The Ultimate Double Decker Grilled Cheese

We wanted something light-ish for dinner tonight and this was the perfect solution. Yum!

Ingredients (for 2 sandwiches)

* 6 slices whole wheat bread

* Lunchmeat of your choice (we used buffalo chicken lunchmeat)

* 4 slices cooked turkey bacon

* 2 slices pepperjack cheese

* 2 wedges garlic & herb Laughing Cow cheese

* Butter for grilling in pan

Directions

1. Layer lunchmeat and sliced cheese on a sandwich and make a grilled cheese on the stove like you normally would (using 2 slices per sandwich).

2. While the second side is grilling, spread Laughing Cow cheese on top of outside piece of grilled bread. Then add 2 slices turkey bacon on top. Set the third slice of bread on top (buttered side up).

3. Flip a third time to grill the final slice of bread.

We dipped in a little bit of ranch dressing. Delicious and easy!

Texas Chicken Quesadillas

I have seen variations of these recipe floating around online, so I decided to just wing it and use what we like. These are SO good! The honey/bbq/carmelized onion taste is just heaven.

mmm.

Ingredients (for two quesadilla halves)

* 2 10-inch flour tortillas

* 3/4 lb boneless skinless chicken tenders (or chicken breast cut into little strips)

* 1/2 cup shredded cheese (we used a monterey jack blend)

* BBQ marinade (we used BWW's Honey BBQ sauce)

* White onion, sliced into rings

* EVOO

Directions

1. Marinate chicken in BBQ sauce for a couple hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Bake chicken tenders in oven until cooked through, about 20 min.
4. While the chicken is cooking, heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Slowly cook and stir until onion is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside.

5. Put cheese, chicken, and onions into each of the tortillas, only using one half of the tortilla.

6. Fold over and place tortillas in quesadilla maker. Cook until golden brown.

7. Cut into triangles and serve with sour cream or ranch.

CousCous Stuffed Peppers

I had some leftover couscous to use up last night and decided to make these stuffed peppers. These were really good!

Ingredients

* 1 orange bell pepper, cut in half with core and seeds removed

* Appx 3/4 cup cooked couscous (I used parmesan flavor)

* Chopped onions

* Minced garlic

* Parsley (I used dried)

* EVOO

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

2. Place the pepper halves cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Roast ~15 minutes in the oven, or until tender and skin starts to brown on edges.

3. While the peppers are roasting, heat EVOO in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook the onions, garlic, and parsley in oil for 2-3 minutes.

4. Spoon in the cooked couscous and stir until heated through. Remove from heat.

5. Remove peppers from oven and spoon in the couscous mixture into pepper halves.

6. Stick back in oven for ~5 minutes. Serve immediately (with side of sour cream if desired).

Buffalo Turkey Burgers

We bought a bunch of ground turkey while our families were in town for Easter and totally forgot to eat it. So, we decided to use some of it up this weekend and make turkey burgers on the grill. These were delicious! (Recipe makes 4 burgers.)

Ingredients

* 1 lb lean ground turkey

* Blue cheese crumbles (I used gorgonzola)

* Frank's Buffalo Sauce (I tried their new kind - Sweet Heat BBQ. mmm it's really good, you should try it)

* Breadcrumbs (I used seasoned)

* Cayenne pepper

* Hamburger buns

Directions

1. Mix ground turkey, blue cheese to taste, buffalo sauce to taste, a little bit of breadcrumbs, and some cayenne pepper in a medium size bowl.

2. Form mixture into four burgers.

3. Put on the grill and leave on until cooked through.

4. Add hamburger buns onto top rack of grill at the end to toast them just a little bit.

We dipped in ranch dressing. Yum!

Seasoned Feta Asapragus

After looking online at a bunch of different recipes using asparagus, I decided to just combine a bunch and make something up on my own. I had a bunch of leftover asparagus after making these roll-ups for Easter, so I needed a new way to try it. This was really good!

Ingredients

* Bunch or partial bunch asparagus

* Extra virgin olive oil

* Salt and pepper

* Kroger Grill-Time Seasoning (or whatever seasoning you'd like)

* 1 pinch red pepper flakes

* Crumbled feta cheese (I used reduced fat)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Trim asparagus and then lay flat in baking pan (I used an 8x8 pan). Drizzle olive oil and then shake pan to move oil around so that it covers most of the asparagus.

3. Sprinkle the last 4 ingredients over asparagus, as much as you'd like.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for appx 12-15 minutes.

I cut them up and mixed in with some brown rice. Yum!

Cinnamon & Sugar French Toast Bake

My mom gave me this recipe and helped me make it for Easter morning. This was really easy and was delicious! We served it with turkey sausage and turkey bacon. A big bonus to this recipe is that you can prepare it the night before and then pop it in the oven in the morning. Yum!

