Quickie Meatball Sandwiches

Was kind of funny...a friend of mine thought maybe I wasn't feeding my kids anymore. Let me assure you---they are WELL FED!!! Maybe not all the time fed by the infamous PW recipes, but well fed none the less. These last few days haven't really even been that crazy. More like lazy, I guess you could say. We've eaten with family quite a bit, sent one girl to camp, ended our softball season, and are anticipating and planning our family vacation in August.


I decided tonight I had to make a PW recipe and this was it. Mini meatball subs were a huge hit with the fam tonight! Although I should have made my mini meatballs a bit more "mini". They practically had to eat the sandwiches with a fork (and I wish they would have!) they were so thick. Very simple and very tasty---especially when you wait to feed them until 7:30 pm. I used the panko bread crumbs as PW suggests and made my own marinara sauce out of canned diced tomatoes, tomato soup, and spicy spaghetti seasoning (from Sam's). I then sliced fresh mozzarella on whole wheat hoagie buns and laid the meatballs on top.

They loved them. Quick. Easy. ~~~~~~PW strikes again.

Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Apricot Sauce

Grilled or NOT grilled is really what this recipe turned out to be. I had big hopes of having the chicken grilled and ready to go by the time Steve got home from work last night. We really needed to eat early with all of the activities we had going on, so I wanted to be prepared. Don't get me wrong...I have used our grill before. But last night when I went out there, there were 2 propane tanks and a wrench and I got scared. So in I went and cooked our chicken breasts on the stove in some olive oil and butter.

Half of us loved the sandwiches and the other half did not. Steve and I were part of the loving half. Sometimes my littles do not get in to the special sauces that really "make" the recipe in our adult taste bud thinking. Such as the apricot sauce---oh wow!! I loved the simplicity and the variation of flavors by using different herbs. I definitely plan to use this sauce again for sandwiches. Maybe not on Kourtney and Landon's...

Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Apricot Sauce are just a great summer sandwich. They turned out just fine with the stovetop cooking, but would have been even better grilled. I wish I had a panini grill for bread, but I don't. So I used those really thin whole grain sandwich thins, added red onion, sliced avocado (the sandwich screamed avocado to me), a handful of spinach, the chicken, and of course the yummy sauce. I think the sandwich packed a pretty great nutritional punch!

The BEST Chicken Salad Ever.

YUM!!!!!!!!!!! And that is about all I can say about this. This recipe for chicken salad is somewhat similar to my "used to be favorite" chicken salad recipe that I loved. Little did I know that I could love another one even more. And Steve agrees fully. He even commented "this sandwich is like what you get at those specialty deli's". We love sandwiches here and eat them frequently especially during the summertime--so I am SO glad to add this to the list!

There was one and only one critic who dismantled his sandwich and left the dinner table only eating a half of an orange and a couple of strawberries. Landon didn't like it at all--and I was surprised by how much the girls liked them.

I used fresh rosemary and cilantro in the dressing which gave it a really fresh taste. I also only used chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken. To all of you who want something somewhat healthy out of PW--- This is it. Toast whole wheat bread, spread with Grey Poupon Mustard, and add fresh spinach and you've got a very yummy, fresh tasting, filling sandwich. I served it with fresh fruit tonight. And even without chips, the kiddos were full.

Well, maybe except for Landon...

To Manwich or not to Manwich...

Gotta admit that we are not huge fans of sloppy joes over here. However, sloppy joes are so easy--especially when you have ground beef on hand. The key to making sloppy joes really good, is what you serve with them. So when I opt for the joe, I generally have some sides that they really love. One of which I will be blogging about soon.

The sloppy joes I generally make are that of the Manwich variety. Now you can call me thrifty--which would absolutely thrill both my husband and I, but unfortunately for both Steve and I, we know the truth. And that is...I am l.a.z.y. today. And did not want to venture out to the food market because I did not want to take a shower, put on makeup, etc, etc. All I wanted to do today was my laundry, clean my house, and have a reasonably healthy dinner ready for supper. The only meat I had thawed was some browned hamburger. Sloppy joes came to mind and I decided I would face the critics straight on and hopefully get at least a couple of happy stars out of the deal. PW's Tasty Kitchen has about 3 pages worth of different sloppy joe recipes that I searched through. I came up with this one.

To my delight, the critics loved them! I guess it has been long enough since our last sloppy joe meal that maybe they actually missed them?

This recipe was a simple, easy way to make sloppy joes. I just simmered them all day in a crockpot. Had some roll dough in the fridge and made some buns. And they were a hit!

Second Favorite is our First!

A couple of weeks ago, we made Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich and the critics thought they were good, hearty, and decided the recipe was a keeper. Well, last night we had Marlboro Man’s Second Favorite Sandwich and have decided for our family, that his second favorite sandwich is definitely our first! It could be that we are more of a chicken eating family than round steak, or that Marlboro Man’s Second Favorite Sandwich is covered with cheese, or has peppered bacon, or could be that we were simply hungrier last night than we were a couple of weeks ago. Whatever the case may be, we loved Marlboro Man’s Second Favorite Sandwich.

