I love love me a monte cristo. I rarely order them because well they aren’t they healthy, it’s hard to find it on the menu and I never know if it will be good from that restaurant. There are a few restaurants where I am guaranteed to get that. So when I saw this recipe on my pinterest feed I saved it. I already had a tube of crescent rolls sitting in the fridge. So I got the meats required and we were off.

I am SOOO glad I found these. I got 4 of these. My husband and I fought over the last one, they were SOOO good. Not the tradition fried monte cristo but gives you the same wonderful flavors. We will be making these again and again.

Monte Cristos (From: Joy’s Hope)

• sliced deli turkey
• sliced deli ham
• sliced deli cheese (we used Colby)
• crescent rolls
• Strawberry jam, any kind you like will work.

Preheat oven to 375.

Spray baking sheet with Pam to prevent sticking. The originally recipe said to spray foil as the cheese sticks. I had NO trouble sticking after spray.

Unroll the crescent rolls, keep them into a square (two rectangles together.)

Layer your meat and cheese, I did half piece of cheese, ham, cheese and turkey.

Fold over the top covering the meat and cheese. Press the seams together so prevent cheese and ham from leaking out.

Bake for 15-18 minutes. Serve with jam on the side and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

I’ve decided for the month of July to gather my favorite bloggers up and each will be guest posting every Friday for the month of July. It was hard to pick my favorites so I might do this again at a later time. Todays guest posts comes from Sarah at A Taste of Home.

Thank you Sarah for the guest post and for being one of my favorite blogs. Please make sure to check out all the recipes on her blog!

In my neverending quest to find new ways to cook with pineapple, I came across this recipe for Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches. I’d never heard of Heinz 57 Sauce, but I love chicken and I love pineapple so I put it on the menu.

This was actually the second time in a week that I made this recipe. The first time I followed the directions to grill and then shred the chicken. Unfortunately the texture was so off-putting I ate a few bites and threw it away (saving the pineapple for Round 2). I’ve seen plenty of other bloggers make this recipe without any issues, so I don’t know what happened. I will say that I don’t usually think of shredding chicken after grilling it, only after poaching or slow cooking.

For Round 2 I grilled the chicken and left it whole while using the leftover sauce to dress the sandwich, along with some mayo. It was utterly delicious. The spice from the Tabasco and Heinz 57 Sauce was perfect and the smokiness from the charcoal grill added a nice complexity to the other flavors.

Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches
Adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride

1/2 cup Heinz 57 Sauce
Fresh pineapple, cored and sliced into 1/2″ inch rings*
2 tablespoons honey, plus more (if desired)
Tabasco sauce
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 buns or sandwich rolls
Heat grill to medium heat.

Place one 1/2″ ring of pineapple into a food processor or blender and process until pureed. Pour the processed pineapple into a medium bowl and stir in the steak sauce, honey, and a couple of dashes of Tabasco. Taste and add honey if additional sweetness is desired. Remove 1/4 cup of sauce to use for basting and reserve the rest for serving.

Brush pineapple rings with olive oil and place on the grill. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side, until the sugars start to caramelize and nice grill marks have developed.

Pound chicken breasts to an even thickness. Brush the Hawaiian sauce on one side of the chicken breast and season liberally with salt and pepper. Place on the grill and cook about 6-8 minutes, turning once halfway through. Before turning the chicken, baste with the remaining Hawaiian sauce.

Remove chicken and pineapple rings from the grill when done. Let chicken stand for 5 minutes, then assemble your sandwiches. Divide the pineapple rings and chicken between the 4 buns, top with some of the extra Hawaiian sauce and some mayo, if desired, and serve warm.

*Note: You will have extra pineapple to save for another use.

This is my favorite sandwich hands down. The flavors go together SO well. About a month ago my Mom told me she was making these for dinner. I hinted to invite me. And then waited and waited. Well she finally made them this week and after request on facebook to share the recipe I am. I couldn’t find my camera before I dug in so please mange with a cell phone crabby picture.

