Overstuffed Sub Sandwich

The weather has officially gotten cold here and most days all I want for dinner is a great sandwich and a cup of steaming hot soup. This sandwich was inspired by one that I had a Panini's a few months ago prior to a baseball game. The restaurant was right next to the stadium and in order to combat the craziness they had pared down the menu to only sandwiches. Mine had three kinds of cheese, slaw and fries. J and I turned this into a sub sandwich, with lettuce instead of slaw and just one kind of cheese. Nonetheless, perfect for pairing with soup.

Check out other Sandwich Wednesday recipes: Egg Breakfast Wrap, Roasted Vegetable Sandwich with Zesty White Bean Spread, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Apple Sandwich, Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich, Mediterranean Wrap, BLT with Guacamole and Fried Egg, Nori Wraps, Frittata Bagel Sandwich,  Cheesy Eggplant Sandwiches and Fried Green Tomato BLT.

Ingredients:
-Hoagie Rolls
-Shoestring cut French fries (we used frozen)
-Lettuce
-1 tomato
-Provolone Cheese
-Desired condiment

Cook the french fries according to package direction.

Stuff each sandwich with French fries, tomato slices, lettuce and desired additions.
Top with provolone and bake until the cheese is melted.

J. insisted on layering the cheese on the sandwich to help keep all of the filling inside.

A great way to fill up on a cold evening.

I enjoyed this sandwich, it was easy to put together and didn't require too many ingredients. It would have been been with some sort of sauce, but I slathered mine with Miracle Whip and it was fine. I would throw this together again on a busy week night.

Nori Wraps

I thought this was different, it was sort of like a traditional wrap because you could put whatever fillings you wanted, but the nori made it taste much different. You can also get less carbs and have lighter lunch without the bread.

This recipe is from A House in the Hills.

Other Sandwich Wednesday Recipes: Egg Breakfast Wrap, Roasted Vegetable Sandwich with Zesty White Bean Spread, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Apple Sandwich, Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich, Mediterranean Wrap, and BLT with Guacamole and Fried Egg.

Ingredients:

-hummus

-1 carrot, peeled with a vegetable peeler into strands
-lettuce
-1/2 avocado
-nori

-hot sauce

Unwrap the nori and spread with hummus.

Add cucumber slices and drizzle with hot sauce.

Add some avocado.

Top with lettuce.

Roll everything together.

I had never used nori before, but it was easy to find in the grocery store and easy to wrap.I thought the taste was a little strong. I think next time I might add rice to it, it would be a little more like a sushi roll, and would make it a  little more filling and cut the seaweed flavor.

Watermelon Feta Salad

This recipe comes from the Novice Chef.

Ingredients: 
-2 pounds seedless Watermelon, sliced into rounds

-1 cup crumbled feta

-2 large shallots, sliced

-Salt and Pepper, to taste

-Balsamic Vinegar, for drizzling

Cut your piece of watermelon.
I cut a slab and then cut the pieces using a biscuit cutter.

Top with feta cheese and sliced shallots.

Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!

I know this isn't much of a recipe, but it's so good! The saltiness of the feta went perfectly with the sweetness of the watermelon, the shallots were a perfect addition they added a nice layer of flavor of savory with the saltiness and sweetness. This is a nice way to dress up a traditional summer favorite.

Skillet Spaghetti with Spring Vegetables

This recipe comes from BHG's magazine April 2013.

Becky and I went to the Relish Cooking Show in Akron last night, check below the recipe to see how it went!

Ingredients: 

-4 oz. dried spaghetti
-2 Tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
-12 oz. asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces (2 ½ cups; 14 spears)
-6 cloves garlic, sliced
-3 cups red cherry tomatoes
-¾ tsp. salt
-¾ cup chopped fresh basil
-¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
-½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
-Lemon wedges

Cook the pasta according to package directions. You'll want to reserve about half a cup of pasta water. Drain and rinse.

