Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 5: With Pickles & Zucchini

Yep, I'm still on a Grilled Cheese kick! This morning a friend sent me a recipe for Grilled Cheese with chopped Dill Pickles.

That got me thinking because I love pickles on hot dogs and hamburgers, and I always have one as a side with a regular Grilled Cheese.

So why not add my favourite pickle (not dills) to my grilled cheese? Then I guess I got a bit carried away because I sauteed some thinly slice zucchini, and pulled out some jars of my homemade Zucchini Relish and Sweet Chili Relish to add.......  but boy these were good!

Here's my list of ingredients:

• Sliced processed cheese (that's right, I still have not bought a block of cheddar cheese!)
• Grated Cheddar Cheese - it comes in a bag, pre-grated. I buy the kind that has both white and yellow cheese
• Zucchini 
• Sandwich Saver Pickles. I love these things! But feel free to use whatever pickle you prefer
• Zucchini Relish (see recipe)
• Kak's Chili Sauce (see recipe)
• Horseradish Aioli

First I sauteed my zucchini slices until they were nice and golden brown. I love zucchini and the amount you see here were all for my sandwich.

Hubs is not fond of zucchini and since I was sneaking in my zucchini relish I figured I better omit the zucchini slices for his grilled cheese.

Next butter your bread on one side of each slice, and place half the slices, butter side down, on a griddle. You can start heating it now or you can wait until you've layered the whole sandwich and put the other half of the bread on top.

I used Flax bread because that is all we had in the fridge! (Today is grocery shopping day)

Then I placed cheese slices, pickles and on mine (on the left) I added sauteed zucchini. The pickles I used are sliced nice and thin. You can see them on the right

Now I started putting on all my yummy relishes - the Sweet Chili Sauce (hubs' grandmother Kak's recipe) and my Zucchini relish.

I also sprinkled about 1 tsp. of ground Flax seed (1/2 tsp. per sandwhich) on top of the relishes.

You can't feel any difference in texture with the addition of Flax seed and you probably won't even taste the flax seed but it does give a very faint nutty flavour.  And it is SO good for you!

This is when you add your grated cheddar cheese then top it with the other slices of bread (butter side up). When side one is toasted nicely, carefully turn the sandwiches over.

I used two spatulas to do this, one to turn and one to hold the bread together so the filling would not spill out. Squish the sandwich down and toast the second side.

When the sandwiches are a nice golden brown and the cheese is melted, remove from the griddle and enjoy!

Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 4 - with Mac & Cheese and Bell Peppers

Another yummy Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese Sandwich! If you want to see the first three I created, click on the topic Grilled Cheese

This one has an egg cooked inside a sweet bell pepper ring, topped with cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and my homemade macaroni and cheese. I would have added bacon and tomato if I'd had any!

 I put each pepper ring in a frypan with a bit of margarine and sauteed it slightly. I tossed the mushrooms in the same pan, but off to one side.

When the bell peppers were partially cooked, I added an egg to each, then broke the yolk. The egg ran out of the rings so next time I would lightly beat the eggs with a fork and pour them in until they reach the top of the pepper ring.

I turned the egg-bell pepper over to cook the yolk and topped each one with a piece of cheese. 

Meantime I heated leftover Macaroni and Cheese in my microwave. Next step was to start grilling the bread (one side only) When each half of the bread was golden brown, I started layering - egg and cheese, mushrooms, mac & cheese then topped it off with the other piece of bread for each sandwich.

I pressed the sandwich down to squish the ingredients and let it cook a bit more then carefully turned it over to grill the other piece of bread.


Cut in half and enjoy! You could have ketchup or salsa or sweet chili sauce as a dip for this scrumptious sandwich.

 

Saute the mushrooms and pepper rings

See how the eggs ran out the bottom of the pepper rings? That's why next time I'm beating the eggs first with a fork and then slowly adding. But even though they look messy they still tasted yummy!

Eggs have been flipped and cheese added. Once again I forgot to buy "real" cheddar cheese and had to make do with processed cheese slices.

Let the layering begin! Egg-Pepper-Cheese then mushrooms then mac & cheese then top with second slice of bread

Ready to cut and enjoy.

 

Dehydrating Oranges and Other Citrus Fruit

 Today I am dehydrating oranges. I bought 8 large fresh oranges and washed their skins then starting slicing.

It's important to try to get your slices the same thickness or else some will dehydrate faster than others. Just do the best you can.

You don't have to leave them in rounds. You can half or even quarter the round slices if you want.

Sliced and ready for the dehydrator tray.

Set the dehydrator to 135 and turn it on. These will take several hours, then I can put them in any clean jar, label and date it and store them in a cool dry place.

You can dehydrate limes. lemons and grapefruit or citrus fruit the same way. 

Nesco Dehydrator

If you don't have a dehydrator, I can recommend two. I have a small, cheaper Nesco American Harvest FD-37 400 Watt Food Dehydrator which I purchased from Amazon.com. It does a decent job but does not have an internal fan so dehydrating takes longer and you must rotate the trays for even dehydration.