Steve's parents came for supper and we worked together in the kitchen. One thing we realized was that the chicken breast needed to be cut in half and pounded out as hard as you can. That way it would ensure that it gets done and gets done quickly. The peppered bacon was a nice touch and found at Dillon's. We also added grilled onions to ours.

Marlboro Man’s Second Favorite Sandwich has become The Kaufman's Favorite Sandwich. At least so far...

Not Your Every Day Grilled Cheese

I can get away with grilled cheese sandwiches every once in awhile. Not my family's favorite unless the alternative is tomato soup---then they eat them like nothing else. Well tonight I did not serve them with tomato soup. So the sandwiches stood alone. To shake it up a bit, I made Pioneer Woman’s Favorite Sandwich. Oh my goodness people. This is NOT an ordinary cheese sandwich. This is a grilled cheese sandwich pumped up! Pumped up so much that PW was right in saying you can only eat about a half a sandwich and you are full.

Pioneer Woman’s Favorite Sandwich has two different kinds of cheese (go ahead and pick your favorites!), onion, tomato, special sauce, green chilis, and uses rye bread. There are no ifs, ands, or buts...Pioneer Woman’s Favorite Sandwich is a great sandwich. If you like cheese, that is.

I have one and only one child critic that liked them. The others opted for good old velveeta filled grilled cheese sandwiches. Steve and I thought they were great. There is something about the onion, tomato, and chilis with all of that melted cheese that is just plain good. And I think the key is to let the sandwich grill very slowly and of course make sure there is plenty of butter on the bread.

Just asked Steve how he'd describe Pioneer Woman’s Favorite Sandwich and he said...

"That sandwich rocked!"

Need I say more?

Darn Good Drip!

Ok, so the name sounds a little, uh, funny. Like can something with the word "drip" in it even be good? Oh yes it can!! Drip Beef, Two Ways did NOT disappoint! Just look at this yummy goodness...mmmm!

Seems like every recipe I try lately, I have to make a confession upon changing up the recipe. For Drip Beef, Two Ways, I was astonished to check my deep freeze and find NO roast. No roast!! We always have roasts! ARGH!!!!! Although we had no roasts, we did have a ton of different cuts of steak. So you guessed it, I pulled out a T-bone and a ribeye steak. And they worked just beautifully! I did get Steve's consent. I know some of you may be gasping at the thought of using perfectly good steaks. But let me tell you--we've got a lot of them. And we need to use them. And we did not have a roast. And I was making Drip Beef, Two Ways TONIGHT one way or the other.

There are two different recipes of Drip Beef, Two Ways featured on her blog. I did the recipe with the beef consomme', pepperocini's, and italian seasonings. We will definitely be eating these again. The flavor of the beef was so good with just a little bit of bite to it. The meat shred very easily with a couple of forks and then I just let it soak in its own juices until we were ready to eat. Place this tender meat in between buttered and toasted homemade rolls and some mozzarella cheese and there you have it. Drip Beef, Two Ways. We loved it!

And we are all so darn full right now. Look how big those sandwiches were! Mercy!

Pioneer Baby in the House!

I have debated whether or not to post what I actually allowed in my home yesterday afternoon. I am also hoping that my husband and the grandparents to my babies do NOT read this. So I am taking a risk here. But, when you have 4 kids and 3 of them have piano lessons right after school, and you are scheduled to go to work by 6 PM, homework has to be done because there's basketball practice that night, and you have to feed your brood---sometimes you do things you would not ordinarily do. I could blame it on my time management, OR I could simply be teaching my young 7 year old life lessons in the kitchen. I choose to look at this as a life lesson. My onions were so close to being done and my other two girls needed to be picked up from piano. Landon was playing football with the neighbor boy, and I have a good friend who is a neighbor of mine that I trust completely. Do you like my justification here? Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich was on the menu tonight and the first step was getting the onions done. (Notice my black iron skillet? )

Kourtney graciously agreed to continue to stir the onions for me so they would not burn while I picked up the other two girls. THERE! I said it. And she did a mighty fine job, I might add. The onions were grilled to perfection 10 minutes later when I arrived home. Luckily for me, there was an extinguisher sitting close to the black iron skillet, see it?

I managed to grab a bite or two of Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich before I left for work. Steve said he and the critics really liked the sandwich. Especially the toasted buttered roll part of them. I thought the meat was a little tough and dry, but I don't think I put enough juice on them and cooked them on a higher heat than I should have. I also added mozzarella cheese to the sandwich which made it extra yummy. Instead of deli rolls, I made rolls out of my cinnamon roll dough I had made last week and it worked super! So there's another use for that dough. I LOVE the convenience of that dough---have you ever heard that before?

And after all of the hub bub surrounding the onions, Landon said he did not care for the sandwich because of the onions...

Oh well, Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich definitely made the list of different menu items for this family. And it's another great use for minute steak if you have it in abundance like we do!