Sunday, March 4, 2012

Quick & Easy - Tomato Grilled Cheese

To stay the course with a meatless diet, creativity is almost a requirement.

Feeling a little under the weather, I knew I wanted some soup but I also knew that I was going to be hungry an hour.  So I got a little creative with my fridge & came up with the perfectly accompaniment - grilled cheese.



























You only need 4 ingredients to get this thing going...
     2 slices of bread.  I use whole wheat or whole grain because they have more nutrition.
     1 Roma tomato.  You can use any kind of tomato you want but the 1 Roma was perfect.  Remember to remove the seeds so the sandwich doesn't get all watery.
     2 slices of cheese.  I used Swiss but any kind of melty cheese will work.
     Sandwich spread.  I had some garlic herb sandwich spread on hand but you can leave this out or you can use anything else like butter, mayo, or mustard.

And it only take 5 minutes to make...
     Put a little bit of sandwich spread on 1 slice of bread.
     Put down 1 slice of cheese; trying to keep it away from the edges.
     Slice the tomato up and place it on top.  Layer on the other slice of cheese & the other slice of bread.
     In a pan, put in 1/2 teaspoon worth of oil.  As the pan is heating up, wipe around the bottom of the pan so a thin layer of oil is covering the entire bottom.  This will help the bread get evenly toasted.
     Once the pan is hot, carefully place your sandwich in and just let it sit there over medium'low heat for 2 minutes.  I put a pan lid on top to apply some pressure for the melting of the cheese.  If you want to get fancy, you can wrap a brick in foil and place that on top.
     After a couple of minutes, flip the sandwich over & repeat the step above.

Depending on your stove & your pan, you might have to adjust the time; but the goal is to toast the bread without burning it.  Another way to do this is to use a George Foreman grill or a pannini machine.  Be aware, however, that the overall cook time should be cut by half since the sandwich would then be heated on both sides @ the same time.

This sandwich is quick, it's easy, it's cheap, & - when paired with a hot bowl of tomato soup - made the perfect Sunday lunch.

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