Then I have my heavy duty dehydrator, the Excalibur 3900B 9 Tray Deluxe Dehydrator which has an internal fan and 9 trays. It does an amazing job and no need to rotate trays as the fan distributes the heat evenly.

Excalibur Dehydrator

My 8 large oranges dehyrated to 5 small jars of slices.

We believe in being self-sufficient if there is ever a long-lasting emergency or crisis situation. So I dehydrate many fruits and vegetables for use if that ever happens. They will last a very long time and all you need do is check them every so often for mold. Don't open the jar, be sure you use glass so you can spot check without disturbing the food items.

Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 3: On Pumpkin Bread and Loaded

You've probably all figured out by now that I like think of different ways to use up leftovers. And that I think Grilled Cheese is the most amazingly versatile food ever. Well today was no different. I had a few items in the fridge that were on their last day of being edible - mushrooms, a bit of roasted turkey, half a package of bacon and half a loaf of homemade Sour Cream Pumpkin Bread.

So I made grilled cheese out of all those ingredients plus some cheese, eggs and for extra good health, flax seed. Okay I see your puzzled looks but trust me - flax seed is not noticeable in foods, either in taste or texture. So it's perfectly okay to sprinkle some on to whatever you're making. And it is one of the best sources of Omega 3 there is!

Here is my list of ingredients for 3 sandwiches:

• 3 eggs
• some margarine for the sandwiches and for frying those mushrooms
• bacon (about 3 slices per sandwich unless you are a die-hard bacon lover, then you will want more
• 3 large mushrooms, sliced
• a bit of salsa (about 1 tsp per sandwich)
• leftover cooked turkey or chicken
• pumpkin bread - enough to equal 6 normal slices of bread. I didn't have enough so had to make 2 pumpkin bread grilled cheese and 2 white bread 
• cheese. Once again I forgot to buy cheddar cheese when we went grocery shopping on Monday so had to resort to processed cheese slices. 
• Tomatoes. I didn't have any but I would have sliced them and included them if I had

The first step is to start cooking your bacon. I like to do mine on parchment paper in a 350' oven for about 20 minutes. It saves all that splattering of grease, and having no room on my stove to cook the rest of the ingredients.

You can butter your bread and start prepping your mushrooms. I also like to put each of the eggs I'm going to use in a small ramekin or cup so that I can inspect them to make sure there are no yukky bits.

When there is about 10 minutes left before your bacon is ready, start frying up your mushroom slices. I also added my leftover turkey so it would come to heat  with the mushrooms. When my bacon and mushroom-turkey mix were ready I wrapped them in tin foil and put them in the microwave to keep warm.

Then I fried my eggs in one skillet and starting toasting my buttered breads in a second one. I talked about the right way to cook an egg so there are no crispy edges and so the yolk is not running out when you bite into your sandwich, at Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 2

I like to put my cheese on the fried egg just before it is ready so the heat melts the cheese slightly. I also put about a tsp. of flax seed divided evenly on the eggs as they were cooking.  Remember to break the yolks too.

Once my bread was lightly toasted on one side, I started layering the ingredients - egg with melted cheese and flaxseed, then mushrooms and turkey, then bacon. I topped this with a dollop of garlic salsa (but I would use regular salsa next time) then put the second piece of bread on top. This is a thick sandwich and needs to be pressed down with something heavy.

 This is the Flax Seed I buy. It can sprinkled on oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, even on sour cream. You can bake with it by adding a teaspoon to your regular recipe for any kind of breads. Just be sure it is ground and keep it in the refrigerator once you've opened it. It's high in fibre and Omega 3

 The pumpkin bread is cooking in one skillet and I've started layering

The white bread is toasting in a separate skillet and I've put the egg-cheese on as the start of my layers.

Layering with bacon, mushrooms, turkey and a dollop of salsa.

Turn the sandwich over carefully and toast the other piece of bread. This pumpkin bread sandwich is almost ready. Don't forget to press the sandwiches down with something heavy!

When they are golden, slice the sandwiches and serve. We had ours with tea and it hit the spot.

This is the white bread sandwich I made along with the pumpkin bread sandwiches

Using Leftovers to Make Turkey Quesadillas

Leftovers. We all have them. But what to do with them? I like to use leftovers and try to create something entirely different for another night's meal.  So last night I took some leftover cooked turkey and made what hubs and I considered yummy Quesadillas.

Here's what I used:

* Leftover cooked turkey. You could use chicken instead if you wanted. I probably used about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced pieces of turkey breast to make 9 small Quesadillas.

Oops, forgot to show the Cheddar Cheese

* 1/2 sweet red bell pepper plus 1/2 sweet yellow bell pepper. I keep my peppers in my freezer, pre-sliced and ready to use. Did you know you can freeze peppers? Yep. When you buy them, don't wash them. Just cut them however you want - slices, quarters, halves... it's your choice. Remove the inside seeds and the stem. Then put them in ziplock baggies and toss in the freezer. They're good for many months! When you are ready to use some, just pull out what you need, rinse them under water for a few minutes (that washes them and defrosts them slightly) and you're good to go.

