Grilled Cheese & Guacamole Sandwich

I know I'm pretty much out of commission with any sort of regular posting, I hope to improve. But it's still dark come dinner time and my pictures that time of day are in a word: unappetizing. Plus I'm focusing on more healthy eating with far less meat at the moment and trying to find my way in that recipe world is proving somewhat challenging as far as things I'm excited to share. It's all pretty good, just not amazing-you know?!

Oh my lands was this tasty. Such a revelation. I spent a good portion of my life thinking I didn't like avocados and then bam! one day that changed and now I'm pretty much out of control avocado all the time. Naturally not liking avocados meant I also didn't like guacamole. I'm so happy to live in the world with the stuff now. And then you take that wonderful and divine guacamole (personally the recipe for that alone is the best I've tried to date) and you pair it with with melted sharp (has to be sharp!) cheddar and toasty sourdough and you see skies of blue and all that jazz. This was simple, it was healthy (yes I think cheese and bread are healthy-wholesome may be a better word?), it was quick, and aside from my husband and I inhaling it both my children ate it and asked for more. I think that's saying something. I mean how many children ask for avocados? Make them this sandwich and they definitely will. We paired it with this soup. Oh yum-perfection!

Grilled Cheese & Guacamole Sandwich

2 ripe avocados

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 small jalapeno, seeded and finely minced

2 T cilantro leaves, finely chopped

1 T fresh lime juice

1/2 t kosher salt

Fresh grated black pepper

1 roma tomato, chopped

Sliced sharp cheddar cheese

Sliced sourdough bread

Softened butter, for buttering bread

To make the guacamole: Cut avocados in half. Remove pit. Scoop out avocado and place in bowl. Use a fork to mash. Add onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. Taste and adjust. Add in diced tomatoes and stir. (Tip: I did all of the above in my food processor.)

Heat pan or griddle to medium heat. Spread one side of one slice of bread evenly with butter. Place butter side down in heated pan. Place a single layer of cheese on top and then spread a generous spoonful of guacamole over that. Add another layer of cheese and top with another slice of bread. Butter that side that's facing up. Toast until golden, flip over and do the same. When cheese is melter and bread is toasty, remove and continue process until desired number of sandwiches has been made. Serve warm.

Easy Vegetarian Chili

Excuse the "going back for seconds" mess around the bowl. But I suppose it says something that this chili was worthy of seconds. I'm trying to cut some of the meat out of our diet and have been looking around for some decent meatless meal options and lo and behold turns out chili is a great no meat candidate, what with the loads of hearty beans and veggies that can take its place. I really loved this meal and all the many leftovers too, you could easily get a few meals out of it and I'm sure it would freeze just fine. Also, it came together pretty quickly, so nice not to have to stir a pot all day. Serve it with plenty of cheese, sour cream, even some chopped tomatoes and green onions would be a great addition. Hearty and filling and we didn't even miss the meat.

Easy Vegetarian Chili

{Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod}

1 T olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 yellow pepper, chopped

1 jalapeno, diced and seed removed

3 15 oz cans diced tomatoes

2 15 oz cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups beef broth (or water with 4-5 beef bouillon cubes)

1 1/2 T cumin

2 T chili powder

salt and pepper, to taste

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until light brown, about 2-3 minutes. Add carrot, celery, peppers, and jalpeno. Cook for five minutes, or until veggies are soft.

Stir in diced tomatoes with their juice, rinsed beans, and water or broth. Season with cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. Stir and let chili simmer for 30 minutes. Stir frequently so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Serve hot with cheese, sour cream, diced tomatoes, and green onions if desired.

