Italian Grilled Cheese

This summer has been pretty hot. I don’t like temperatures that start with a ‘9’, and three-digitis? #forgetaboutit

I’ve been trying to limit my oven use for dinner planning when it gets that hot. I’ve also been OBSESSED with using stuff up. Pantry items and freezer finds alike have been gracing my plates. I had some breaded eggplant hanging around (circa Eggplant Parm Pizza) and thought tucking those buggers into grilled cheese could be fun.
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Italian Inspired Grilled Cheese (for 2)

Ingredients:

4 slices of bread
3 tbs pesto (or marinara or tapanade or alfredo)
2-3 slices American cheese
½ cup shredded mozzarella
6 pieces of breaded eggplant (substitutions below)
olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
Bake the eggplant in a flat layer for about 10-minutes or until heated through, flipping once (or pan fry or pop in a toaster oven)
Reduce heat to 250-degrees if both sandwiches don’t fit in the skillet at the same time.
Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium heat.
Spread pesto onto one slice of bread for each sandwich (or both pieces of both sandwich if you LOVE pesto).
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Layer American cheese, then eggplant, then mozzarella onto each sandwich.
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Drizzle olive oil into the pan and put sandwiches in.
Cook a few minutes, until the crispness of your preference, before gently flipping over.
Cook on the 2nd side a few minutes and serve immediately (or keep 1st sandwich warm in the oven until the 2nd sandwich is ready.

I loved this. Mr. J did too. I didn’t want the pesto to overtake all the flavors, but I could have upped it to both sides. I loved the marinara for dipping. The eggplant had a perfect crispness even surrounded by cheese.

Now, for the cheese. Don’t judge the American cheese in there. Other cheeses (more fancy, more authentic, more worldly cheeses) will not melt as perfectly as American cheese. I may have snuck a little sprinkle of Parmesan in there too. Maybe.
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The eggplant is an easy thing I grab at Trader Joe’s and keep in the freezer. It makes for a super easy & quick Eggplant Parmesan or sub, or pizza. No eggplant? No problem! Another veggie would be good too, or bread your own! I like the breaded eggplant for the crunch, so the sandwich doesn’t get too soggy, but maybe grilled zucchini/eggplant/summer squash is right for you! Chop up some artichokes or roasted red peppers or whatever you have!

This is kind of like lazy-man’s pizza or pizza-leftovers in a hurry. The possibilities are ENDLESS!

Easy Sesame Noodles

I don’t make many Asian inspired dishes but I love using rice wine vinegar + sesame oil + soy sauce. It is such a great combo. It is really great in this noodle dish and I love it as a marinate for chicken wings too. This trifecta is also delicious for a salad dressing base. I saw The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for sesame noodles and thought it just looked too easy…would it have enough flavor? Turns out, it does.

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Sesame Noodles by Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

9 oz Chinese style fresh pasta (or linguini fini, or thin spaghetti)
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce (or soy sauce)
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs garlic, minced
3 tbs rice vinegar
3 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tsp hot sauce
3 tbs vegetable oil
4 green onions, chopped
3 tbs sesame seeds

Directions:

Boil water for the pasta
Cook the pasta just under according to the package (9-10 minutes if it says 10-12)
Heat a dry small frying pan over medium heat
Whisk together the teryiaki sauce, sugar, garlic, rice vinegar, sesame oil, hot sauce, and oil.
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Toast the sesame seeds in the frying pan for about 3-5 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove them from the heat once they start to get tan colored.
Remove pasta and put it in a serving dish.
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Mix in the sauce, half the green onions, and half the sesame seeds.
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Top with the rest of the green onions & sesame seeds to serve!
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I loved how much the noodles soaked up the sauce. They were seriously sesame-y. I thought the flavor was spot on. This dish had great flavors and couldn’t be easier.
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This dinner is suuuuper cheap too. I love adding some meatless wonders to my plans for the week.

Sesame Noodles Overall Cost Breakdown:
(I’m way over estimating the sesame oil & rice vinegar. Buy them! They’re inexpensive and don’t go bad forever).
Chinese style noodles: $2.99
sesame oil ($6.00 for the whole bottle): $1.00
rice vinegar ($2.50 for the whole bottle): $0.50
green onions (1/2 of bunch): $0.49
garlic could be optional in a pinch & sesame seeds are a nice-to-have, not a have-to-have
total = $5.00 for the whole thing, it serves 3 good portions or $1.66 per person.

Impressive, no? Once you have the sesame oil and rice vinegar you’ll definitely use the rest of them. These egg rolls were so stinky easy and worth it to have them freshly baked. Make this Chinese Pork in the Crockpot, it is ahhhhmazing. Or marinate chicken wings in it like these. Add sesame oil to your own crab rangoons and they’ll taste so much more flavorful.

