Sweet Sandwich Bar--Easy Kid-Friendly Lunch!

I have four kids.  Making sandwiches is a chore.  Usually, Lukas and Keanna like peanut butter and jelly, Koda likes peanut butter and honey, April likes just honey.  Then all of a sudden Keanna doesn't want a sandwich, Koda wants just peanut butter, and April wants whatever *insert sibling name here* is having.  They eventually revert back to the usual, but I never know.  During the school year, you eat what Mom packs.  You can make requests, but there are no guarantees.  So I've been trying to mix it up this summer to make lunches more fun.

Last week I had a brilliant epiphany:  a kid-friendly sandwich bar!  I got out a variety of sandwich ingredients and let the kids decide what they wanted.  I then put the ingredients on their plates and let them construct the sandwiches themselves.  They loved it!  Lukas came back for a second sandwich and asked for a third (which I didn't let him have, but he did eat more fruit).

Lukas's plate:  peanut butter, apricot jelly, bananas, apple,
strawberries, and honey.

I put out peanut butter, strawberry preserves, apricot preserves, honey, apple slices, banana slices, strawberry slices, and pecans.  That's just what I happened to have that day, but there are many more possibilities:  raisins, dried cranberries, peach slices, cut grapes, granola, maple syrup, blueberries, raspberries, apple butter, pear slices...

Mommy's sandwich:  peanut butter, apple slice,
strawberries, and apricot jelly.  Super yummy!!

Everyone is happy.

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches with Garlic Spread

With summer here, it means I actually have time to cook.  And not just frozen chicken nuggets.  Real cooking.  With real food.  Summer also means a lot of great produce.  Sadly, I was too busy this spring to get my garden going, so I'm relying on neighbor Jerry's generosity and the WinCo produce section.

This week I loaded up on vegetables.  Thursday's dinner was grilled veggie sandwiches with homemade garlic spread.  Last night we had my dad over for dinner and threw some hot dogs (ok, that's not real food, but it was fun) and veggies on the grill.  Afterward, we let the kids roast marshmallows.

I don't really have a recipe for grilled veggie sandwiches.  I buy whatever vegetables are reasonably priced.  This time I ended up with onions, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes.  I really like red bell peppers, but at over $1 each, I can do without.  The eggplant cost more than I like to pay for produce, but I knew it would be so good.

The veggies would be best cooked on the grill, but I usually stick them under the broiler.

Kimiko made a similar sandwich a few years ago.  You can find it here.

Roasted Veggie Sandwiches

Veggies (onions, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, etc.)

Oil for brushing (I use vegetable)

Salt and pepper

Bread

Garlic spread

Slice veggies and place on broiler pans.

April helped me cut the zucchini and squash.  Otherwise,
I would have cut it lengthwise to fit better on the
sandwiches.

Brush both sides with oil; season with salt and pepper.  Place under broiler until veggies start to turn golden.  Turn; brush with more oil.  Return to broiler until second side is cooked as desired.

Meanwhile, toast sandwich bread and make Garlic Spread.  When veggies are done, spread garlic spread on toasted bread and top with veggies.

Garlic Spread

2 ounces Neufchatel cheese, softened (softened cream cheese will work)

1 clove garlic (more or less as desired)

Pinch kosher salt

2-3 Tbsp. mayonnaise

In a small bowl, cream Neufchatel; set aside.  On cutting board, finely chop garlic.  Add a pinch of kosher salt.  Using side of chef's knife, press down and drag knife toward you over garlic to pulverize.  Run knife blade through garlic.  Wipe off knife and pulverize again.  Repeat process until garlic is a smooth paste.

Mix into creamed Neufchatel.  Mix in mayonnaise until smooth.  Yield:  makes about 3 sandwiches with spread on both pieces of bread.

Adding Some Crunch to an Old Favorite: Pretzel PB&J

We love PB&J in our house!  During the school year, I try to keep my freezer stocked with homemade Uncrustables for grab 'n go lunches.  But during the summer, I make them fresh.

Lately, I've been using squeezable grape jelly that is leftover from our vacation.  I am completely not impressed.  It seems like a good idea, but in the end, I'd rather have a jar and a spoon.  It's hard to squeeze and you end up having to spread it anyway for evenness and complete coverage.

Not worth it, in my opinion.

In the last week, I've been using homemade jam!!  Soooo delicious!  Shelly, one of the ladies from our church, taught the rest of the ladies how to make and can jam.  She sent us each home with a jar that she had made.  I chose apricot, while Keanna grabbed a strawberry.  The apricot is almost gone.  Once you've had great homemade jam, you will never want to go back to store-bought.

Shelly's jammin' lessons encouraged me to try canning again.  I haven't actually done it yet, but it's on my soon-to-do list.  I did, however, make up a batch of strawberry jam in my bread maker.  It is completely gone already.  Once our peaches are ripe, I will definitely write a post about making jam!

One other way I've been adding some pizzazz to our summer PB&J's, is by adding pretzels.  Pretzels taste great with both the peanut butter and the jelly, and they add a great crunch.  So delicious!

Grape jelly with pretzels for Koda, grape jelly with half
pretzels for Lukas, and strawberry preserves with no
pretzels for Keanna.

Tomato and Cucumber Sandwich with Garlic Chive Spread

It's almost summer!!  As far as we're concerned, summer is already here because we're full on into our summer vacation, swimming lessons, and bathing suit tans.  And that means I'm taking cues from the garden.

I didn't actually get my own garden planted this year.  So sad, but it was a busy spring for us.  I do still have strawberries and asparagus from the past few years.  And my horribly neglected herb garden is blessing me with garlic chives, cilantro, and possibly some basil in the near future.  Yay for self-seeding plants!  The chives are actually bulbs so they come up by themselves every year.

