things I'd maybe do differntly next time.  Well, I did those different things this time, and Oh WOW!  What a difference.  TJ loved it!  He gave it a 10 out of 10, which doesn't happen that often.  He thinks I should sell these at the fair. :)

Ok, well here's the recipe.

Apple Pork Loin Hoagie with Caramel sauce

2-3 pound pork-loin roast
1 onion, sliced in wedges
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup apple juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 apples, chopped
1 (16-ounce) bag coleslaw mix
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Hoagie Buns

Caramel sauce:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice
Bring to a boil on the stove, and set aside.

Put onion wedges into the bottom of your crockpot.  Mix the thyme, kosher salt, pepper and cinnamon in a bowl.  Rub into all sides of the pork loin.  Add apple juice and lemon juice to the crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-6. The longer you cook it, the more shredded and juicy the meat will become. 20-30 minutes before serving, remove meat from crockpot and let sit on a cutting board. Put chopped apples (no need to peel) and the whole bag of coleslaw into your crockpot. Shred the meat and add to the pot.   Then add the apple cider vinegar.   Add extra salt and pepper to taste.

Toast the insides of your Hoagie buns, and mix together the caramel sauce when you are ready to serve.

Load the bun with the meat mixture, pour over 2 tbsp of the caramel sauce and enjoy the sandwich!

Yumm!

TJ gave this a 10 out of 10!  Yee-haw :)


 

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I'm really only posting this for the calorie count.  

Did you know there's 190 calories in only 2 Tbsp of peanut butter.  I hate to admit this but I like to slather the peanut butter on there, so this is surprising to me.  I was a little more conservative with the peanut butter once I checked this out today.  And this is a perfect example of what I'm talking about with counting calories.  It's not just for losing weight, but also for monitoring your intake.  There was about the same amount in my Salsa Chicken Burrito yesterday, so thinking about it that way I think I'd like to have something a little more tasty for that amount of calories!  

Now I know....my left overs may be more filling, and taste better for the same amount of calories as a peanut butter sandwich.  

So, which one should I pick?!  

I think I'm going to have to go with the left overs on this one!

Calorie Count
*330* 1 peanut butter sandwich

190- 2 Tbsp peanut butter
140- 2 slices wheat bread
 

One Eyed Egyptian Sandwiches.

Have you ever had a one eyed Egyptian sandwich?  

We used to make, eat, have these when we were kids.  

For some reason we thought it was cool.  

Looking back, not really sure why I thought that.  

I made one for TJ the last time we had french toast. 

I wasn’t sure if he’s ever had them before.  He really liked it.
It’s super easy.  

Take a piece of bread, and rip a little hole in the middle.

Put the bread on a pan, and crack the egg and drop it in that hole in the bread.  

Cook on both sides.  Eat!
If you’ve got bread and atleast 1 egg, you are set. :)

Reuben Sandwiches

We had this for lunch today at my sisters.  I've had at her house before and it's super yummy.  I never remember to get the ingredients to make it on my own at home...but I'm going to put it in my cookbook so I start thinking about it. :)

I usually don't care for swiss cheese, but it doesn't bother me in this.  I think the  Dressing and the Sauerkraut overpower it or something.

 (good/not regular sandwich) Bread
 roast beef or corned beef
 swiss cheese
 Sauerkraut (warmed in the microwave for a few seconds first before putting it on the sandwich)
 1000 Island Dressing (wish bone)

Enjoy!

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Egg Salad Sandwiches for lunch. Some people prefer to make this ahead of time, but I just run the eggs under cold water for a long time to cool them off right away so they are nice and cold for the sandwiches and then I can make it right at lunch time.

12 eggs
1 cup mayo
1 tsp mustard
sprinkle lawry's seasoning
1/4 tsp pepper
sprinkle celery salt
1/4 tsp sugar dissolved in 1 tsp vinegar

I put my eggs in the pan with water turned it on high and set the timer for 25 minutes. When it beeps I drain the hot water and continuously run cold water over them for 5 minutes. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and then mix in with the cut up eggs. Super easy. :)



I was afraid of making this for such a long time. Not really sure why. Some people put lots of other things in their egg salad. I'm not a fan of celery in anything, so I don't use that option, but others use onions. I just choose not to add that in mine, but certainly feel free to add it to yours!



Calorie Count
*280* per sandwich
 160- 2 slices wheat bread
 120- 1/4 cup egg salad


 960- 12 eggs
 720- mayo
   15- sugar
*1695* for whole batch about 3 1/2 cups 

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I looked through 6 different cookbooks to see what they used...and finally came to my conclusion on what I wanted to add. TJ gave the recipe a 9 out of 10!

Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Pita Bread Pockets, or Focaccia bread
1-2 chicken breasts cut, and cubed
3/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp garlic pepper
1 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp vinegar
1 Tbsp minced onion
Lawry's seasoning
grapes cut into fourths






















We all enjoyed this recipe. I wasn't so sure about myself just making it up so much, but it turned out great.

Grilled Cheese with Picture

My kind of Grilled Cheese sandwiches.

I know I talked about this before. I even linked the previous post. But I did not take pictures last time, so for all you visual learners. Not that this is a hard concept, but you know.....

Slice the block cheese


About 4 pieces per sandwich (however you can never have enough cheese)


Then grill it to perfection for your oooooey, gooey, wonderfully yummy, non processed/fake, but real warm, melty, cheesey and toasted best grilled cheese sandwich ever!!!



Try it. It's highly probable that you will never want to go back to that processed version again! :)

Calorie Count

160-  2 slices of wheat bread

110-  4 medium to thin slices of colby jack block cheese

100-  1 Tablespoon of butter (total)

*370* Grand Total Calorie Intake for 1 Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I scaled it down for myself by only putting 3 slices of cheese and half a tablespoon of butter total.  This dropped my calorie intake for this sandwich down to *293*  

Philly Sandwiches

So, I was told that this is nothing like the real Philly steak sandwiches. To which I say, I don't really care. :) I didn't create it or name it! :) I just cooked it and ate it and it was good.



1 pound of sliced roast beef from the deli
1 package provolone cheese slices
1 loaf french bread
ranch dressing
green pepper

First chop up the green pepper and cut up the sliced roast beef into smaller strips. Cook the meat, pepper and mix in the ranch on the stove to soften the pepper and heat through on the stove. Line the cheese on the open bread. Put the meat mixture on top of the cheese and bake open in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes or so. Just to melt the cheese and crunch up the bread. This is a quick and easy meal. Just remember to make it shortly after buying the ingredients.

One time I put it on the menu, and didn't make it right away, and the meat doesn't last forever, plus my bread turned moldy before I used it. However I have learned from that. I put my bread in the freezer until I'm ready to use it. That way it never molds before I get to use it. :)

Just a little tip for you, incase you've never heard of that before. There might be one of you out there.

My kind of grilled cheese

Sometimes these easy lunch ideas fly under the radar.

I know I've said this before, but we are not a big fan of the processed foods. We like natural or more homemade style of things. So for our kind of grilled cheese, we use the colby jack block of cheese instead of that Fake American cheese junk! And let me tell you they are soooooo good. So all you need is some wheat bread, a block of cheese and slice it as thick as you want, and REAL butter for the grilling part. None of that margarine stuff. That's not real butter!

This is a huge family favorite.  Monkey would probably eat three sandwiches if I let him, but I usually only let him have two. I thought that sounded good today, and I didn't have a block of cheese so I used the shredded colby jack blend instead. It's the same thing, just in the shredded version instead of the block version. Once it's melted it doesn't matter.

So, now you know how to have the best grilled cheese ever! Enjoy.