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

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

Cheap Eat Challenge Count Down: 1 Day

That's right, tonight was our last night to eat without calculating how much it will all cost. We had spinach artichoke dip on homemade sour dough bread with polska kielbasa. And then Kip went to work. Which is how New Year's Eve often goes in this house.

I realize I'm a little late if you were looking for the perfect dip for your party tonight. Sorry. This is a good one too. Really good. Kip hates artichokes, but Kip loves this dip. However, I couldn't get it up sooner because I've been spending all my spare time the last couple of days doing some (hopefully) careful shopping in preparation for the beginning of the cheap eat challenge. I'm kind of nervous. Kip is kind of nervous. I'm predicting a lot of eggs and potatoes. But tonight. Tonight we dined on meat and cheese and then after Kip had gone, I made chocolate ginger cookies. I'll save that recipe for sometime in January when folks are missing the sweet indulgences of December.

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip
Serves 6-10

Note on spinach: I personally feel that this recipe is better with de-thawed frozen spinach (hurray for the cheaper option). It's already mushy that way and you get a bunch of spinach in that frozen pack. If you're using fresh, as we did tonight because I forgot to buy frozen, chop it up small, or cook it just until it wilts before throwing it into the dip. Otherwise, it comes out just a little teeny bit more toothsome that I like it in this dip.

Note on cheese: Feel free to mix it up. We've done all Parmesan, a blend of Parmesan, mozzarella, and Romano, a blend of Parmesan and Romano, and sometimes just mozzarella (though all mozzarella isn't my favorite one--still good, but missing the kick of those harder cheese)

8 oz cream cheese
1/4 C mayo
1/2 C mozzarella cheese
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped a bit
1 pkg frozen spinach, dethawed with the water squeezed out (or 4 C baby spinach, chopped small or cooked till wilted)
1 clove garlic (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder in a pinch)
salt and pepper to taste (feel free to taste before cooking--it's still good, not quite transcendent yet, but still good)

Beat cream cheese and mayo. Mix in garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix in cheeses. Mix in artichoke hearts and spinach.

Mix it together well.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until the edges are brown and bubbly. (Didn't get a good edge picture. We were starving and Kip had to get to work soon.)

Serve with crusty bread, crackers, or raw veggies.

PRINTABLE RECIPE