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

My idea for these stuffed peppers was an adapting one, get ready. You’ve been warned…

I got peppers on sale at the grocery store. I always check out the discount produce. There’s so much good stuff for a fraction of the price. I got 3 peppers (red, green, yellow) for a buck-something. Crazy. Thus, here’s the foundation of this meal.
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Then, I wanted to get out of making rice. I think it is just annoying how long it takes. It gets sticky and the pot is obnoxious afterwards. I know, first world problems. I also didn’t have any rice around anyway, so it was a moot point. I had used up the couscous making a Shrimp and Couscous Salad (with the yellow pepper from this trio of peppers) so that wasn’t an option either. I wasn’t feeling the red quinoa I had around. That pretty much rounds out the options except then I spotted orzo and thought that would be fun. #winner

I added beans because a) they’re good for you and b) the beans would make it filling and I’d add less orzo which does nothing for you. The beans get the credit for started the Mexican twist.

I skipped the ground meat because turkey kielbasa is smokey and almost like chorizo, just not spicy. I thought it would make dinner feel a bit different too. This would be a really great use for the many scant packs of ground meat I freeze. I don’t usually want that meat to become a burger anyway so Mexican often wins out for their fate.

Hmmm. That’s it. I guess that’s where dinner came from. I made wayyy too much filling for just 2 peppers (4 halves). It became a sort of weird lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

½ package of turkey kielbasa, chopped
1 onion, chopped (I used ½ of a red onion)
½ cup dried orzo
1 can red beans, rinsed
1 cup corn (I used frozen)
¼ cup tomato sauce (optional)
¼ cup salsa
2 tbs taco seasoning (or your own combo of chili powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes)
2 peppers, halved
⅓ cup monterey jack cheese

Directions:

In a large pan over medium heat, fry kielbasa and onion in a tablespoon of oil until the onion starts to get cooked through and more transparent. (about 5 minutes)
Boil water for orzo. Add orzo and cook until totally cooked.
Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
Add corn, beans, tomato sauce, salsa, taco seasoning to the kielbasa and onion pan.
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Drain orzo and add to the pan with everything else.
Stir well.
sprinkle half the cheese into the the peppers.
Spoon the filling into the peppers.
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Bake for 15 minutes, then top with remaining cheese and bake for another 5 minutes.
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These were good, but not exactly life changing. I liked all the flavors and they brought a nice freshness and to the weekly meal schedule. The stuffed peppers were filling and not too heavy since there was just a tiny sprinkle of cheese. I liked the colors and textures. I don’t hate 1 pot meals either.

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I think stuffed peppers are just a bit hard to eat. The red one was thinner and ended up being better than the green one.

Pork and Vegetable Spring Rolls

On vacation to Bermuda, Mr. J became OBSESSED with a pork and vegetable spring roll. I think he ordered it almost every night. I recreated them for Dad & Mr. J’s combo birthday/father’s day meal. Our theme was “best of vacation” foods.

The eggroll wrappers are from the produce section of the grocery store. They feel like fresh pasta and are easy to use. There are about 20 in a package and I made them all. They were easy to make in advance and bake for a few minutes when it was time to eat.
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Ingredients:

3/4 pound ground pork
10 oz cole slaw mix (or chopped cabbage)
2 tbs garlic, chopped
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 tbs cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 package eggroll wrappers
1 tsp cornstarch & 2 tsp water

Directions:

Fry pork in a large pan until mostly cooked through, about 5 minutes over medium heat.
Drain excess oil off the pork and add in the cabbage and garlic to the pan.
Add in sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce.
Mix well and cook another few minutes. The cabbage quantity will shrink up.
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Lay out wonton wrappers. Add about 3 tbs of the filling onto each one. Brush the edges with the cornstarch/water mix.
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Fold the point in the front over the filling, then fold the side points inward towards the filling. Then roll the whole thing over, continuing to wrap the sides towards the center.
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Place the spring rolls on a baking sheet, sprayed with non-stick spray.
Bake for 5 minutes at 375 degrees.
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Then flip and bake another 5 minutes.
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I sprayed them and flipped them often. I wanted them crisp all the way around. They also could be pan fried, but I thought baking would keep them from being oily or greasy.

Sesame oil and rice wine vinegar are ingredients I try to keep around. They take any Asian-inspired dishes to the next level and they never go bad. They are good for vinaigrette on salad or a stir fry.  I have another dish to blog for you next week that uses them…stock up now!

I served them with a chipotle orange ginger barbecue sauce. They were a hit!

Cinnamon Roll Waffles

Today’s post is about technique rather than recipe. I see people put stuff on waffle irons all the time. I’ve seen hashbrowns, brownies, pretzels, paninis, and so on. Literally everything. I wanted to try cinnamon rolls cooked into waffles. It worked!

I started with a roll of cinnamon rolls, with icing of course.
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I heated up the waffle iron and popped rolled up cinnamon rolls on top
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I squished ’em down with the lid and bam! There were waffles with a beautiful swirl.
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I warmed up the icing and served them with some maple syrup
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I loved the flavors and they were just so easy. Seriously. Pop open the tube and waffle them up. These would be really fun for a crowd and way easier than traditional waffles.