Recipes: Caprese Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

So I know I said that I wasn't posting this week, and I had every intention of honoring that, but then these sandwiches happened, and I just couldn't keep them secret until next week. 

They were far too delicious, and clearly, they photograph quite well.

I appreciate photogenic foods.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber. Let's get to the good stuff: how to make the sanwiches.

What you're going to need is simple:

Tomatoes {I used Roma and it took two of them to make 4 sandwiches}

1 loaf of french bread

Butter

Olive oil

Garlic powder, salt and pepper

Fresh basil

Mozzarella {the little ball thing of it that you get at the deli. Not the shredded stuff, and for the love of God not the rock hard block of it next to the sandwich meat}

Simple enough, right?

I know for regular Caprese you use Balsamic vinegar, but it really doesn't do well on these sandwiches, so just skip it.

Start off by buttering all the pieces of bread you're going to need on one side in advance. Once the skillet is nice and hot you're going to want to be able to assemble the sandwiches quickly.

Next, spray your pan or use a very very good non-stick one, and heat it to about medium. At least that's the setting on my stove that it should be to grill things without blackening them. You know your stove best.

Next, throw a piece of buttered french bread butter side down in the hot skillet, and add a nice thick slice of mozarella, one or two big basil leaves, and your tomato slices.

Drizzle on top of the tomatoes with a little bit of olive oil, then season with garlic, salt and pepper to taste.

Add the top piece of bread and grill both sides until they're as brown and crispy as you like them. 

The first couple times you flip the sandwich you have to go slow and be careful to hold it together, since it will be rather high until the cheese melts down a bit.

Once it's done, eat it nice and hot with a good crispy deli pickle spear, or garlic stuffed green olives, and then brag about it on Facebook like I did.

These things are way good.

Recipe: Caprese Salad

Recently I did something I would consider pretty stellar: I got two weeks of groceries with one weeks grocery budget.

It was amazing.

I stood there at the check out counter with baited breath, watching the total add up, just hoping it would ring up at least 1 cent under the 100 I had decided to try to stretch twice as far as it normally does. Not for any big reason other than my life is boring and playing games with myself in the grocery store is a source of entertainment for me these days.

Anyway, when the total popped up $98.76, I almost cried.

One of the things I attribute to my success was when I planned my menu, I planned in 3 meatless meals.

Meat, in any form, be it fish, chicken, beef or sausage-basically any food with a face-is getting higher and high in price it's unbelievable!

So, three of the 14 meals I planned would be meatless, and I think I saved at least 20 bucks by just doing those three meals that way.

One of the meatless dinners I planned was Caprese pasta.

Bill and I love Caprese, and we find excuses to make it as often as possible. It's delicious, it's good for you {except the cheese, but who's counting} and in hot summers it's so refreshing it's ridiculous.

So, I figured why not throw it in some pasta with butter and Parmesan and call it a meal?

So I did.

What You Need:

About 1 cup fresh mozzarella cheese {by fresh I just mean the softer stuff, not the shredded or block stuff they sell at the stores. Look for those squishy balls of it in the produce/deli section}

+

1 carton cherry tomatoes {firm ones are better}

+

1 box of your favorite pasta {we like Rotini}

+

Fresh Basil

+

Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Minced Garlic

+

Butter and Parmesan cheese.

This is so easy it's hardly even a recipe, but here you go:

Cube up about 1 cup of mozzarella-or really however much you want. We're cheese people, so I did more. Heat some olive oil in a skillet with a little minced garlic. Throw the tomatoes in and rip up the basil. Throw that in too. Mix it up and add a splash of Balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper {sea sea and cracked pepper are best} Let that saute/simmer until the tomatoes are soft {but not mushy} and hot. Remove from burner and cover until your noodles are done.

When the noodles are done, drain but don't rinse, and then add a couple good heaping tablespoons of butter {or some olive oil, whatever you like} and mix it up until the butter melts.

Douse with Parmesan cheese and toss until the noodles are lightly coated {this is more to taste, however much cheese you want}.

Now throw in your tomato/Basil mixture and as much chunked up mozzarella as you want, and enjoy!

We ate this with piping hot garlic bread since I didn't think I'd get the kids to eat this, plus more veggies in a salad.

In case you're wondering how much this meal cost:

Pasta: %1.00

Tomatoes: $2.00

Cheese: On sale for $2.50

Basil: .97 cents

Garlic bread: 1.99

Parmesan cheese: $1.77, which will probably last another 20 meals, easily.

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Total: $10.23

$1.70 per serving 

It fed all three of us once, and there are plenty of left overs for a second meal for each of us which makes it a six serving meal at least.

This was the most expensive meal we planned for the two weeks of groceries we bought, but considering it made enough for two meals, I'd consider it about average per serving with all the other meals.