Friday, November 14, 2014

Cooking Quirks - Quick Meals: Grilled Ham and Cheese, Fresh Romaine Salad

Hello again, lovelies!

As with the my other food posts thus far, I present to you a "Cooking Quirks" blog post. Today, I want to talk about quick meals. Not everyone has the time to cook a full healthy and flavorful meal everyday, however, that does not mean that we need to succumb to the 'student diet' of frozen pizzas, instant ramen, and the like. Most people, particularly in the United States, over the age of 15-16 knows the cheap and fast eats I'm talking about. But seriously, the other day, I was incredibly busy and had not time to cook a 'real meal', so my options seemed to be instant ramen or frozen pizza...not to mention it was a late dinner (think after 9pm) -- talk about flashbacks to student dietary habits...but I digress. In order to counter that, I plan to have spin off posts every now and then about how I cook 'quick real meals'.

The highlight of this post is my meal from a couple of days ago consisting of grilled ham and cheese, with a fresh romaine lettuce salad on the side with lightly fried ham. I purchased a pack of ham the other day, and I couldn't resist using it for one of my favorite sandwiches - grilled ham and cheese - I also purchased a three-pack of fresh romaine hearts which I washed and chopped for the salad.

To make the grilled cheese, I used a basic sandwich bread and slathered it with butter (this of course is optional), and placed a little butter in the plan instead of a cooking spray. I used two pieces of American cheese, with ham slices in between. I then placed it in the butter coated pan and grilled the sandwich. Turned out nice and golden on both sides, oozing cheese when cut diagonally (somehow grilled cheeses taste better when cut diagonally!).

To prepare the salad, I thoroughly washed the romaine heart (I used one, still have two left) and cut. I then topped it with lightly fried ham (after cooking the grilled cheese, I changed the stove to low and placed in chopped ham slices, gradually lowering the heat until it was completely off - making use of the still hot pan without using up extra energy :)), a dash of McCormick's salad toppings, parmesan and romano cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. It was pretty delicious - and probably at least a little healthier than instant ramen or frozen pizza!

Pictures as follows:



Do you have a go-to quick meal? Do you prefer your grilled cheese cut diagonally or horizontally? Let me know if you feel like sharing how your eat your grilled cheese. :)

Until next time.

xoxo,
Dottie