Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich… sort of!

This dish might not rank extremely high on the health scale but I still,I think it was a pretty healthy alternative to a classic sandwich.

You see, the weather has finally been summer like this week-end, so we sort of kicked off summer by firing up the BBQ.

While I don’t eat much beef anymore, there is one thing that I will always enjoy and indulge in once in a while, and that is a nice, big, juicy ribsteak cooked on the BBQ. It’s always been and always will be one of my guilty pleasures.  Seeing that I like my steaks cooked Pittsburgh style (charred on the outside while still raw on the inside), I always have to have the butcher custom cut me a couple of really thick steaks, which, of course, always end up weighing well over a pound.

There was a time when I was able to eat the whole thing, with a side of potato and salad. No more! There is no way I could go through that entire piece of meat, so I always end up with quite a decent chunk of leftover steak to use in such a sandwich.

Not a bad way to use leftover steak, if you ask me! Although it does lack a bit in the veggie department, I admit…

This one was pretty easy to make.

Ingredients for one sandwich

• 175g  leftover steak
• 4 mushrooms, sliced and cooked
• 20g goat cheese, crumbled
• 20g blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 tbsp whole grain mustard
• 1 whole grain sandwich loaf

Instructions

1. Coat skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium high heat. Cook mushrooms until nice and golden brown, about 5 minutes.
2. Cut loaf in half lenthtwise and toast lightly in toaster.
3. Cut the leftover steak in very thin slices.
4. When bread is ready, spread mustard on bottom half.
5. Mound steak, top with mushrooms and goat cheese and blue cheese crumbles.
6. Put in the oven on broil (do not top sandwich just yet, keep top piece on the side) for about 5 minutes, just to soften cheese and heat meat slightly.
7. Take out of the oven and put top slice in place.

Bad Girl, Stupid Bath Tub, oh, and some sort of a chicken sandwich!

I have a confession to make. I have been a very bad girl tonight! Very bad girl! I skipped exercise night. Voluntarily!! Out of my own free will!

Those who know me know that I NEVER skip exercise night, unless I have a VERY good reason. Tonight? I didn’t even have A reason, let alone a good one… I was just feeling blah, you know… BLAH!

So… I was actually changing into my exercising clothes when I had a vision: Me, in a bath! OOOOOOH, a bath. It had been well over a year since I’d last taken a bath! I could already feel the warm jets of water and air bubbles massaging my skin. Instantly, my body and mind went into relaxation mode and I KNEW I had no choice, I had to go for it!

I get upstairs, get the water going then bring all my stuff, you know, all the stuff you need when you take a bath: shampoo, conditioner, soap, bubble bath, cup of green tea…

I get in the tub and anxiously wait for the water level to get high enough for me to get the jets going… water level is rising, rising… soon, so soon, it will happen. Finally, after what seems like forever, oooh, bliss, the magic moment is finally here… I press the power button…

NOTHING! NOTHING! The damn thing is broken and refuses to throw water and air bubbles at me. Does it not understand that I have just skipped exercise night to lose myself in it?

ARGH!ARGH!ARGH!ARGH!ARGH!ARGH!ARGH!ARGH!ARGH!

Oh well, I ended up staying like 20 minutes in a bubbless tub… I never stay much longer than that anyway. I hate it when my skin gets all wrinkley.

Now what? My stupid bath is over, I didn’t exercise, so I don’t even get to have an evening snack. Somehow, I feel robbed and frustrated. I think I will have a nice cup of warm unsweetened soy milk with a teaspoon of honey in it. There. That ought to make me feel better. Although with my luck, the milk will probably have gone bad!

Oh, and this is what I had for supper tonight. A super quick chicken sandwich made from leftover cooked chicken. Huge sandwich. And I didn’t even work it out. *sigh*  There’s always tomorrow…

These are the ingredients that I used:

• 1 cooked chicken breast, diced
• ½ Red Delicious Apple, diced (I ate the other half too!)
• 20g blue cheese, crumbled
• 20g toasted walnuts, chopped
• 2 tbsp low fat sour cream
• Pinch of salt and pepper

Just mix everything together and throw it between two slices of good, toasted whole grain bread (or a super cute triangular bread like the one I got!) with a few green leaves and a handful of alfalfa sprouts.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich – Kicked Up A Notch!

Allright, I admit… not much green happening here. BUT, to my defense, there’s got to be at least a million mushrooms in that sandwich! AND I did eat a whole yellow tomato as a side dish. So I think this qualifies as being healthy!

You see, I was really in the mood for a grilled cheese sandwich but I needed to find a way to make it somewhat healthy. Not that whole grain bread and cheese alone is entirely bad for you, but let’s just say it lacks a little bit in the nutrients department! So I decided I would add some veggies. My fridge being almost empty, I didn’t have that much to choose from: Mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce and broccoli. Let’s just say mushrooms became the obvious choice.

I was going to also add the tomatoes, but I thought that my sandwich was still lacking something very important: protein! Then it hit me. Why not make a very thin egg white omelet, then put my mushrooms and cheese in the middle, fold the edges of my omelet to make it into a  neat little pocket, put that pocket between two slices of bread and then grill the resulting sandwich to melt the cheese! BRILLIANT! Suddenly, poor missis tomato didn’t seem like she belonged anymore, so I had her as a side dish instead.

Man, that sandwich was good! I think this one will become a classic lunch for week-end days… with endless variations on the subject, of course!

The ingredients that went into that one go as follows:

• 2 slices 12 grain bread
• About ½ tbsp butter

• 50g low fat mozzarella cheese, grated
• 125g sliced button mushrooms
• ½ egg whites
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Brown the mushrooms in a skillet over medium-high heat; season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Meanwhile, cook the egg whites into a very thin omelet in a large non-stick pan (mine is 30cm) Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.
3. When omelet is cooked, pile the mushrooms in the center. Add grated cheese.
4. Fold the edges over the mushrooms and cheese to form a square pocket, about the same size as your slices of bread.
5. Spread a very thin layer of butter on each slice of bread. Put one slice buttered slice down in your non-stick pan and carefully place your omelette on top of it. Cover with the second slice of bread.
6. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes or until bread is nice and brown, then flip and cook for an extra 2-3 minutes.
7. Cut in half and watch cheese ooze! (be careful not to overdo that last step… you want to enjoy your sandwich while it’s still hot!)