Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

I'm baaaack!
I know I've been absent for awhile, but August is such a busy month for me with school starting up this month. If I'm not getting myself ready to teach this month I'm making sure my own kids have everything they need for college.

I have been back to work now for two weeks and it is amazing how tired I am. I just don't have any energy left at the end of the day to do any cooking or baking (sorry family).

Besides going back to work my kitchen has been in disarray. I finally got new counter tops and whenever you do some updating in the home it gets messy before it gets pretty. I had to take all my stuff out of the cabinets below the counters, so I didn't have to clean every item again. Then once the counters got put in I had to put stuff back. Of course I rearranged things and amazingly I like the new arrangement better.

Now all of this had to wait until I got back from my work retreat of camping out in the woods (this is a whole story in itself).

Anyways today I have this really yummy grilled veggie sandwich. I was kind of copying the sandwich from Snuffy's restaurant. Snuffy's is one of our favorite hamburger joints in St. Paul, MN. The last time we went there my daughter had a grilled veggie sandwich there and it looked amazing and she said it was really yummy. So I thought lets give it a try. 

Well the sandwiches turned out terrific and everyone loved them. They were quick and I would imagine half way nutritious. I think you could use whatever kind of veggies you have on hand to make this delicious sandwich too.

Grilled Veggie Sandwich
1 onion
1 green pepper
fresh mushrooms sliced
olive oil
swiss cheese or cheese of your choice
bread of your choice
butter

Slice onion, green pepper, and mushrooms. Heat some olive oil in a saute' pan. Saute' onion and peppers until onions are clear. Add mushrooms and saute' until done.
Preheat griddle or fry pan. Butter two slices of bread, placing one buttered side down put a spoonful of veggies on top, place a piece of cheese on top, place bread on top with buttered top up.
Grill first side until golden brown and flip over. Grill other side until golden brown and cheese is melted. 

Tuna Tetrazzini

Wednesday was an extraordinarily cool day. So cool in fact that it got me tying a quilt that I've had sitting around since November. I don't know why I let it sit for so long, because tying a quilt goes rather quickly. I should be done tonight with tying it and be ready to bind it tomorrow.

With the temperature being so cool I was also in the mood for some comfort food. I'm really a pasta fan so I was trying to think of something with noodles in it, but had a creamy, yummy consistency.

I came up with this Tuna Tetrazzini purely by accident. I just happened to have fettucine noodles and some tuna, so I was trying to create something with these two items. What I ended up with was very good and super easy dish.

Give this one a try. I think you'll like it

Tuna Tetrazzini

Tuna Tetrazzini
1/3 C chopped onion
2 garlic cloves diced
1 T butter
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1/3 C milk
1- 8oz can of mushrooms, drained
1 can of tuna, drained
1/2 box (12oz) of fettucine noodles
Parmesan cheese

Cook noodles per directions on box. In the meantime melt butter in sauce pan. Saute onion and garlic until onions are clear. Add soup, mushrooms and milk. Mix well. Add cooked noodles and heat through. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

Bikini Cake

Last night I worked on a birthday cake for my brother. He just turned 52 and we are getting together on Sunday to celebrate. He has a brain injury so he lives in a care facility and we try to get together on his birthday every year. We usually do cake and ice cream and I am in charge of the cake this year.

 I wanted to do something fun for him.I was going to make something related to fishing, but then I had an epiphany! I can make a body with a bikini. What guy wouldn't like that for their birthday cake? Then I thought a body with a yellow polka dot bikini. You know the song, right?

So after working on this cake for a few hours this is my finished product. Don't be too harsh now, I'm new to cake decorating. I need to do some more practicing to perfect my skills, but I think my brother will get a laugh out of it.

Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Sorry there is no recipe today. The cake is simply a sheet cake with two cup cakes for the top. I used Wilton's Decorating frosting recipe and colored it.

French Vanilla Coffee Creamer

Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I like to have a cup of coffee or two to start my day. I always buy coffee beans, preferably Caribou coffee beans from Sams Club, and I need flavored creamer.

Even though I buy flavored creamer I also buy coffee syrup at Sams Club to add to my coffee. It just seems for my tastes the flavored creamers are usually lacking in full flavor for me. I don't know maybe my taste buds are jaded.

As we all know these flavored creamers can get a little expensive, so I found a recipe for making your own creamer. It is fairly inexpensive to make and tastes just as good as those premade creamers in the store.

All you need to make your own coffee creamer is sweetened condensed milk, milk or heavy cream, (I buy mine at Aldis) and coffee syrup. I used french vanilla flavor, but if you look at Sams Club you will find an assortment of flavors. My mind is already wandering to the different kinds of creamers that I could make. They have blue and red raspberry, coconut, chocolate, caramel, cherry lime, Irish cream, hazelnut and Kahlua. I probably missed a few too. And remember if you buy these syrups you don't just have to use them in your coffee they have other uses too. I use the raspberry in my lemonade to make raspberry lemonade. Super yummy!

Just mix these ingredients together in a old creamer container or in a mason jar and you've got your own homemade coffee creamer. So on those mornings when you run out of creamer you can quickly reach in the cupboard and make up your own.

Homemade Coffee Creamer

French Vanilla Coffee Creamer
14 oz sweetened Condensed milk
14 oz milk or heavy cream
4 t Vanilla Coffee Syrup
a container for mixing it in like a mason jar or old creamer container.

Pour all of the ingredients into your container. Put the cap or lid on tightly and shake vigorously for a few minutes until combined well. Refrigerate.

adapted from www.mrshappyhomemaker.com