Dirty Birthday Dinner: Grilled Cheese w/Apple Slices and CAKE!!!

Grilled Cheese w/Apple Slices on Pumpernickel Bread

Okay, so its not really a "dirty" meal... but it doesn't fit the "Clean Eating" standards.  That's because today is my youngest son's 16th birthday!!!  Wait.  That must mean that I'm getting old.  Huh.  Its not so exciting anymore.  

Family dinner minus the two oldest.  And me.  Well, I'm THERE, I'm just behind the camera. 

I picked up a loaf of pumpernickel bread off of the clearance shelf at Walmart.  Grilled sandwiches work wonderfully with day old bread!

Pumpernickel or Rye Bread, Apples, Swiss Cheese and Butter or Coconut oil and we are set!

Directions

Butter/Oil one side of each slice of bread (the girls don't like rye, so we used white for them)

Place swiss cheese slice, then apple, then another slice of swiss (our slices were THIN)

Grill like you would any grilled cheese sandwich:

LOOK at my EPIC Vintage Roper stove that my hubby got for me!!!  Not bad for $75.00!

I can cook on a double burner griddle, two pans (one for the vegetarian baked beans, one for the meat lovers) AND a pan for veggies and I STILL have one burner leftover!

We served with a side of  homemade baked beans.  YUM!!!

Then it was time for the truly "dirty" part of the evening... fudge cake made by my daughter, Paris, for Jaedin's birthday!

We cheated and just used a mix.  Why?  Because... I'm a bad mom and I forgot that today was Jaedin's birthday.  Everything has been so hectic this summer with the move, we STILL haven't celebrated Kainan's 17th birthday from June OR Patrick's birthday in July, or MY birthday OR our 18th anniversary.  The move just downed our entire summer!

He's 'cool' with it, though.  Notice the ".  He is such a goof ball... this has become his "pose" for photos, unless he's doing his Trekkie thing.  *Shaking my head*  You just never know.

Happy Birthday, Jaedin!  And the rest of you, go try out this weird grilled cheese idea!  My family loves it!

Clean Eating #127: Chickpea & Spinach Veggie Burgers (the best texture yet!)

Chickpea & Spinach Veggie Burgers

Oops!  I forgot to take a final photo when they were done because I was STARVING... and they were so good that they all got eaten!   These actually got firmer with cooking, while most of the others just seemed to get kind of soggy when heated.

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbsp Extra Vigrin Olive Oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

5 ounces of fresh spinach

2 Cups of cooked chickpeas

4 egg whites

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup plus one Tbsp of chickpea flour (you can make this yourself, its really easy)

Blend up some dried chickpeas to make chickpea flour.  Just make sure you get them all so you don't end up nearly breaking your teeth on a hard dried bean.  Not that I did that, of course.  I'm always very diligent whilst cooking:)

Thankfully I had some chickpeas still in the freezer from when I made the Tuscan Bean Spread

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the EVOO in a large skillet

Add the cumin and fresh spinach, cook until all of the spinach is wilted

In a blender/food processor mix together:

1 1/2 cup of cooked chick peas

egg whites

lemon juice

Pulse until somewhat chunky (mine was completely smooth because I only have a blender, but it still worked)

Add the cooked spinach, the rest of the cooked beans and chickpea flour

Add a little extra flour if needed, but don't make them too dry.  That flour is really potent!

You can kind of mash/chop up the remaining beans so that it add more "rough" texture to your veggie burger.

The puree stuff looked like paste.  It wasn't very appetizing at ALL, but the whole burger turned out to be my favorite thus far.

As always, I lightly coated the burger in ground flaxseed.  I like the extra crunch and the health benefits of flaxseed.

What I'll Do Differently Next Time:  Take pictures of the finished product and at least double the recipe.  These were really a great texture, but not big on flavor, so I'll probably mess with adding some different seasoning or maybe some peppers?  

I love LOVE the texture, but what are your suggestions for adding more FLAVOR?

Recipe adapted from this AMAZING book that everyone who likes veggie burgers needs to own!