In a small skillet caramelize some lemons. I sprayed a small amount of cooking spray into a pan, then cooked the lemon slices one to two minutes on each size, until carmalized. 

In a large skillet fry the garlic for 30 seconds.

Add the asparagus and saute for 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, salt and basil, stir fry for 30 seconds.
Add the spaghetti and mix well.
Add the pasta water until the desired consistency is reached.

Serve with Parmesan cheese and the lemon slices.

You could add additional lemon juice if desired.

My mom asked me to make this recipe because she saw it in Better Home and Garden's magazine. I thought it was good, plus J. and my dad enjoyed it. However, my mom hated it. She didn't like the basil in the pasta especially. I thought it was a nice summery pasta recipe, because of the citrus flavor. I will use less tomatoes next time though. Overall, I think this recipe was fine, my dad liked it so much that he took it to lunch the next day.

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Relish Cooking Show Akron, Ohio 2013

There were so many samples at the Expo from local Akron-area resturants.

These cupcakes were our favorite, the one on the right was Mexican vanilla and it was delicious!
These were from Cupcake Binge. 

We got to hang-out back stage at the VIP party, with wine complementary of  Breitenbach (we loved the  Frost Fire wine, it was a sweet white.)

Then we sat down to for the show.

We had awesome third row seats with a great view of the stage.

We had such a great time last night! We enjoyed meeting Chef Brian Morris and we learned a lot of great techniques from his show. With our VIP tickets we were able to enjoy a special VIP party where we got our Relish cookbooks signed by him and with those VIP tickets we also got some great gifts such as coupons for local restaurants and some sauces to try in our dishes compliments of More Than Gourmet. This was the second time Relish came to Akron and we will be going back!

After the show we went to the Brickhouse Tavern for some post-show appetizers and cocktails. The Blood Orange Whiskey sour was delicious, I would highly recommend it!

Pizza Foundue

J. and I love eating at the Melting Pot (a fondue chain restaurant near us). Here's a cheap way to bring fondue home. This recipe made a large pot of fondue and would have been a good meal for about four people. You could serve this with a variety of pizza toppings, we served it as an appetizer and just used bread for dipping.

More fondue recipes: Mozzarella Pesto Fondue, Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue and Baked Italian Fontina.

This recipe comes from Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body.

Ingredients:
-1 tsp olive oil
-2 garlic cloves
-1 jar (24 ounces) marinara sauce
-3 cups mozzarella
-1 cup cheddar
-1 cup parmesan
-1 tbsp cornstarch
-1/4 cup white wine
-2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

In a medium-large sized pot saute the garlic and olive oil over medium heat for about 30 seconds.

Add the white wine and marinara sauce, bring to a boil (watch carefully though because it will start to really bubble, mine made a little bit of a mess), then reduce the heat to medium.

In a large bowl mix the cheese and cornstarch (this will help the cheese melt better). Slowly add the cheese to the marinara mix, stirring each time until melted. Add the fresh basil if desired.

If you have a fondue pot you can then pour it into the fondue pot, we served it right in the pot I used to make the fondue in.

   

This made so much fondue! If you're serving it just as an appetizer and you're not serving a lot of people, I recommend cutting the recipe in half. I think if the recipe would have been cut in half we probably would have finished all of it. We had probably about a cup leftover, which I ate for a few days as a snack so it will keep well, when you reheat it just make sure to stir it well. 

Avocado with Black Pepper, Olive Oil, Soy Sauce, and Lemon Juice

I am in love with avocado recipes and Baked Avocado is one of my most popular blogs for this year.

I think an avocado is perfect for a light lunch. The creaminess of the avocado goes well with a lot of flavors and textures. This original recipe comes from Neringos Blogs, which is in Lithuanian, but I think Google Translate did a great job of translating the page if you're interested in checking it out.

This recipe takes less than five minutes to make and could not be easier to make.

