Croissant Croque Monsieur

This is THE sandwich which will make you believe in sandwiches for dinner. This is not your lunch box sandwich. The French know what they’re doing with this one. The Croque monsieur is grilled ham and cheese with a béchamel and some cheese melted on top. This knife-and-fork sandwich is lovely for dinner and I twisted it up with a croissant for the bread. If you add an egg it becomes a croque madame…though, adding an egg didn’t seem like it’d be stable on the croissant.

The Three Bite Rule - Croque Monsieur

Croque Monsieur (for 2)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 croissants
1 cup gruyere cheese, grated
4 slices ham, rolled & sliced

Directions:

In a small pot, bring the milk and cream cheese to a simmer to melt. Add salt and pepper and cook for 5-8 minutes then reduce to low heat to thicken.
Slice the croissants and toast on a baking sheet for 5 minutes to gently toast.
Then top the bottom croissant half with most of the cheese, the ham, and a sprinkle of pepper.
The Three Bite Rule - Croque Monsieur
Spoon some of the cream sauce on top.
The Three Bite Rule - Croque Monsieur
Add another sprinkle of cheese and put the top croissant on and pop back into the oven just to melt the cheese.
Spoon a drizzle of sauce over the top.
The Three Bite Rule - Croque Monsieur
Serve (with a fork & knife) and enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Croque Monsieur
Ohh Monsieur Croque, you’re delightful on a croissant. Using good cheese is important for this guy. I shredded the cheese for prime melting capability and chopped the ham for ease of distributing onto an arch-shaped croissant. The sauce is so much faster and easier than a roux. I liked the cheesy-hint from the cream cheese.

Meatball Sliders with Garlic Butter

I could slurp this garlic butter, but I won’t. I’ll save it for the sliders. It is so perfect with a juicy meatball, gooey cheese, and a sweet Hawaiian roll. Yesssss. We all ate these and love ’em. I would have liked a bigger meatball to match the size of the roll, but I used frozen meatballs making this 10x faster. The rolls were leftover and hanging out in the freezer from a NYE slider bar.

The Three Bite Rule - Meatball Sliders
I almost made the little one’s without the garlic butter. Then I stopped short, and thought: “Whattt are you doing???? You want the kid to eat all the foods, so give him exactly what the adults are having!” It might be from a running joke Mr. J has with the little one. When they couldn’t find it in the grocery store, they were saying “if you were minced garlic, where would you be?” The little one answers “no gar-ick”. He gobbled up his slider, so it was a good call to keep it the same.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Parmesan
6 slider rolls
6 meatballs
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
Melt the butter and mix in the garlic, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and Parmesan.
Slice the rolls and spoon most of the garlic butter onto the bottom buns and bake for 10 minutes until they crisp a bit.
The Three Bite Rule - Meatball Sliders
Warm the sauce and meatballs. Place one meatball onto each bottom bun. Ladle sauce on top of each and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.
The Three Bite Rule - Meatball Sliders
Spread the remaining garlic butter onto the top buns and warm them in the oven too. Place the tops on and enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Meatball Sliders
I think the rolls & the garlic butter made these sliders. The rolls soaked the butter but then crisped so the sauce didn’t make them soggy. I’m so grateful that the 2-year-old eats everything and the garlic butter was a reminder for me to keep that going. Plus, he looooves meatballs so it wasn’t a hard sell.

Crispy Chicken & Brussels Sprouts Slaw Wraps

I used these brussels sprouts as a slaw with apples, to go on a wrap with crispy chicken and buttermilk ranch. It was delightfully autumn-inspired for an unseasonably warm weekday that I wanted a speedy dinner that was a bit more unusual than the norm.

The Three Bite Rule - Brussels Slaw with Apple & Crispy Chicken
We tend to have big tortillas around because believe it or not, the almost-2 year old will eat a whole one as a quesadilla. The chicken was living a happy life in the freezer and only the apple and brussels were fresh. Voila! Dinner!