Clean Eating #117: White Bean & Spinach Veggie Burgers

White Bean & Spinach Veggie Burgers

Ingredients

1 Medium onion, peeled & sliced into thin rings

4 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 1/2 cups cooked white beans

2 egg whites

1/4 cup Kalamata olives, chopped finely

1/2 tsp lemon juice

3/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

1 cup finely chopped fresh or frozen spinach (thawed and drained)

Seasonings to taste:

Mrs. Dash Spicy Seasoning

Pepper

Garlic Salt

Directions:

Heat the oil and cook the sliced onions on medium to med-high heat until carmelized (20-30 minutes), stirring OFTEN so they don't burn.

Mix together remaining ingredients except Spinach

In the food processor, blend half of the ingredients.

Mix with unblended ingredients, including the spinach and the onions.

Form into patties and press into a plate of ground flax seed

Heat skillet to medium heat, lightly oiled with olive oil.  Cook the patties, turning after about 8-10 minutes.

Serve on a Whole Wheat Bun with lettuce and tomato

Verdict:  These were really good.  I want to make sure to have garlic to add next time for some extra flavor, but these were VERY tasty and didn't last long!  Still with the texture.... though I'm not really sure what to do about it.  I don't mind the texture as long as it tastes good, but my hubby definitely doesn't care for it.  I must find a way to make a more... solid veggie burger.  Thanks to my book, I have a lot of recipes to try!

Clean Eating #110: Panera Style Tomato Mozzarella Grilled Sandwich

Panera Style Tomato Mozzarella Grilled Sandwich

Ingredients:

*Click the link to see the recipe:

Tomato Pesto

Sliced Mozzarella Cheese

Fresh Sliced Tomato

Ciabatta Bread

Olive Oil

Directions:

Place Pesto on one slice of bread, tomatoes on the other.

Top the pesto with cheese and make your sandwich. 

Brush a light coat of EVOO on the outside and toast or grill until the cheese is melted.

 My hubby was SOOOO anxiously awaiting his sandwich:

But it was worth it!

I'm entering this recipe into Spicie Foodie's YBR for April.  You should stop by and see her site.... it is fantastic!

Clean Eating #111: Whole Grain Ciabatta Bread

Whole Grain Ciabatta Bread

Our family LOVES Panera Bread.  Since becoming vegetarian around here, I made a lovely discovery... their Mozarella and Tomato grilled on Ciabatta bread.  DIVINE.  So, of course, since I can't afford to spend $6.99 on a sandwich more than once, I decided to try to find a substitute for at home.  I made the sandwich on our normal bread... and that was SO close... but because the bread is SO important, it was really NOT it.  I had to find "the" bread.

This is my first try, with this recipe, slightly altered to 'clean' it up a little, since I can't use refined flour and stay within my eat clean parameters.  Unbeknownst to me, this bread isn't mean for last minute impulsive people, which is why I cooked four recipes yesterday... after I discovered that I had to let my bread 'starter' sit for 24 hours after starting the recipe.

It might do me good at some point in my life to start making plans rather than just flying by the seat of my pants.  Lol.  Yeah, that's going to happen.  And with frequency, too.  I will also be learning to fly in the near future.  You know, with my invisible wings.  Not really, don't worry, that was just my sarcasm.  Perhaps another personality trait I shouldn't exercise quite so much.

So, The day BEFORE you want bread, make your "sponge" or starter.
Sponge/Starter Recipe:

First, mix these:
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
4 tablespoons warm water


Let that sit for about 5 minutes.  Then ADD:
2/3 cup warm water
2 cup Unbleached flour


Cover with Saran Wrap (Or a leftover plastic produce bag if you're out of plastic wrap) and let sit for 24 hours or so.

Ciabatta Bread Recipe:

Source: This recipe originated in Gourmet Magazine 

Ingredients:

• Sponge/Starter from above
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 4 tablespoons warm water
• 2 tsp Ideal Xylitol
• 1 1/3 cup warm water
• 4 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 cup Unbleached flour
• 3 teaspoons salt
• Wholewheat flour for dusting

Mix the ingredients together, then place on the table for kneading.  Knead for at least 5 minutes (OR go read the directions for the original recipe, because I just did this like my normal kneading bread recipes)

When you're finished kneading, place in a bowl and cover.

