A Grown-Up Grilled Cheese and Thinking Outside the Box

Growing up my parents bought medium cheddar cheese for everyday use.  But on special occasions, my dad would buy a small brick of sharp cheddar to put on crackers. 

Ooh, how I loved that sharp cheddar!  Num!!

One time we were going to Costco and I was telling my husband this, how much I loved sharp cheddar and how we should get it for a special occasion sometime.  The Hubster gave me an odd look and said, "Why do you have to wait for a special occasion?  If you like sharp cheddar, buy sharp cheddar."

Duh!  Why had this never occurred to me before?  I was simply stuck in the habit of buying medium cheddar because it is what I had always done.

That day I bought a giant block of sharp cheddar (extra sharp white cheddar, to be exact) and never looked back. 

It is delicious and I get real joy every time I put it on my food.  It just adds much more flavor. 

Fast forward to tonight.  In a huge lack of imagination and preparation, The Hubster and I decided to have grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.  I opened the fridge to grab what I needed and saw a bottle of real bacon bits (another new staple in our house).

Mmmmmm...bacon bits.  I bet that would be really yummy on a grilled cheese.  All of the sudden I started thinking of what I could do to make a grilled cheese more interesting.  I grabbed a few things in sight and went to work making special grilled cheese sandwiches just for the grown-ups.

Voila!

I was in love with this new variation of grilled cheese.  It was so flavorful!  I am already thinking of making another one tomorrow.  

I figured I would just share what I did here.  Because food does not always have to be the same as it has been before.  Variety is the spice of life, right?

Sara's Grown-Up Grilled Cheese

INGREDIENTS:
Sandwich bread, 2 slices
Extra sharp white cheddar

Mozzarella (mine was shredded)

Parmesan (mine was shredded)
Real Bacon Bits

Tomatoes
Green Chiles

Miracle Whip

Butter

Spread a light layer of Miracle Whip on each slice of bread.  Sprinkle Parmesan and Mozzarella on one slice and put the white cheddar on the other.  Sprinkle on a few bacon bits and green chiles.  (Yes, I live in New Mexico now and everything has green chile on it.  Why should grilled cheese be any different?)  Slice the tomatoes and layer them on.  Squish sandwich together.

Melt about 1/2 TBSP of butter in your frying pan.  Fry on medium-low heat on each side until golden brown.

Want to make sure your cheese is melted?  Here's the trick my dad taught me.  Once you put the sandwich on, splash a couple of drops of water in the pan and instantly cover it.  This will create steam and lock it in to melt that cheese perfectly.

But the great thing?  You don't even have to follow this recipe exactly.  What do you like?  What do you have on hand? What sounds good to you?  Avocado?  Sour dough bread?  Feta cheese?  

Mix it up and try something new!

Tasty Thursday - Butterkase Macaroni

My husband has been on a bit of a cheese kick lately.   According to him, there are so many cheeses that we just never try and he has decided that each shopping trip we should try a new cheese, just to broaden our horizons.

I like cheese well enough that I was all on board with this idea.

On Monday we took a trip to the grocery store and in the fresh deli section we selected a small block of Butterkaese (this is how it was spelled on the package) cheese, imported from Germany and known for it's buttery taste.  (Yeah...I had no idea about any of this, but the package was nice enough to inform me.)

Great!

Now what?

Thank goodness for the internet!  I searched recipes and found this little gem from Betty Crocker: Butterkase Macaroni and Cheese.

Perfect!  Expanding horizons and making the kids happy all at once.

Oh my goodness.  This was delicious!  I pretty much followed the recipe except I had cooked up some bacon to go in a salad and had a little extra, so I threw that in too.  Oh, and I didn't have fresh cilantro or parsley, so I just sprinkled a little dried parsley.

The mac and cheese was so creamy and tasted really buttery thanks to the flavor of the cheese.  Yum!  I highly recommend giving it a whirl.

Now I know this isn't a super healthy option.  But it is made from scratch, clean eating.  So that's a bonus.  But remember, I did mention a salad too.  I had about a half a cup of scrumptious cheesy goodness along with a hearty salad covered in this greek dressing. 