* 1/2 onion cut into slices

* 3/4 cup black beans, drained and rinsed

* 3/4 cup frozen corn niblets. You can use canned corn, just be sure to drain the corn before using

v1 tomato cut into small chunks or slices. I had one old tomato I wanted to use up so even though I didn't really need tomato due to the salsa addition, I added this anyway and I'm glad I did!

* 1 tsp. cumin

* 1/2 tsp cardamon

* 2 -3  tsp. fajita mix. You can use as much or as little as you like

* Salsa. I used mild but you can use any kind you like from mild to hot. I put about 3 Tbsp. on each Quesadilla before I folded them.

* Shredded cheese. I used a Cheddar mix.

* Pre-cooked bacon. I used 4 slices that I cut into chunks.  I only used it because we had a few slices left over from the morning when I made some delicious grilled cheese with egg, bacon, tomato and avocado.

* Tortillas. I used 9 - some were white, some were whole wheat.

How to Make the Quesadillas

After you have prepped everything, toss the onion, pre-cooked bacon, tomato, sweet peppers, black beans, turkey slices or chunks, and corn into a fry pan.

Add the spices (coriander, cumin and fajita mix) then mix. Saute everything on medium heat until the onion is translucent.

If you don't have enough bacon fat left in the bacon to keep things from sticking, add a very small dribble of olive oil to the pan.

Lay out your tortillas and place the turkey mixture on 1/2 of each tortilla. Add 3 Tbsp. of salsa to the top of each mixture and then put shredded cheese on top. Fold the tortilla over so you have semi-circles and flatten them with your hands.

Adding the salsa

Adding the cheese, ready to fold in half

Folded, flattened and ready for the oven.

 Place on a baking sheet and cook in a 350' oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese bubbles.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt and salsa on the side.

Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 2: Loaded With Bacon, Egg, Tomato and Avocado

Grilled Cheese with bacon, avocado, tomato & egg

This morning I decided to use up some food in the fridge and treat my husband to a nice breakfast. Grilled Cheese is always a favourite but I wanted the breakfast sandwich to be even more special.

So I decided to make a grilled cheese with fried egg, bacon, avocado, sliced tomatoes and my homemade sweet chili sauce. It was delicious!  I also created another special grilled cheese which I shared in a previous post on Ollie's Yummy In Your Tummy blog

Because I had some old hamburger buns in my fridge that needed using up, I decided to grill them on one side and use those as the bread part of the sandwich.

It really doesn't seem to matter how old and stale bread is in the fridge - once you grill it, it seems to revitalize!

So here is how I made this sandwich

1. Start your bacon cooking. I did mine on parchment paper in a 350' oven for 20 minutes. I chose oven cooking for the bacon simply because it's a no fuss-no muss method. I didn't want to have to watch bacon spitting on my stove top while I grilled buns and fried up some eggs.

2. While the bacon is cooking you can prep your avocado and tomato as well as lightly butter your buns for grilling.

3. When the bacon is about 5 mnutes from being ready, you can grill your buttered buns. While they are getting lightly toasted, fry some egss in a separate fry pan.

4. Frying eggs properly is an art. The secret to a nice fried egg with NO cripsy edges is to use low heat and fry the egg very slowly. Did I ever mention how much I dislike crispy brown edges on a fried egg that has been cooked too fast on too high a heat?

After you break your egg into the hot pan (put a bit of margarine in the pan and heat it til it bubbles), be sure you break the yolk. This is one fried egg that you don't want running all over the sandwich when it's put together. Cook the egg slowly and then flip it. Once it is flipped put a slice of cheese on top to melt and continue cooking the egg for about 1 more minute.

5. Now you are ready to assemble your sandwich. Put the bottom half of the grilled bun on your plate or cutting board. Carefully slide the cheese topped egg on to this bottom half.

6. Next comes the sliced tomato and then you can load the bacon. It's your choice how much bacon you want to add!

7. Spread your mashed avocado on the top half of the bun. Finish off the mounded cheese-egg-tomato-bacon with some salt and pepper to taste. I  only add salt and that goes directly on the tomato.  Then top everything with salsa or sweet chili sauce. I used my homemade chili sauce which I drained first as I didn't want the sandwich to be super soggy.

Hubs gave this an 8 out of 10 so I think it was a hit.

Grilling the hamburger buns

Mash the avocado. One avocado works well for 3 sandwiches

The eggs have been flipped and cheese added. I would have used "real" cheddar cheese but I was out so I used cheese slices instead.

This is the first stage of the assembly process. The egg and cheese are on the bottom half of each bun.

Spread the mashed avocado on the top half of each bun

Next add the sliced tomatoes and some salt to taste. Add pepper too if you wish.

Add as much bacon as you like. 

Hubs gets more bacon his two sandwiches than I do.

The final touch is some homemade sweet chili sauce

The final product. It doesn't matter if the bacon or the egg flop over the edges in this sandwich.