Artichoke Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

I'm usually pretty content with a regular old grilled cheese sandwich--cheddar and sourdough being my staple. Because of this I generally don't look outside my little grilled cheese box all that often. I mean, what more can you ask for than warm cheese and good bread with toasty butter on the outsides?

Well, it's not that you can exactly that you can ask for more because, well, bread, melty cheese, butter. But sometimes you want to have a meal that feels like real dinner instead of lazy summer lunch. Don't get me wrong, I'm never opposed to a nice lazy summer lunch, and I'm definitely not opposed to sliding some of those meals into the dinner slot occasionally.

But sometimes, I mean, sometimes, it seems like you should actually eat some vegetables with your lazy summer lunch turned dinner. So last night when I was crunched for time right before dinner, grilled cheese with a little sophistication hit our plates.

And let me be honest, I wasn't sure that this was going to work. The filling I put inside looked weird--not cheesy enough to be cheesy, not gooey enough to be a dip. Also, the primary cheese was Swiss and I was worried that it would just taste too Swiss-cheesy. But once that heat was added, the texture was fantastic and the artichoke and Swiss balanced each other out, so nobody got to screaming at you too much. I wanted to eat fifteen.

You can eat these alone or add a salad, fruit, or even fries to make it more dinner-like. As for us, we stuck with apple slices as a side dish, because apparently, I'm still a little stuck in lazy summer lunch zone. But don't let my 12-year-old-ness fool you. This is a grilled cheese sandwich for any grown-up to be proud of.

Artichoke Grilled Cheese Sandwich
adapted from Hun, What's for Dinner
Makes 8 small sandwiches
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 5-10 minutes
Cost: $4.00 (that's about $1/serving)
bread: 1.00, artichoke hearts: 1.75, Parm cheese: .25, Swiss cheese: .90, other stuff: .10

1 loaf French bread, sliced
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 oz Parmesan cheese, shredded (NOT the powdery kind)
4 oz Swiss cheese, shredded

Note: Pre-shredded bagged cheese may not work as well because they coat it with something. That said, I bet you could use it and this would still be fine.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Plop an ice cream scoop(ish) sized portion onto your bread.

Butter the outer sides of your bread and warm on a skillet until cheese is melty and outsides are butter-crisped and perfect.

PRINTABLE RECIPE