Wait until it doubles or triples in size

Then Form it into 4 loaves like so:  

Bake at 375-400 (My oven is a little hot, so I use the lower temp.) for about 20 minutes until lightly browned.

I use a pizza stone and include a pan of water to help the crust get nice and crisp.

Viola!!  Use this for your Panera Style Grilled Tomato Mozzarella Sandwich.

Verdict?  My husband had another meltdown when he tasted this.  I wasn't video taping until he had the sandwich, though... although he STILL flipped out:)

Clean Eating #57: Whole Wheat Tortillas

Whole What "Clean" Tortillas

Recipe from what may be my favorite site ever now that I've tried these DELICIOUS tortillas.  These ladies are awesome:)  Passionate Homemaking knows their stuff!  There is so much information on this blog, I could get lost for a long, long time.  Stop by and read up on natural eating, health and a wealth of topics.

Regardless of whether or not you try this recipe, you should really go read this article about the health benefits of soaking your grains.  I learned a lot that I'd always vaguely heard about, but not actually researched.  Go look!

3 cups whole wheat *See here for the other recommended options!

1 cup warm filtered water


1 Tbsp acid medium (I used apple cider vinegar)  *See here for the other recommended options!


1/4 cup coconut oil or butter, melted


1/4 tsp. baking powder


1 tsp. salt






Directions:



1.Combine flour, water, melted coconut oil or butter and 1 Tbsp of acid medium. Cover and allow to soak at room temperature for 12-24 hours.


2.After soaking, add baking powder and salt to soaked flour mixture, kneading in the flour until the dough is workable but not too stiff.


3.Shape into 8 – 10 balls and let stand 10 more minutes.


4.Roll to form a 10 inch circle or use a tortilla press.


5.Bake on a lightly greased griddle till done (not browned). Toast for about 20-30 sec. per side.


Yield: 8-10 tortillas.

I didn't bother to form into balls, I don't mind square tortillas:)  They would work wonderfully for sandwich wraps and pinwheel sandwiches this way!

My girls, of course immediately made pinwheel sandwiches for a tea party:)  Or rather "Prom"

What I'd Do Differently Nex Time:  I will definitely be making these again and again and again.  I will experiment with using different seasonings, spinach for wraps, marinara versions for wraps.  We LOVE sandwich wraps, and I love the 'less carbs' of a wrap... Thanks so much to PASSIONATE HOMEMAKING for such a wonderful recipe!

Clean Eating #56: Quick and Easy Leftover "Panera" Chicken Raspberry Sandwich

"Panera" Style Chicken Raspberry Sandwich

I took some leftover whole grain sub rolls from Walmart (I would normally use our homemade bread, but these were leftover from when we got stuck in town the other day) and made some yummy sandwiches that Squatch said, "Yum!  These are as good as Panera Bread sandwiches!"

Ingredients:
Whole Grain Sandwich/Sub Roll
Leftover Marinated Raspberry Vinagrette Chicken Breasts (Or you can use the prepped cooked chicken of your choice)
Swiss Cheese, thinly sliced
Tomato, thinly sliced
Greeen leaf lettuce
Onion, thinly sliced
Raspberry Vinagrette Dressing
McCormick's Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning

Directions:
Cut your sub loaf in half, pull out extra bread from top to lower carb count if you want (you can also just use sliced bread in the same way)
Place tomato slices topped with swiss cheese on one half
Place cooked chicken on other half, sprinkle with "Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning"
Stick under broiler set to 450 until the cheese bubbles
Remove, add extra raspberry vinagrette dressing
Add lettuce, sliced onions and other toppings (cucumbers, peppers, etc)

Eat it up!  Yummy, healthy and delicious and a great way to use those leftovers!  That's why I love to make extras!!