Cobb Salad Panini

All the perks of a Cobb salad without any of the lettuce! Lettuce really gets in the way of the fun stuff in a salad, right??? This panini has Cheese! Chicken! Ham! Avocado! Tomato! Blue Cheese Dressing!

I loved this grilled cheese with all the things.

The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Panini

Cobb Salad Panini
Ingredients:

2 slices sourdough
1 slice ham
1/3 cup chopped chicken
3 slices cheese
1 small tomato
1/2 avocado
1/4 cup blue cheese dressing
2 teaspoons butter/olive oil/mayo

The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Panini

Directions:
Heat a pan to medium heat.
Assemble the sandwich with bread, half the cheese, ham, chicken, tomato, sliced avocado, and the remaining cheese.
Spread butter or mayo or brush bread with olive oil.
Cook the sandwich and grill on each side for ~ 2-3 minutes. Cover to melt the cheese.
Remove from the heat and let sit for 1 minute before slicing. Dip into blue cheese dressing.
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Panini

This was so fun. There’s a lot happening and it is one of those messy-delicious sandwiches you can barely put down. Good bread is necessary to hold up, and nothing makes a panini/loaded grilled cheese better than cheese on each side.

The defining elements of a cobb salad to me seems fuzzy compared to a chef’s salad. I’m not entirely sure what’s in one and not in the other? Either way, in a salad the hard boiled egg is ideal – I figured it might be a little weird here. Bacon would have been lovely, sliced turkey could definitely swap for the chicken. Go for what speaks to you.

Special sandwiches are so great for dinner – or make salads one meal and paninis for another!

English Muffin Turkey Melts

I’ve been trying to give home lunches a bit of a face lift. These turkey melts on English muffins are just unique enough be exciting while keeping them a totally do-able weekday lunch. Somedays it is PB&J while doing 5 other things and then there’s a 5 minute special lunch with everyday ingredients like this!

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts

These have a nice kick with a spicy sauce and crunch from an apple (or there are lots of variations below)!

English Muffin Turkey Melts:
Ingredients: (for 1)

1 English Muffin
2 tablespoons mayo
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (or hot sauce)
2 slices turkey
1-2 slices cheese
1/4 apple (I used honeycrisp)
1 cup mixed greens

Directions:
Toast the English muffin (the toaster oven is perfect for this, or “griddle” it on a pan to use again soon).
Mix together the mayo and the sriracha in a small bowl.
Slice the apple and chop the greens if needed, while the muffin toasts.

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts


When the English muffin is toasted, spread the sriracha onto both halves, then top one half with greens, apple slices, turkey, and cheese.
Pop the assembled English muffin into a toaster oven, the regular oven, or into a hot pan with a cover to melt the cheese and warm everything through.

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts

Pop the top on and enjoy!

These are so fun and could easily swap with what you have. Honey mustard would be great, a pear would taste delicious, ham can swap with turkey. Go crazy! The English muffin definitely adds some variety, and the melty cheese + lunch meat + a fruit + a veg + sauce = is perfect. These can be open faced or popped together as a sandwich.

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts

I’m partial to these Fiber One Multigrain English muffins. They are much more fluffy than others and the higher fiber is just an added benefit.

BLT Chicken Salad

Approaching 1 year of the pandemic and some gloomy weather has me a bit blah. I desperately miss non-icy sidewalks at the moment. Sometimes a more exciting lunch is something to look forward to, right? I’ve been striving for some more varied lunches and this was a good one.

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Chicken Salad

Just a few slices of bacon with chopped greens, tomatoes, chicken salad, and a bit of bright pickle is so satisfying and perfect in a pita, or on some great bread, or scooped with crackers. This also works nicely for reviving leftovers if you’ve eaten chicken lately!

BLT Chicken Salad
Ingredients: (for 2-3 servings)

2 cups chicken (cooked and cooled)
1 teaspoon mayo
1 tablespoon Italian dressing
1 teaspoon pickle juice (optional)
2 strips bacon (cooked and cooled)
2 cups baby arugula
1 small tomato

Directions:
Chop and shred the chicken and mix the mayo, Italian dressing, pickle juice (optional) and salt & pepper.
Chop the bacon, arugula, and tomato and add in the chicken salad.