Ingredients

* 1 stick butter, melted
* 2 cups dark brown sugar
* 1 large loaf french bread
* 10 eggs
* 3 cups milk
* 3 tbsp sugar mixed with 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Spray Pam on 9x13x2 pan.
2. Mix butter and brown sugar together in medium bowl. Spread mixture evenly across bottom of pan.
3. Cut bread into appx 1 inch thick slices. Place non-crust side down, completely covering brown sugar mixture so that it fits tightly into pan.
4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk together. Pour over bread and let soak in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
5. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture on top, then bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until puffed and golden.

Cheez-It Encrusted/Asiago Stuffed Chicken

Umm chicken and cheez-its??? Yum!! I knew Keith would LOVE this recipe b/c those are 2 of his favorite things. I thought it was really good as well. I found this on the What We're Eating website and then added the cheese stuffed inside. You should really make this! (Recipe serves 2.)

Ingredients

* Appx 2 cups cracker crumbs made from Cheez-Its

* 1 tbsp minced fresh dill (I used dry)

* 1 tbsp minced fresh parsley (I used dry)

* 1/2 tbsp minced fresh oregano (I used dry)

* 1/2 tbsp minced fresh rosemary (I used dry)

* 1 tbsp minced fresh thyme (I used dry)

* 1 clove minced garlic (I used 2 cloves.. mmm.. garlic)

* 2 tbsp hot sauce (I used a little more)

* 1 egg

* 1/2 cup shredded asiago cheese

* 1/2 cup flour, for dusting

* Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

* 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, rinsed and patted dry, cut in half horizontally 3/4 of the way through (so you can stuff the inside)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On large plate add the first 7 ingredients. Stir to combine thoroughly.

2. Place the flour in a second plate. Season w/ kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, stir to combine.

3. To a wide bowl add the egg and 2 tbsp hot sauce. Whisk until the egg is frothy.

4. Open each chicken breast up and sprinkle asiago cheese inside the middle. Fold chicken back over to original shape.

5. Season all sides of the chicken breast with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

6. Dredge the breasts in the flour, shaking off all excess. Dip the lightly floured breasts, on at a time, into the hot sauce and egg mixture, coating both sides.

7. Next, press each of the breasts into the Cheez-It herb mixture, making sure all sides are thoroughly coated.

8. Place the Cheez-It encrusted breasts onto a sheet pan. If there the crust isn’t sticking, press a little bit of the Cheez-It mixture onto the top of the breast once it has been placed on the sheet pan. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until just cooked through.

Shish Kabobs

The weather here was beautiful yesterday (75 and sunny!) so we decided to grill out. These were REALLY good! Even Keith loved the chicken even though he claims he doesn't like BBQ sauce. I couldn't get him to try the veggies though ;)

Ingredients

* Uncooked chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

* Red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

* Green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

* Sweet onion, cut into 1 inch pieces

* BBQ sauce marinade (I used Buffalo Wild Wings' Honey BBQ)

* Chicken seasoning to taste

Directions

1. Put chicken breast pieces into ziploc baggy, pour some bbq sauce in, zip and mix around. Let sit in fridge for a couple hours. Put all veggies into a different baggy and do the same thing. Sprinkle some seasoning into the baggy as well if you'd like.

2. Thread chicken on one skewer and veggies onto another.

3. Place skewers on the grill and cook for 10-15 min depending on how hot your grill is and until chicken is cooked through. The chicken will probably take a little longer than the veggies, so we put those on first.

4. Enjoy!

Shrimp Alfredo

Yep, another pasta recipe! This was really tasty :)

Ingredients

* Large shrimp, as many as you'd like (I used about 10 for myself because Keith doesn't really like shrimp. Mine were pre-cooked.)

* Appx 8 oz uncooked pasta (I used a tri-color "Creste di Gallo")

* Fresh basil, chopped

* Appx 6 cloves garlic, minced

* Bacon crumbles

* Red pepper flakes, to taste

* Appx 8 oz jarred alfredo sauce

* EVOO

Directions

1. Begin boiling pasta and cook until al dente.

2. While pasta is cooking, heat some EVOO in a large frying pan. Add your garlic and then basil to saute, then the shrimp for a few minutes until just heated through (since mine was pre-cooked).

3. When pasta is done, drain and return to pot. Keep stove on low. Add your shrimp/garlic/basil mixture to pasta. Add alfredo sauce, bacon crumbles, and red pepper flakes. Stir everything together. Enjoy. (I chose to leave my tails on my shrimp and then just cut them off as I ate, but it's probably better to cut them off to begin with if your shrimp aren't already de-tailed.)

Simple Antipasto Salad

No real recipe here, but this salad was too good not to blog. It consisted of iceberg lettuce, pepperoni pieces, hard salami pieces, feta cheese, chopped onion, and house italian dressing. I should have added some hard boiled eggs but forgot... Yum!