Also when I get to 200 fans I will be hosting a giveaway… as of right now I am 1 like away. So go like and hopefully win!

This recipe is great because you can throw the pork in the crockpot before you leave in the morning get home throw your sandwiches together grill and eat within 15 minutes.

Cuban Sandwiches (From: My Mom)

• Mustard
• Swiss Cheese
• Pork loin
• Can of Diet Coke
• 1 cup water
• Deli ham
• Dill pickles (sandwich slices)
• Ciabatta rolls (can use anything)

Place pork loin in the crockpot with a coke, water and season with salt, pepper and garlic. Cook for 10 hours and shred.

I first came across cuban sandwiches at a local deli, they did not call it a cuban sandwich but it was delicious. I am not a big pickle or mustard lover but I loved this sandwich. It was one of the only items Adam ever had to run out and get when I was pregnant as I HAD to have it.

I decided to give them a whirl at home, as how hard could it really be right? These were excellent and rather simple to make.

I followed this recipe for the pork, and thought it was very time consuming and didn’t add a whole lot to the taste of the sandwich. Next time I would just throw a roast in the crockpot with a can of coke and shred when I get home.

Cuban Sandwiches (From: icuban)

• Cuban bread or French Bread (I planned to use different bread but turned out to be moldy so I just used white bread)
• Butter, softened
• 1 pound ham sliced (Use a good quality ham.)
• 1 pound lechón asado (roasted Cuban pork) sliced
• 1/2 pound Swiss cheese, sliced (Adam doesn’t like swiss I subbed provlone)
• Sliced dill pickles
• Yellow mustard

Preheat a pancake griddle or large fry pan. Cut the bread into sections about 8 inches long. Cut these in half and spread butter on both halves (inside). Make each sandwich with the ingredients in this order: pickles, roasted pork, ham, and cheese. Be generous!

Place the sandwich on the hot griddle (fry pan) sprayed with a little “Pam” or lightly greased. Place a heavy iron skillet or bacon press on top of the sandwich to flatten. (You really want to smash the sandwich, compressing the bread to about 1/3 its original size!)

Grill the sandwiches for two to three minutes on each side, until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden. Make sure your griddle or fry pan is not TOO HOT! Otherwise, the crust will burn before the cheese melts. Slice the sandwich in half diagonally and serve.

This was another recipe on my menu fromVicki, I was kind of excited as my mom use to make them every so often and I loved them, I have never made them for myself.

I took the recipe from about.com and kind of created my own, we both loved them and it was a simple dinner.

Philly Cheese Steaks (Inspired From: About.com)

• 1 good beef steak
• Provolone Cheese
• Italian Rolls
• Teriyaki sauce
• Mushrooms
• Onions

Heat a pan with oil.

Add thinly sliced beef, and sliced onions. Cook until tender and meat cooked through.

Add mushrooms cook until tender.

Season with salt and pepper and add 2-3 T of teriyaki sauce.

Top meat with provolone cheese, cook until cheese is melted.

Place on italian roll and ENJOY!

Last week on the forum that I am a part of someone posted asking if anyone wanted to create her menu for her, I said how it would be fun to create each others menus. So we hooked up via e-mail and created each others menus.  Somehow it was easier to create her menu rather then my own, because ofcourse it wasn’t stuff I would have to make

This was one of the recipe she sent me, I was very excited by it, I LOVE monte criscos but never have made them at home, and of course this was a little healthier then a deep fried one at a restaurant. These were great and the bacon was just an added extra.

Monte Crisco Sandwiches (Adapted From: Rachel Ray)

• 8 slices center cut or apple wood smoked bacon
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• Warm 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg or ground — eyeball it
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper — eyeball it
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 8 thick cut sliced whole-grain soft bread, white, or challah
• brown mustard
• 1/2 pound sliced havarti cheese
• 1 pound sliced ham
• 1 pound sliced turkey breast

Heat a griddle pan or large skillet over medium high heat. Cook bacon and remove to paper towels to drain, 5 minutes. Drain off fat. Reheat griddle over medium heat.