Ingredients: 
-1 ripe avocado

-1 tablespoon of soy sauce
-1 tablespoon lemon juice

-1.5-2 tablespoons olive oil

-freshly ground black pepper

-pinch of spicy smoked paprika

Gather your ingredients.

Slice the avocado in half, peel it and slice the halves into pieces. 

  

Mix together the soy sauce, lemon juice and oil, sprinkle with pepper and paprika.

Overall this recipe was good, if you enjoy eating plain avocado this would be a good way to impart a little more flavor. I think the soy sauce and the paprika were the best part of the recipe. It's a subtle flavor though, the sauce and seasoning on the avocado is not strong at all. If I had leftover avocado and was looking to make something other than guacamole this is the recipe I would come back too.

Veggie & Cheese Bagel

We spent last weekend at Becky's lake house on a weekend getaway...one bad culinary thing about this vacation house is that there is no stove top, which can make breakfast recipes a little difficult. This recipe is a great way to create a beautiful spread without doing a lot of cooking, which allowed us to have a morning run on the beach without worrying about putting together breakfast once we got back. This recipe comes from the Pioneer Woman.

Ingredients: 
-1/2 block of cream cheese
-2 whole (to 3) green onions
-Tomatoes
-Cucumbers
-Avocado
-Red onion
-1 whole everything bagel (or any kind of bagel)
-1 or 2 slices of muenster cheese
-Slice of cheddar cheese
-Lettuce

This is a great brunch if you're having company, make a pretty spread and then toast some bagels.
Thinly slice all of the vegetables.

We used everything bagels, those are my favorites.

To make the cream cheese spread, mix chopped green onions into softened cream cheese.

Build your bagel. 

Cheese first. 

Lettuce. 

Tomato. 

Cucumbers. 

Red Onions. 

Avocado.

Deliciousness. 

This sandwich will be really filling!

This was absolutely delicious! It was perfect because it didn't take much prep at all, and our toaster held multiple bagels. There were so many great colors and flavors here and it was super filling. The other great thing about this recipe is that you can leave off whatever vegetables that you don't like.

Fried Tofu with Soy Dipping Sauce

                                       

Sorry that I'm posting a little later today. Becky, J. and I went to a concert last night and it was so amazing! I needed to sleep in a little bit to recover from that late night, now I think I'll have a super productive day.

Some people don't love tofu (or have never tried it), this is a great first tofu recipe because it's got a nice crunchy coating. I made the sauce that came with the recipe from Season with Spice. However, when I reheated the leftovers the next day I whipped up from Hibachi Yum Yum Sauce, either is fine, but I liked the Hibachi Yum Yum Sauce a lot better.

Ingredients:
Fried Tofu 
-1 block (12.3oz or 349g) of extra firm tofu
-1/2 cup cornstarch
-1/4 tsp ground white pepper
-1 egg
-1/2 cup panko flakes
-Vegetable oil

Sesame-Soy Dipping Sauce 
-1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
-1 tsp rice wine vinegar
-1 tsp sugar
-2 tsp sesame oil
-3 cloves garlic – minced
-Chili Pepper to taste
-1 spring onion – chopped
-Sprinkles of sesame seeds

Press the tofu between two paper towels to release some of the water.
Cut into bite sized cubes.

Mix together the cornstarch and white pepper in a small bowl, whisk an egg in another and have panko in another.

Coat the pieces in cornstarch/white pepper.
Dip in the egg.
Coat in the Panko.

Fry your pieces in oil until all sides are golden brown. 

Yummy tofu. 

It will be easiest to flip with tongs. 

Mix together all ingredients for the dipping sauce and serve.

Generally this recipe didn't go over well, my family hated it, but I didn't think it was bad. I liked the creamy Hibachi Yum Yum Sauce a lot better than the soy sauce, but overall I think this was a success. However, if you're making this for one person use only half of the tofu block, I got several meals out of one block and I didn't need to eat that much tofu.