Food

Grilled Cheese With Waffle Iron Included

Another one to clear out of the “draft” folder….

Waffleless Grilled Cheese

After last weeks cruise, the emphasis this week was on improving our diets.  (Although cruises are infamous for throwing a few pounds on the hips and any other place they will stick, a combination of exercise and minimal additional meals [the always available pizza and hamburgers does seem to make our decisions more like fish stories, but they are true!!] allowed us to not get to far off of the scale.)  We had two meals using spinach tortillas.  Chicken and lots of those green leafy, onioney, and peppery things with a touch of salad dressing made these pretty healthy choices.  The girls made a new batch of red roasted pepper hummus.  They invited me to join them for their carrot/celery/pretzel dipping feast. As a reward and because it just does not seem right to let a week go by without serving our taste buds something new, my daughters fulfilled their wish to re-purpose the waffle iron.

Without much guidance but a pressing need to use a non-stick spray, we treated the waffle-grilled cheese just like how we would have treated it if on a griddle.  The waffle timer was mostly irrelevant.  And, our waffle iron “likes” to have everything squashed together pretty tight before it will allow the waffle iron to do a half flip.  The first couple sandwiches were not fully embracing their waffleness.  We were reluctant to force everything into the very tight space demanded by the waffle iron.  As the successes continued, we took more risk.  By the 5th one (my oldest son ate two), we were pretty confident in the latitude allowed us.

This was not a diet meal, but it was fun and not too bad for us.  (We did use wheat bread!)  With the carbohydrates being watched (breakfast food tends to be heavy in the carbs and the grease – pancakes and sausage or french toast and bacon or donuts.), it is good to take one of the those appliances that has to compete for shelf space a chance to shine.  And, shine it did!  Although we were tempted to fill the waffle dimples with syrup, we were very content to consume our sandwich with a side of chips and salsa.

Maybe the waffle quesadilla will be our next attempt to give the waffle iron a little higher place on the appliance shelf.  (I don’t know if there is a pecking order with appliances, but I am sure the non-electric ones [manual can opener] are constantly dealing with self-esteem issues.)  Regardless of the appliance or ingredients, lunch is better with my girls and the enthusiasm they bring to nearly everything.

Adventures In Boboli

 

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We are fortunate to have a discount bread store close by.  (We think of it as our fortune.  However, all the bread may not be so good for us.)  They sell buns, bagels, fruit pies, specialty beds, and regular bread available at discount prices.  With the discount prices, also comes accelerated expiration dates.  All of the above listed items have been quick to go “bad” while they sit on our counter waiting to be consumed.  (Bad = mold.  Getting a loaf at half price is still expensive if the bread goes moldy in only a couple of days. 😦 )

The discount Boboli (In case you didn’t know, Boboli is a wonderful pre-made pizza crust.  My wife is not exceptionally fond of them, but they sure do help a meal come together quickly.) is an exception to this “bad bread” phenomenon.  There are a couple of different sizes (they even had a football shaped crust once.), a couple of different thicknesses, a couple of different flavors (regular and whole wheat) AND they thaw quickly while taking minimum space in the freezer.

As mentioned above, my wife does not always participate in our Boboli adventures.  Some of our notable Successes:

  • Bar BQ Chicken Pizza:  barbeque sauce w/ sliced grilled chicken.  Grated colby jack and small sliced green onions on top.
  • Carnita Pizza:  salsa sauce with the carnita (our carnita is pork shoulder butt done in the crockpot w/ jalepenos and other Mexican spices.  Before serving it, we broil it in the oven on the top rack) on top.  The same sliced green onions and colby jack are invited to the party, too.
  • Bread for Italian food:  If I am too lazy to make a focaccia, we will put the Boboli on a pizza pan.  Olive oil, Parmesan and some italian spices are sprinkled on top.
  • Chicken fajita:  Another favorite….salsa sauce with caramelized green peppers and onions.  The sliced grilled chicken meat is nestled in with the vegetables with Colby jack on top.

Notable Fails:

  • Macaroni ‘n Cheese:  Some buffet pizza place do  this, but they have perfected it.  We took left over mac ‘n cheese and put it on top of a crust.  I am not sure what we used as a sauce, and it really doesn’t matter.  I don’t think we could salvage this one.  Would a sauce of really creamy cheese that easily melted salvaged this fail?  I doubt we will even knock on the door of such an idea again.
  • Country Fried steak:  I attempted to make this with a bed of white pepper gravy.  The sliced country fried steak went on top w/ grated colby jack on top of that.  It just didn’t have anything about it that made our taste buds want to back this way again.

The Future:

Although we still like quick meals, the bread portion of our diet needs to decrease.  Our big bread eaters (a.k.a the boys) either don’t or won’t be eating with us as much as they used.  My daughters are more aware of the bad side of too much bread in the diet.  This week our extra chicken did not go into a pizza.  We made wraps w/ the chicken and filled the wrap w/ lots of vegetables.  Balancing our dining with the demands of our maturing palettes will likely equal more vegetables and less bread.  Glad to have the discount bread store, but the future is likely going to be spent at Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes.

Leftover Breakfast

The satisfaction of cleaning out the cupboard

The satisfaction of cleaning out the cupboard

The kids know I am VERY big on getting rid of leftovers.  This is normally a topic that comes up around dinner time.  (If it is around the holidays, mom may have made a breakfast casserole that would also fall into the “leftover” category.)  In fact, I often announce the night before  tomorrows dinner will be leftovers.  (This is sometimes determined by the number of plastic containers full of food in the fridges [there is a preferred leftover fridge and shelf in the fridge] or by the kids schedule and my ability or inability to prepare something of value.)  During the summer time, I will often offer bribes of Yogurtville or picnics to entice the pool-dwellers to stretch a little extra as they make their dining choices.  (Are you sure you want that?  If you take a couple scoops of this we can finish it up entirely.  Or, similar things a coach might say to his athletes to try and squeeze the maximum performance out of them or their appetites.)

No such excitement occurred today.  (However, last night it was announced it would be warmups for supper because their was a High School away soccer game.)  Due to the girls needing to get to school early (Rachel is on the scholarship team and had to go over her math problems), I needed to pull together breakfast quickly.  And, cold cereal is often the choice of quick breakfast choosers.  (I am not a fan of pop tarts.  If I was, they would win both the quick and transportable award.)

My viewing of the cereal cupboard convinced me it would not be a normal breakfast.  I knew 2 of the 3 open boxes were in the orphan category.  (Where there is so little left and what is left is mostly crumbs or in the case of frosted flakes, it is was sugar.)  After dumping a half cup or less of the raisin bran and frosted flakes, my bowl still looked very lonely and lean.  My daughter volunteered the box of Lucky Charms.  Not being particular partial to Lucky Charms (likely some residual belief from child hood.  My mother could easily have told me once that marshmallows in your cereal gives you acne or some such thing.  Whatever the story, I have not eaten marshmallows for breakfast in decades.)  The addition of the Lucky Charms seemed to make the bowl “about right”.  Once the milk was added and the “floating rules” were all applied, it looked like I was eating Lucky Charms with occasional variety in flavors.

Would I do it again?  Oh, sure.  I could choose it, but if it chooses me (or my OCD that demands the consumption of leftovers demands to be heard) I would fill the bowl.  My spoon and I would enjoy another adventure.