Beat eggs with half-and-half, nutmeg and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon butter to the griddle or pan and melt. Turn 4 slices bread in batter, then add to griddle or pan. Turn bread after it browns, 2 to 3 minutes.

Top 2 bread slices with mustard. Add 2 slices of cheese and bacon on the plain piece of bread. Add ham, then turkey to the mustard covered bread. Use a spatula to assemble 2 sandwiches and turn and press gently to set sandwiches in place. Repeat to make 2 more sandwiches. Cut sandwiches from corner to corner.

Dust with powdered sugar, serve with Cranberry dipping sauce.

Cranberry Dipping Sauce (From: Myself)

• 1/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
• 2 T. sour cream

Mix until smooth.

I have been craving Wild Rice Soup for a while, I decided to make it tonight along with some panini’s. I love that paninis they are SOOO versatile. But tonight I made a yummy spread to go along with them.

Tonight on our panini I used ham, mushrooms, onion, sandwich spread, salami, and some Gouda cheese. We made the ham wild rice soup that we have made many times before, this meal was the perfect meal for the rainy dreary day in Minnesota.

Sandwich Spread (From: Myself)

• 2 T. mayo
• 2 T. butter
• 1 T. mustard
• 1 T. Parmesan
• 1 t. white pepper
• 1 t. chives
• 1 t. seasoning salt

Mix all ingredients and spread on sandwiches or panini.

Adam and I went to Rainbow a few weeks ago, and were walking by the deli counter and saw blue cheese and bacon burgers. They looked SOOOO good. So we got 3 of them to try. They were the BEST burgers I have ever had, so tonight I decided to make my own blue cheese bacon burgers.

Mine were just as good if not better

Blue Cheese, Bacon Stuffed Burgers (From: Myself)

• 1/2 c. crumbled blue cheese
• 1/2 c. crumbled bacon (cooked and cut into pieces)
• 2 lbs hamburger
• seasoning salt
• garlic powder
• onion powder

Mix everything together in the mixer.

Press into patties, I used my hamburger press and used about a 1/4 c. of meat per burger (I got 6 burgers)

Fry and enjoy

I love pulled pork, and go to Famous Daves just to have their pulled pork. I have tried making it at home but never been super happy with it. This recipe was posted on The Nest, and it is my new favorite, it tasted just like Famous Daves does!!! I changed the original recipe a little

Pulled Pork (From: Allrecipes)

• 1 pork roast or loin
• 1 can root beer
• 1 slice of onion
• salt and pepper
• Penzeys BBQ America
• 1 jar BBQ sauce (we tried Jack Daniels, Hickory Brown Sugar)

Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker, put any seasonings you want on, and onion rings over the top, then pour the root beer over the meat.

Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6 to 7 hours (I did 8 hours, and BBQ sauce for 1 1/2 hours.)

Drain well. Stir in barbecue sauce. Serve over hamburger buns.

I served with sweet potato fries just like I made them here.

Since joining the WC Board on the The Nest. I have heard lots of talk of Paninis, I never really knew what they were. I am not much of a sandwich person so I normally skip that part of a menu. But just a few weeks ago I tried one at Panera Bread. It was very good, but I want to make one more to our tastes. I guess since mine was served on bread it was technically a panini… here is the definition and recipe.

Panini (From: Myself)

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 can mushrooms
• cheese (I used mozzarella and Colby)
• onion
• black olives
• honey dijion mustard
• 6 slices of bread

Fry 2 chicken breasts, mine were frozen so I cooked until I could cut then cut in thin strips. Then seasoned with lemon garlic marinate.

Lay bread out on counter and put a little olive oil and parmesan on the top, then lay 2 pieces flat on George Foreman grill. Add toppings. I did meat, mushrooms, olives and onions, then cheese, and lastly mustard.

Put the pieces on top of each other, and smash down with the George Foreman, cook until everything is melted and golden brown.

*** Tips: I got 3 paninis out of this, you could most likely get 4 out of it. The first time I made mine I did two at a time, I found the top pieces of bread didn’t get crispy, so the next one I put both slices down at the same time. Worked much better.