 All-in-all it was a very filling and tasty meal.

And the kids and hubby enjoyed it too. :)

Win win win.

Now go out and find ways to broaden your own food horizons just a bit.

Edited: I entered the ingredients for the mac and cheese into MyFitnessPal and came up with the following:

4 servings: 
Calories: 456
Carbs: 51
Fat: 21
Protein: 20
Sodium: 415

My portion was more like 1/2 serving size, so calories = 228

Replacing Habits - My Warm Milky

I went ahead and read The Power of Habit this week.  I liked it!  It was really interesting.

I started looking closer at my habit of winding the day down with a sweet.

Basically the author suggested that you fix a habit by replacing it with another one.  The problem with picking a new habit, is that it has to become something you crave and really desire.  I was kind of hoping for more suggestions but since it was general book about habits, I had to come up with ideas on my own.


When I was younger, my mom and I were reading a book where the character made herself some warm milk with honey.  We decided to try it and found it pretty tasty.  I decided to change it up a bit and make my own version.

Warm Milky
Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp flavored syrup (I used Torani Hazelnut)
Splash of vanilla

Pour milk and honey into a mug.  Microwave on high until desired temperature.  (I put mine in for a minute and a half.)  Add your syrup and vanilla.  Let it cool a tad, while you soak in the warmth on the your fingertips.  Enjoy!

Thus far, this has been a lovely end to my day.  The milk is not only tasty, but warm, comforting, and relaxing.  It has the honey in it, which is a more natural sweetener and it is also full of vitamins, so I don't feel too guilty about my little indulgence.  It's a great way to wind down.

Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

If you are on Pinterest, you might have seen a pin like this floating around.

Ice cream made from just a banana.

Freeze a banana, blend it in a blender, and voila!  Ice cream!

I decided to try it. Especially since I'm off sweets and this had no added sugar.

This particular recipe added peanut butter to the banana (and a few commenters added that a dash of cocoa powder was super delicious).

The kids and I put it together tonight and I was really surprised.

It actually looked like ice cream.

I was so excited!

Until I tasted it.

Guess what.

It tasted like mashed bananas...that were cold.

Oh wait...mashed bananas with peanut butter that were cold.

Meh.

I wondered if a splash of vanilla would make a difference, so I added that in.

Meh.

It made it a tad tastier, but what I couldn't get over was the texture.  It was nothing like ice cream. Smooth, sure.  But ultimately it was thick, mashed banana that didn't even come close to melting in your mouth.

After 3 bites, I was done.

I asked my 4 year old if he liked the ice cream and he said yes.

"Did it taste like Ice Cream?" I asked.

"No...it just taste like banana."

I guess he wasn't fooled either.  After one or two bites, he and my 2 year old had both had enough.

I guess we will just have to wait till I'm eating sweets again and have real ice cream.

Tasty Thursdays - Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Today's Tasty Thursday recipe is brought to us by Becca Robinson.  Thanks Becca for sending this in!

Chicken lettuce wraps

24 oz. ground chicken (I use chicken breasts and grind it in my food processor)
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp. hoisin sauce
1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp. agave nectar (or sugar)
2 tsp. ground fresh ginger
1/2 c. shitake mushrooms (or button mushrooms)
1 small can water chestnuts-finely chopped
1 tbsp. coconut oil (or veg. oil)
6 cloves garlic-minced or crushed
Lettuce leaves (can use iceberg, bibb, romaine, etc.)

Rehydrate shitake mushrooms, if needed. Then chop them up.

Put ground chicken in a bowl. Add chopped water chestnuts and mushrooms. Then add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, agave and ginger. Stir to combine all ingredients

Heat coconut oil in a saute pan over medium/high heat. Add crushed garlic and stir for about 10 seconds. Then add the chicken mixture to the pan. Cook until the chicken is cooked through, breaking it up as it cooks.

Serve in lettuce leaves. You can drizzle some extra soy sauce on top or mix some soy sauce with some hoisin sauce or we just use Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sweet and Savory sauce (get it at Costco) to put on top.

Enjoy.

Makes about 8-10 wraps.