Crazy Cooking Challenge : Bacon, Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Roasted Garlic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

 

This months challenge was Grilled Cheese....Tina must have been inspired because there have been a slew of grilled cheese sandwich recipes floating around the internet.

 

I've learned that grilled cheese does not have to consist of processed cheese & sandwich bread {something I do not like}.....in fact there are so many flavor combinations to make what I call a "grown-up"grilled cheese.

 

One of my favorite sandwiches that I'll make every once in awhile is my Ciabatta with bacon & brie combination, so I was excited for this challenge to search for a couple of new recipes.

When I typed in grilled cheese into the Pinterest search engine, I found a wonderful blog, Gallery Kitchen-Bake Up Little Suzy.  I hit the jackpot.  She was doing a month-long grilled cheese special and I immediately starting pinning recipes to try out.

My favorite out of all of them {that I made & tried}....the Bacon, Sun-Dried Tomatoe & Roasted Garlic.

I tried to stay pretty true to the recipe, but I adapted some to feed my family of five....here's a rundown of how I made these fabu-deliciosity sandwiches.

First, I started out with some homemade Challah Bread.  The recipe I used was fantastic, I think I calculated that each slice was 80 calories or so.

While the bread baked, I wrapped 10 cloves of garlic in some foil-with some EVOO-and roasted it for about 25-30 minutes.  Heavenly smell.

For the Bacon part, I used Turkey bacon.  I really like the stuff & it's a little nicer for you calorie wise.  Sun-Dried tomatoes, Italian Cheese Blend, Basil & EVOO rounded out the rest of the ingredients.

 Because I was mass producing this sandwich, I used my Oven.  Made it much easier to cook 5 {or 6} sandwiches at once.

I fully enjoyed this sandwich.  From the smoky bacon, to the sweet tomatoes, to the roasted garlic, my mouth was having a par-tay!

Bacon, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, & Roasted Garlic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
~From Suzanna @ Gallery Kitchen~
{Oringial Recipe}
{My Version-Printable}

Ingredients

-Makes 6 servings

·         12 cloves of roasted garlic

·         EVOO

·         12 slices of Challah Bread

·         12 slices of cooked Turkey Bacon

·         Sun-Dried Tomatoes

·         Basil

·         Italian Blend Cheese-about ¼ cup to ½ cup for each sandwich

Directions

1.      Preheat the oven to 450˚

2.     On each slice of bread, spread some roasted garlic.

3.    Pile on the bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese, and basil-a little sprinkle for each sandwich.

4.    Drizzle the top & bottom of the sandwich with EVOO, and if you want, some more cheese.

5.     Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, and then flip the sandwiches to bake for another 10 minutes.

6.     Sandwiches are done when they are nice and golden on the outside.

7.     Enjoy!

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties:

Crazy Cooking Challenge : Blueberry Coconut Lime Puffins

It's Blueberry Muffin Time!!!!

And let me tell ya....I baked alot of blueberry muffin recipes in my hopes of finding the best muffin recipe.  Because you see....in my search over the years to find a great blueberry muffin recipe, I've never been won over.  I'd still rather buy a muffin mix {Betty Crocker is my favorite}.

And then I ran into this recipe...and I think that my husband & I are hooked {because my kids have given up on muffins...I don't think they appreciated this challenge}.

That's right folks....it's a Muffin & a Pancake...and it totally tastes that way.

So I took the idea of this Puffin from the blog, Lady with the Red Rocker, and then I ran with it.  I added some Coconut Syrup {all the way from Hawaii} & some lime zest, and of course some Blueberries.

The coconut added this suprise flavor....my husband had a hard time guessing what was in the muffin.  And do you know what my favorite part of these muffins are???  The fact that they are just about 100 calories each.  EACH.  How awesome is that!

Blueberry Coconut Lime Puffins

~Original Recipe found here~

Printable Recipe

 

Ingredients:

·         2 Cups Krusteazs Mix

·         2/3 Cups Skim Milk

·         2 Eggs

·         ½ Cup Coconut Syrup

·         1 Tbl Coconut Emulsion

·         Zest from 2 Limes

·         12 Tbl Blueberries

Directions:

1.       Preheat Oven to 375˚; grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

2.       In a mixing bowl, add the following ingredients: Krusteazs mix, milk, eggs, syrup, emulsion, lime zest.  Gently mix everything together.

3.       Scoop into the muffin pan.

4.       Place a tablespoon of blueberries on top, and gently press down.

5.       Bake for 15 -20 minutes when a toothpick comes out clean.

6.       Enjoy

Thanks for stopping by!!

Check out some other Blueberry Muffin Recipes!

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties:

Crazy Cooking Challenge : Spaghetti & Red Sauce

All Right!  What an interesting challenge.  Who knew that the simplest food combination would be so hard to find??  I mean...I've never tried making another Red Spaghetti Sauce before.  I usually just open up a can.

So when the assignment was given, I went looking.  I stumbled up The Recipe Diaries "Roasted Red Pepper Sauce".  Perfect.  I had all the ingredients.  I was especially intrigued by the addition of Red Wine Vinegar; I had never used that before in a sauce.

I also decided to kick it up a notch.  I wanted to make this a fun meal for my family.  While looking for a Red Sauce, I came across Center Cut Cook's "Italian Love Nests".  Perfect!

Fun !

So here's how it went down:

The sauce was delicious!  But then again, I love the combination of Roasted Red Bell Peppers & Tomatoes.  And the tiniest bit of the crushed red pepper flakes was perfect for the sauce.

It was super easy making up the cups, and I made exactly 12 cups.  I think the only thing that I did differently was add the sauce to the tops of the cups.  If you look at the above picture, I had so much sauce leftover after taking all the noodles out.  So I took my tablespoon, and scooped a spoonful onto each of them, because extra sauce doesn't hurt.

Adding the extra seasonings & cheese to combine these noodles together, was a superb idea!  My kids had the best time trying to figure out how to eat these fun cups.

And as you can see, they liked using their fingers for this meal...

Two of these babies, plus fresh French Bread & some veggies made my tummy very happy!

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

{by : The Recipe Diaries}

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbl Red Wine Vinegar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Pepper
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 1 (14.5 oz) Can of Tomatoes-undrained
• 1 (7 oz) Bottle of Roasted Red Bell Peppers-undrained {I drained mine because they seemed to be packed in oil}
• 1/8 tsp Crushed Red Pepper

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor, and blend until smooth.

Italian Love Nests

{by : Center Cut Cooks}

Ingredients :

• 8 ounces of Angel hair pasta {I used regular Spaghetti Noodles}
• 8 ounces of meat-cooked {I didn't add any to mine}
• 1 Cup of Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Cups of Sauce {The sauce that I made up above was the perfect amount}
• 1 tsp Oregano
• 1 tsp Basil
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Hot Sauce (Optional) {I didn't add}
• 1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flake (Optional) {I didn't add}

Directions:

1. Cook your pasta according to the package.
2. Preheat you oven to 350 degrees & lightly grease 12 muffin tins.
3. In a bowl, combine the following ingredients: Parmesan Cheese, Eggs, Oregano, Basil, Salt, Pepper (and the optional ingredients).
4. In a sauce pan, add the cooked noodles, meat, and sauce.  Heat for a couple of minutes.  Take off the heat & stir in the Parmesan Cheese mixture.
5. Using tongs, portion out the noodles into the muffin tin.
6. Add any extra sauce to the tops of your cups.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the tops & sides start to brown.
8. Allow the cups to cool for 5 minutes.
9. Using a knife, slide around the entire cup to pop out.
10. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

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