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Chicken Salad

Stir gently to combine – add in another splash of dressing or pickle juice if needed.
Serve as a sandwich, with more greens as a salad, or scoop with crackers!
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Chicken Salad

This is use 103,894,380 for a Costco roasted chicken. Those things are so much better than anywhere else, and cheaper! I buy them even without a plan and take it off the bone to freeze it. For this chicken salad, it was easy to break off some frozen chunks and defrost in the fridge overnight.

I’m partial to Ken’s Italian Dressing that looks like nothing special but is ohh so good. I think that WITH the pickle juice is delightful and just enough mayo to keep it together.

Are chopped salads still a thing? I liked everything getting equally distributed but now I’m wondering if they were just a fad of the 2010s? Either way, it is the perfect way to ensure each bite has some of everything. The concept lives on at our house!

Friends Thanksgiving Sandwich

The Three Bite Rule - Friends Thanksgiving Sandwich

As a forever-Friends-fan, those Thanksgiving episodes are the best! Monica makes historic leftovers sandwiches with a “moist maker” of gravy soaked bread in the middle. It totally takes it over the top!

Plan your leftovers accordingly! This is so good! Even if you don’t have leftovers, roasting a turkey breast (or use thick deli turkey – I won’t tell)! A box of stuffing is easy to make just enough for this- or use some for these amazing Thanksgiving Meatballs with stuffing and dried cranberries!

Friends Thanksgiving Sandwich
Ingredients: (serves 2)

6 slices of bread
4 slices of turkey
1 cup stuffing
1/2 cup gravy
1/4 cup cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons mayo
1 1/2 cup arugula

Directions:
Toast 4 slices of the bread (leaving 2 un-toasted). Warm the turkey, stuffing, and gravy.
Trim the crust off the remaining 2 slices and dip them into the gravy to soak.

The Three Bite Rule - Friends Thanksgiving Sandwich

Spread cranberry sauce onto one of the toasted slices for each sandwich and a smear of mayo onto the other.
Lay the arugula on top of the cranberry sauce, then the stuffing, then the gravy soaked bread, then the turkey, then the bread.
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Friends Thanksgiving Sandwich

Slice and enjoy!

This was so fun and perfectly decadent. The tart cranberries and peppery arugula seems necessary with the heft of everything else

The Three Bite Rule - Friends Thanksgiving Sandwich

It is such a good idea as a stable way to get the gravy in there without it dripping off your sandwich!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4eB2qW0MlA

Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes

Let’s chat comfort food. I’m glad fall is in the air and I’m ready for some foods to give us a little hug. I took the flavors of a burger into a speedy sloppy joe- the extra mustard and addition of relish and liquid smoke gives it all the burger flavors. I used meatless but any ground meat/meatless works!

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes
Ingredients: (for 4)
3/4 pound ground meat (I used Gardein Meatless Crumbles)
4 burger rolls
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 teaspoon relish
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
4 slices of American Cheese

Directions:
Add ground meat (cooked through if using beef/chicken/pork), brown sugar, ketchup, mustard, relish, and onion powder to a large skillet over medium-low heat. (I used meatless crumbles which can go into the pan frozen.)

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

Add in worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke (if using), and a splash of water.
Cook for 5 minutes until well incorporated and bubbling.
Toast the buns.
Spoon the sloppy joe onto each bun and quickly top with cheese to melt it.

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

Add some pickles and extra ketchup and mustard, if desired. Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe

I loved this! Sloppy Joes cook SO quickly and are easy to stretch meat a bit further than a patty might. These are a great way to use a meatless product too.
Mixing some shredded cheddar would be good too- though maybe not so photogenic. Liquid smoke is a fantastic addition to these, in chili, in burgers, and any sauce or spread that has bacon in it! I find it on amazon but may have seen it at the grocery store too.