Ingredients: (for 2 wraps)

2 crispy chicken tenders
~6 brussels sprouts
1/2 apple
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
2 burrito-sized tortillas
3 tablespoons buttermilk ranch dressing

Directions:

Cook the chicken according to the package…some are raw and need to get fully cooked, others come fully cooked and just need to be heated and warmed through.
In a bowl, whisk together mustard, apple cider vinegar, and honey. Slice the bottoms of the brussels sprouts, then finely chop them into slivers and add to the dressing. Slice the apple and add that in as well.
The Three Bite Rule - Brussels Slaw with Apple & Crispy Chicken
Let the slaw sit in the dressing, stirred occasionally, for 10 minutes while everything else preps.
Slice the chicken and let cool just a bit.
Lay the wrap out, then top with slaw, chicken, and a drizzle of ranch.
The Three Bite Rule - Brussels Slaw with Apple & Crispy Chicken
Fold the “ends” in, then start to wrap with the end closest to you folding over the filling. slowly roll it and tuck the “ends” into the middle to keep everything inside.
Add two toothpicks, slice between them, and enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Brussels Slaw with Apple & Crispy Chicken
The apple is awesome in there. I was interested to try the brussels sprouts raw. I’m not sure how I felt about it. It was pretty good. I did really love the mustard-y slaw dressing with the apple and then the crispy chicken. Overall it was a win in my book!

Baked Monte Cristo Pockets

As a kid, one of my restaurant memories with the fam was to a pub that was a bit of a drive so it wasn’t a last minute trip. It was something we planned for and looked forward to. I remember my mom choosing French onion soup and my dad choosing a monte cristo…both choices we didn’t make at home. I had some leftover ham from Easter in the freezer and some sliced turkey so I wanted to try a monte cristo that I didn’t have to fry.

The Three Bite Rule - Baked Monte Cristo
Ingredients: (makes 4)
1 pkg of 8 croissants
4 slices turkey
2 slices ham
1/4 cup shredded swiss
1/4 cup strawberry jam

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
Pop the croissant package and unroll the dough. Roll it out a bit, or press it to be more thin with your fingers. Split the dough into 4 squares, not the perforated triangles.
Lay a slice of turkey and a little ham onto each of the 4 squares of dough.
The Three Bite Rule - Baked Monte Cristo
Sprinkle a little cheese onto each, and spoon a few drops of jam onto each as well.
The Three Bite Rule - Baked Monte Cristo
Fold the dough over the filling and pinch the bottom over the fold to close it.
The Three Bite Rule - Baked Monte Cristo
Cut a few vent slits into the top.
Bake for 10 minutes, or as long as the croissant package instructs.
Serve and enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Baked Monte Cristo
I liked these. They also were so quick to assemble and bake which made me love them even more! Seriously: 5 minutes of assembly + 10 minutes of baking = dinner in a jiffy. The babe ate one chopped up and I toasted one for a breakfast one day!

Mexican BLT with Taco Spiced Mayo

The cutest & tastiest taco joint just opened near my work. The owners are so lovely and the tacos are getting RAVE reviews. I’ve had shrimp tacos, chicken tamales, and a pork torta. All have been fantastic…I dream of the torta. I saw their special for a Mexican-inspired BLT and totally copied the idea. Theirs also had an egg and avocado, which would be great, but I was on a mission for a fast dinner. Thanks Chilicates!

Mexican BLTs for 2

Ingredients:

bread or rolls
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp taco seasoning
~4 tbs refried beans
3-4 slices of bacon, halved
1 large tomato
butter lettuce or greens

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
Bake the bacon on a sheet pan, with a (non-stick sprayed) wire rack on top of it. Bake 15 minutes, or until crispy.
While bacon is cooking, slice tomatoes, lettuce, and toast the bread. Then mix together mayo with taco seasoning.
Spread one slice of toast with refried beans and other side with Mexican mayo.
The Three Bite Rule - Mexican BLTs
Assemble the BLTs.
The Three Bite Rule - Mexican BLTs
Enjoy!

I loved the slight tweak on this BLT. Do you bake your bacon? It makes cooking it sooo much easier, plus it cooks totally flat! The bacon grease is well contained and you don’t even have to flip it. This is definitely my preferred method. I love not needing to babysit the bacon.

The Three Bite Rule - Mexican BLTs