Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

• 4-6 boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts
• 1 (12 oz) Bottle Buffalo Wing Sauce
• 2 T. Ranch mix seasoning
• 2 T. Butter

Place chicken breasts in a lightly greased crock pot. In a medium bowl, combine the buffalo wing sauce and ranch seasoning. Pour hot sauce mixture over chicken and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Once cooked, shred chicken breasts in the crock pot. Stir in butter until melted.

Melt cheese on top of each sandwich and top with Ranch dressing as desired.

Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich

Summer is the season for grilling. This sammy is delicious, easy, and can be made without turning your oven on! I love pretty much everything made on a  grill and I especially love chicken cordon bleu. This is a match made in heaven.

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• Bread
• Deli sliced ham
• Swiss cheese
• Grilled Chicken breast, sliced
• Mustard sauce

Mustard Sauce:

• 1 T. Yellow Mustard
• 1 T. Hot Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 c. Honey
• 1/2 T. Lemon Juice
• 1/8 t. Onion Powder
• 1/3 Mayonnaise

Start by grilling chicken breasts.  While chicken is grilling mix sauce ingredients together until smooth. Then build sandwich: spread mustard sauce on bread, then place deli ham, sliced chicken breast, swiss cheese.   Butter outer sides of sandwich and place on grill. Grill on each side for a few minutes until cheese is melted and bread is golden brown.

Billy Goat Grilled Cheese

This little sammy was created by my husband. I'm a huge fan of grilled cheese but he was getting tired of plain boring grilled cheese sandwiches so he jazzed it up a little.

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• Bread
• Sliced Colby Jack cheese
• Sliced Pepper Jack Cheese
• Polish dog or Cheddar Brat, sliced

Start by warming polish dog slices in a pan until lightly browned. Transfer to plate. Build sandwich as so: on bottom piece of bread layer colby jack cheese, then warmed polish dog, pepper jack cheese, top with bread.  Lightly butter bread and grill until golden brown and until cheese is melted. 

Grilled Mozzarella Sandwiches

I'm a hard core grilled cheese fan. The love of them started when I was pregnant with my first baby. Grilled cheese was the only food that sounded good and the only thing my stomach tolerated the first 4 months of my pregnancy. Since then I've become a grilled cheese connoisseur. This recipe is basically a fancied up version of my favorite sammy. It reminds me a little of another one of my faves; the Monte Cristo. It got 2 thumbs up from everyone at our table, baby included. Enjoy!

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• 1 lb. Mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 8 Slices Texas Toast Bread
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/2 c. Heavy cream
• 1 t. Fresh Thyme, leaves
• 1 t. Coarse Salt
• A grating of Nutmeg
• 1/4 c. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 T. Unsalted Butter

Place the sliced mozzarella on 4 slices of the bread. Cover with the remaining slices of bread to form the sandwiches. Trim the crusts off to make perfect squares.

In a wide shallow bowl, whisk the eggs.  Add the cream, thyme, salt, and numeg. Whisk until well blended.

In a 10-12 inch nonstick saute pan, heat 2 T. of olive oil over medium-high heat until smoking. Add 1 T of the butter and cook until the sizzling subsides. Dip 2 of the sandwiches into the egg mixture, turning to coat, place in the pan and cook until golden brown on the first side (about 2 minutes). Flip over and brown the other side. Transfer the sandwiches to individual plates and repeat the process with the remaining 2 T of olive oil, 1 T. butter and 2 sandwiches. Cut in half and serve immediately.

Chicken Bacon Alfredo Pizza

Every Friday is pizza  night and this was a little creation I came up with last week. Good stuff right there!

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• 1 (16 oz.) tube Refrigerated Pizza Dough (we used Artisan multigrain pizza dough)
• 1/2 Jar Alfredo Sauce
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Garlic powder
• Onion Powder
• 2 T. Chopped Green Onion
• 1 1/2 c. cooked and cubed Chicken
• 4 slices Bacon, cooked and chopped

Lightly grease a baking sheet and press dough to desired size. Spread Alfredo sauce over dough staying within 1 inch of the edge. Sprinkle a little onion and garlic powder over the sauce. Sprinkle desired amount of cheese (we like things cheesey). Top with chicken, bacon and green onion. Bake in the oven according to crust directions

Greek Gyros Sandwich

• 1/3 c. Fat Free Plain Yogurt
• 1/3 c. Reduced Fat Mayonnaise
• 1/4 c, Chopped Peeled Cucumber
• 1/4 t. Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 t. Garlic Powder
• 1/8 t. Salt
• 1/8 t. Pepper
• Dash Dried Thyme
• Meat of some sort (sliced sirloin steak, chopped chicken breast, sausage, etc)
• 1 pkg. Pita Pockets

In a small bowl combine the first 8 ingredients to make the sauce.  Spread some of the sauce on the inside of a pita pocket. Stuff some lettuce in the pita and then place some of your meat inside as well.  Then add a few dollops of sauce to the top. Makes 6 servings.

Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese

• Bread
• Colby Jack Cheese
• Bacon
• Guacamole, room temperature

 Start by cooking bacon in a skillet then set aside. Get two slices of bread, we used whole wheat.  On one slice of bread, spread a thick layer of guacamole. The add two slices of precooked bacon, then add the cheese.  Top with a second piece of bread completing the sandwich.  Spread butter on both sides of the sandwich and place on an already warmed pan.  Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until nicely browned and until the cheese is melted.

Red, White, and Green Grilled Cheese

• 1 t. garlic, minced (about 1/2 clove)
• 1 small onion, minced (about 1/2 c.)
• 2 c. frozen cut spinach, thawed and drained OR 2 bags (10 oz each) fresh leaf spinach
• 1/4 t. ground black pepper
• 8 slices whole-wheat bread
• 1 medium tomato, rinsed, cut into 4 slices
• 1 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a large baking sheet in the oven to preheat for about 10 minutes.

Heat garlic with cooking spray in a medium saute pan over medium heat.  Cook until soft, but not browned.  Add onions and continue to cook until the onions are soft but not browned.

Add spinach and toss gently.  Cook until the spinach is heated throughout.  Season with pepper, and set aside to cool.

When the spinach and onions are cool, assemble each sandwich with one slice of bread on the bottom, one tomato slice, 1/2 c. spinach mixture, 1/4 c. of cheese, and a second slice of bread on top.

Spray the preheated nonstick baking sheet with cooking spray.  Place the sandwiches on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the bottom of each sandwich is browned.

Carefully flip sandwiches and bake for an additional 3-5 minutes or until both sides are browned.

Monte Cristos

These sammies are gooood! They are easy, and even better, you can pretty much do what you want with them.

Building your sandwich: {My rendition}

Spread some low fat cream cheese on one of the slices of bread. Place some kind of sandwich meat on top. {We went with ham} Top the meat with Swiss cheese, then sliced tomatoes. Put the sandwich together. 

Here is where the Monte Cristo part comes in.

In a bowl, scramble eggs {I do one egg per sandwich} with a titch of milk and about a 1/4 t. dried basil.  Then, whip out your french toast skills and dip both sides of the sandwich in the egg. Place on a warm frying pan and cook, browning both sides. To get the nice browning and melting of the cheese, cover while cooking.

This is a new favorite in our house. It's a great simple sandwich, everyone loves it, AND you can mix and match ingredients to build your own Monte Cristo to your own likings if you so choose.  I highly recommend trying these.