Swiss Cheese Broccoli Cauliflower Bake

Oh my lands this is tasty! I have a similar recipe that just involves cauliflower from my husbands grandma and it has long been a favorite in our house. I will share it sometime. But this combination of cauliflower AND broccoli and swiss cheese is side dish heaven on a plate! And just so you know, cover any veggie with saucy, cheesy goodness and you've got a sure fire way to get your kids eating their vegetables. (So what if it's not quite as healthy ;0))

Swiss Cheese Broccoli Cauliflower Bake

1 head of cauliflower

1 head of broccoli (or 2 if smaller)

1 1/2 cups swiss cheese, grated

2 T green onions, chopped

2/3 cup mayo

1 t dijon mustard

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

Steam broccoli and cauliflower until mostly fork tender. Arrange in 9x13 casserole dish. Combine remaining ingredients in separate bowl, until a thick "paste" is formed. Spread cheese mixture over vegetables, using a spatula. Bake uncovered in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Thai Peanut Noodles

I'm a huge fan of asian noodle dishes. They are inevitably what I gravitate towards at any asian restaurant. But I'd never even considered making them at home until a couple years ago when this recipe showed up on Our Best Bites. The list of ingredients has absolutely nothing bizzare, no fish sauce or oyster sauce in sight. Just basic ingredients you can find in any well-stocked pantry and an amazing flavor with a little heat (to taste of course), crunch (thank you peanuts) and refreshing toppings that really make the dish (hello green onions, cilantro, and lime). If you love noodles you're gonna love these, guaranteed.

Thai Peanut Noodles

{Original recipe from Our Best Bites. I've adapted it to our tastes, mainly by doubling the sauce ingredients. We like things saucy, plus I find the noodles soak it up pretty quick and less seemed like it would be non-existent. Feel free to double or not according to your families tastes. However, doubled amounts are what I've written out below}

1 cup chicken broth

6 T peanut butter

2 t sriracha chili sauce

3 T honey

6 T soy sauce

3 T fresh minced ginger

5-6 cloves garlic minced

12 oz linguine noodles

chopped green onions

chopped cilantro

lime wedges

chopped peanuts

Cook noodles in salted water. In the meantime combine chicken broth, peanut butter, chili sauce, honey, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until smooth and remove from heat. Toss cooked noodles with sauce. Add chopped peanuts to taste. On each serving sprinkle green onions, cilantro, and squeeze a wedge of lime.

*If desired, you can add meat to this dish by stir-frying shrimp or thinly slice (partially frozen first helps) chicken in some veggie oil with a couple cloves of minced garlic, some fresh ginger, green onions, soy sauce, and a small squirt or sriracha chili sauce.

Cheesy Broccoli Rice Bake

Another Mels Kitchen special. This was tasty. Cheesy, creamy, broccoli filled, flavorful crumb topped goodness. It has a few steps, i.e. cooking the rice, steaming the broccoli, making the sauce but the time spent was worth it because the end result was fabulous! You could add in some chicken and make it a one-dish meal with salad on the side. We had some chicken kebabs with ours making it a side dish, and let me just say it stole the show! It would pair perfectly with roasts of all kinds, grilled meats, and many kinds of fish as well.

Cheesy Broccoli Rice Bake

Recipe from Mels Kitchen Cafe

2 slices sandwich bread

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

6 T butter, 4 melted, 2 chilled

1 clove garlic, minced

2 lbs broccoli chopped, including stems

1 onion, chopped

1 1/4 cup white rice

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/4 cups half-and-half

1 t salt

2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/8 t cayenne pepper

Grease 9x13 dish and set aside. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Pulse bread, 1/4 cup parm, and 4 T melted butter in food processor. Add minced garlic and set aside.

Microwave chopped broccoli, covered, in a microwave safe bowl until bright green and slightly tender, 2-3 minutes (no need to add water). Melt remaining 2 T butter in large pot over medium heat. Cook onion until softened and translucent. Add rice and cook, stirring constantly, until translucent, about 1 minute. Stir in broth, half-and-half, and salt and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring often, until rice is tender, 20-25 minutes. Off the heat, stir in cheddar cheese, cayenne, remaining parmesan and cooked broccoli.

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and top with bread crumb mixture. Bake until sauce is bubbling around edges and top is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Serve.

