Pages

The Foodie Blogroll

Back to reality...

One thing that really lacks on my blog is a sandwich section.  It's one thing I've never eaten much of, and as well all discussed a couple of months ago, I hadn't even had a peanut butter and jam sandwich until that point where we discussed sandwiches.  While it was National Grilled Cheese Month, I made grilled cheese's but they weren't for me, and I only posted one.  However, over the weekend I made myself some ciabatta bread.  I had been craving ciabatta for a while, and I had finally gotten my jar of yeast from home so I figured what the hey.  

Sitting in my fridge has been the soy cheese I bought about two months ago.  That's one thing I like about soy cheese is that it's shelf life is not like regular cheese and it lasts' forever, which is good, because I barely ever make meals that I need to add cheese too.  Rewind back three years ago and I'd never ever would of thought I'd be saying that, cheese was my diet.  I loved it on everything, in everything, alone, just, I loved cheese.  Now, it doesn't even phase me not having it in my diet, vegan or non, I just barely ever eat it.  I keep it in my fridge for those times where I decide to make myself pizza with regular toppings.

This morning however, I had planned to make a grilled cheese.  However, another thing that lacks on my blog is stuff that has been friend... yes, even my grilled cheese, I decided I would health it up.  I added EVOO to the asparagus, but instead of making a typical grilled cheese, I decided to broil the sandwich.  To be quite honest, this was one of the most memorable "grilled" cheeses' I've ever had. 
The bread turned out super crunchy from being broiled, the asparagus was such a wonderful touch to the sandwich, seriously, the roasting with the salt and pepper, so simple yet amazing.  I just loved this whole thing.  I felt like I should of been out on a patio with a cold glass of lemonade, instead I sat at the kitchen table imagining I was doing so, but it was rather delightful and quite a way to start the day!

*Note: for the ciabatta bread, I took my recipe here, and simply added 1 tbsp black sesame seeds, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp caraway seeds and 1 tsp minced garlic
Vegan Baked Asparagus "Grilled" Cheese

Recipe inspired from here


Ingredients:
  • 8-10 stalk asparagus (trimmed and cleaned)
  • 1/2 tbsp olive oil
  • Sea salt and pepper - to taste
  • Enough slices of vegan cheese to cover your bread (I can't remember the name of the brand I used)
  • 1 piece of ciabatta bread - sliced in half
Directions:
Prehead oven to 400 degrees F.  Toss the asparagus in the oil, sea salt and pepper.  Arrange the asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Roast in the oven until tender, about 10-30 minutes (mine were in there for sixteen minutes). 
Note: Roasting time can vary greatly depending on how thick your asparagus is.
Turn the oven onto broil.  Assemble sandwich and broil until the cheese has melted and the bread is nice and crunchy (my sandwich was in there for five minutes).

Cobb Salad


At the market over the weekend I had decided I wanted to try fiddleheads.  I found a recipe before going that I thought I would try out, and did some reading on how to cook them (and thankfully the recipe I found had proper cooking instructions).  Well hot dang fiddleheads are tasty, they reminded me of an even sweeter version of asparagus.  Plus the fact that they are just so pretty to look at with their spirals and all, I just really enjoyed it.  When added to the salad I made too it was a great mix.  One of my all time favourite salads are Cobb salads.  What I like about them is that they are just so versatile.  Since going vegetarian and then vegan it's a salad I've missed dearly since if I go to a restaurant and order it... it'll simply be lettuce, tomatoes and green onions... I am not paying $14.00 for a salad like that, so I figured I'd recreate a Cobb salad with the ingredients I was craving and that I thought would go well.  It was perfect.  It was such a hearty and healthy salad, and the fats did not come from chicken, cheese or eggs, bonus.

Ingredients:
  • 5 large strawberries
  • 15-20 almonds
  • Fiddleheads prepared from this recipe
  • Lettuce
  • Spinach
Directions:

Arrange in desired manner.  I served mine with white balsamic vinegar.

What are some of your favourite ways to spruce up a grilled cheese/Cobb salad?

1 comment:

test it comm said...

The grilled cheese sandwich is one of my favourite ways to enjoy some asparagus! I like that spring cobb salad!