Well, I went out to take inventory a few weeks ago, and my garlic chives were going crazy.  I snipped them all down and then had to use them.  At the same time, I happened to have some cucumbers and tomatoes on hand—sandwich time!!

I love mayonnaise with tomatoes.  They just go so well together.  But I try not to eat too much mayonnaise since it has so much fat in it.  Lately I’ve been substituting some of the mayonnaise in my recipes with plain yogurt.

As far as herbs go, I just used garlic chives because that’s what I had in my garden.  You could easily use any herbs you have available to you.  Or add some minced garlic!

Garlic Chive Spread

¼ c. mayonnaise

¼ c. plain yogurt

Fresh herbs, chopped, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste if desired

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.  Serve as a sandwich spread, salad dressing, or veggie dip.

Grilled Chicken and Vegetable Wraps

It's been pretty hot here recently (not summer hot, yet, but hot nonetheless), and I've been reminded of how much I dislike using my stove and oven in the summer.  So we're having more salads, sandwiches, and food cooked outside on the grill.  I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a try with a few modifications.  The results were wonderful and my family enjoyed it!  The best part was that it didn't heat up my house at all because it's all cooked out on the grill!

Grilled Chicken and Vegetable Wraps
Chicken breasts
Red onion, sliced into 1/2-inch thick slices
Red bell pepper, sliced into rings
1 zucchini, sliced lengthwise
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Garlic powder
Ground black pepper
Hummus
Wraps, pitas, or tortillas (we used whole wheat lavash bread)
Feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat grill to medium-high.

Season chicken breast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Place on grill; cook for 4 to 8 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.  While the chicken is cooking, brush or drizzle onions, bell peppers, and zucchini with olive oil; season with salt and pepper.  Place on grill until the first side begins to soften and get grill marks; flip and cook until tender-crisp.

Remove chicken and veggies.  Cut chicken into bite-sized chunks and give veggies a rough chop.  Season veggies with salt and pepper to taste if needed.

Spread wrap, pita, or tortilla with hummus, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges.  Place chicken and veggies in a strip along on edge of wrap.  Top with desired amount of feta and roll up.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

Philly Cheese Steaks

We are both native Californians, but our familial roots are in Michigan and Pennsylvania.  Our dad grew up in Detroit, and left Michigan when he joined the army.  Our mom was born in Lebanon (home of Lebanon bologna!) and grew up in Palmyra and Mechanicsburg—our grandparents are now back in Palmyra again.  We grew up eating some distinctively Pennsylvania foods—red beet eggs, chicken corn soup, pot pie (real pot pie made in a pot), and Philly cheese steak sandwiches, which I’d like to share with you today.  This recipe is neither healthy, nor cheap, but it is one of our comfort foods and we rarely eat it.

Now-a-days, you can order a Philly cheese steak at just about any American-food restaurant and California even has a chain called The Cheese Steak Shop.  I would agree that most of these sandwiches you can get at restaurants are tasty, but they are not the cheese steaks we grew up eating.

The main difference between our cheese steaks and those you get at restaurants is sauce.  We like Tallarico’s Philly style steak sandwich sauce.  I have never seen it here on the West, so we wait with anticipation for Christmas packages from Grandpa and Grandma which almost always contain a jar or two.  In the absence of the steak sandwich sauce, pizza or spaghetti sauce will suffice.  In fact, The Cheese Steak Shop serves a “pizza cheese steak” which is their basic sandwich with pizza sauce.

As far as the veggies go, I just add caramelized onions, but you can also include peppers and mushrooms.

For the meet, I use Steak-umm sliced steaks.  I know.  Processed and expensive.  But this is how Grandma and Mom make them so that’s how we like them.  You could use real steak, thinly sliced, chopped, and grilled if you prefer.

These are WAY over my $2/lb. spending limit for meat, but
we only have them a couple times a year---and it's
completely worth it!

They come like this.  Keep them frozen until you are
ready to cook them.

From what I’ve heard/read/seen, the classic Philly cheese steak should have American cheese on it.  It is great that way, but sometimes I like to mix it up and use provolone.  When I can’t decide, I do half and half.

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

Butter for sautéing and bread

1 large onion

1 bell pepper (optional)

Mushrooms (optional)

2 packages Steak-umms

6 soft sandwich rolls

1 jar steak sandwich sauce (or pizza or spaghetti sauce)

Provolone or American cheese

Heat sauté pan over medium heat.  Meanwhile, slice onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms.  Add 1-2 Tbsp. butter to hot pan; melt.  Add veggies to pan and slowly caramelize, stirring occasionally.

While veggies are cooking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Meanwhile, break sandwich steaks into pieces.  Add to heated skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until no pink remains.

If either the meat or the veggies are ready before you are, simply keep them warm in a 250° oven.  Heat sauce in microwave or on stove.  When onions, meat, and sauce are almost all ready, butter sandwich rolls and brown under broiler until golden.

This is what happens if you get distracted.  My family
didn't even know they were burnt because the filling
tasted so good.

Top one half with meat and the other half with veggies; spoon sauce over both sides.

It's a messy sandwich.

Cover all with desired cheese and place back under broiler to melt.

Soooooo good!!

And if you happen to visit The Cheese Steak Shop, be sure to pick up another one of our completely unhealthy favorite Pennsylvania comfort foods—Tastykakes!  The butterscotch krimpets are my favorite!  Kimiko likes the chocolate cupcakes out of the freezer.