Could Not Be Simpler Tomato Sauce

This recipe has been floating around the blogosphere for quite some time. I found it via Smitten Kitchen, but she found it via so-and-so, who found it via another so-and-so, and so on. At first I thought tomatoes, butter, and an onion? This cannot be good! Too few ingredients that don't seem to have much flavor. But put the 3 together and it's a whole new story! It's simple and refreshing and I quite liked it. I'm sure my husband would have liked some sort of meat added in, but I liked it's non-meatness so left it as is. I did take the liberty of blending it up, rather than just crushing the tomatoes as the original recipe calls for. I'm a smooth sauce kind of gal, not so much chunky tomato sauce loving and I also decided I couldn't let the onion go to waste so I blended it in with the sauce instead of removing and discarding it. I added some shaved parmesan and if I'd had it would have sprinkle some basil chiffonade on top as well. But feel free to do as you please with it! It's an easy light dinner or lunch kind of dish, we added a hearty salad to our plate just to fill it out a bit more. Some crusty grilled bread would be great on the side too.

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

{Slightly adapted from recipe source: Smitten Kitchen and elsewhere}

1 28 oz can whole stewed tomatoes

5 T butter

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved

Salt to taste, if needed (I didn't need it)

Shaved parmesan, optional

Basil chiffonade, optional

Hot cooked spaghetti noodles

Place tomatoes, butter, and halved onion in 3 quart heavy sauce pan over medium heat. Let come to boil and then reduce heat to maintain a steady simmer for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally and crushing tomatoes as you go. After 45 minutes you may either remove and discard onion and serve as is over pasta, or blend it all together and serve with shaved parmesan and basil on top. Easy as pie!

Baked Veggie Egg Rolls

My friend Darla sent me this recipe to try and try I did. I liked that it was a meatless meal, heaven knows we eat plenty of meat around here and could use the occasional break. And I was intrigued by the baking versus frying cooking method. I always find restaurant egg rolls that are fried good but greasy. You know the kind of greasy that makes you feel yucky even while you're devouring them. And I'm no health-nut!

Anyhow, my only beef with the final product was the the wrapper's weren't quite what I hoped they'd be taste-wise. I think next time, and there will be a next time cause the filling is delicious, I might try a pot-sticker style route. Frying them in a pan with a little veggie oil to brown at least one side if not more and then adding a touch of water, putting the lid on, and letting them steam to finish.

We ate these with homemade thai sweet chili dipping sauce and baked brown rice. Both recipes forthcoming...

Baked Veggie Egg Rolls

{Adapted from For the Love of Cooking Blog}

• 1 tsp+ olive oil
• 2 cups of savoy cabbage, chopped
• 2 cups of shredded carrots (I used pre-package broccoli slaw mix instead)
• 2 cups of bean sprouts (make sure they're fresh)
• 1 can of water chestnuts, chopped
• 2-3 green onions, sliced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 cup chicken broth + some additional if needed
• 14 or so egg roll wraps
• Sweet chili dipping sauce or sweet and sour sauce (for dipping)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot add the cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots or broccoli slaw mix, water chestnuts, grated ginger, and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring frequently for 4-5 minutes, until the vegetables just begin to wilt but still remain a little bit crisp. Feel free to douse mixture with a little bit of chicken broth if you find that it's sticking to your pan while cooking. Mix the corn starch with the 1/4 cup chicken broth and mix thoroughly. Add the corn starch mixture and soy sauce to the pan along with the green onions. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and let cool a little.

Place two or so tablespoons of the barely warm mixture on the center of the egg roll wrap. Fold the bottom up over the filling. Next, fold the two sides over, making it look like an envelope, then roll it up like a burrito. Try to work quickly as the wrappers dry out pretty fast.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or line with silpat liner. Place the rolled up egg rolls on a baking sheet, seam side down to start. Once you have rolled them all, spray the top of each egg roll with cooking spray.

Place in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes then turn them over. Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. I found that mine took a bit longer to get brown, more like 8-10 minutes per side. Serve with sweet chili sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or any other favorite asian dipping sauce.