Creamy Roast Beef Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Lunch time on Saturdays is usually a family event at my house, but totally dependent upon my little hungry one's nap time. Funny how that works. He doesn't even eat lunch with us but yeah. Sometimes its an early lunch at 11am but can be as late as 2pm. Lately we have been eating a bit early because we have 8 am soccer games to go to and by the time noon comes around everyone is hungry. To break up the monotony I grabbed a fun grilled cheese sandwich idea from pintrest. I heart pintrest. 

So lets chat about this creamy smoky grilled cheese sandwich. This hearty sandwich filled with cheese and roast beef is bursting with flavor! I can't remember the last time I put 1/4 lb of deli meat on a sandwich before. After grilling it, it had some serious weight! And my usual one slice of cheese was upgraded to 8 small slices of cheese with this recipe. What a big difference! But it was so good and I was definately full afterwards. Going to keep this sandwich recipe in my back pocket for camping, hiking, and days that create hungry appetites. The thick bread toasted nicely producing that great crunch everyone person wants when biting into a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. While the crunch contrasted the soft creamy cheese, the unexpected earthy sage, smoky cheese, and tender roast beef all worked in harmony together. Despite the strong favors, the sandwich as a whole, was completely balanced. I was amazed. It was like the first time I put cranberries on my turkey sandwich thinking I was going to ruin it but it so increased the depth of flavors.  I made the recipe more family friendly by cutting out the most time consuming ingredient (caramelized onions) from the original recipe making it an easy lunch idea. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. It creates a memorable lunch! 

The original recipe is from Running to the Kitchen a food blog with great pictures. 

Makes 2 Sandwiches

Cook time approx 5-10 minutes

Ingredients:

4 pieces of good quality whole wheat bread (or your favorite sturdy bread)

butter

a piece of foil

super thinly sliced gouda cheese (4 oz - this was half of a package for me)

1/2 lb of thinly sliced roast beef

1/4 tsp ground sage (divided)

Directions:

1. Heat your pan. I used a indoor cast-iron grill pan. I love the sear marks it gives. 

2. Butter two pieces of bread and lay them butter side down on the warming pan. 

3. Layer the roast beef and cheese on top of both pieces until you have used all the meat and cheese. Make sure the top layer is cheese. 

4. Sprinkle the sage over the top piece of cheese. 

5. Butter the last two pieces of bread and top the sandwiches with them. Butter side up. 

6. Cook for several minutes over medium heat until you see a nice toasted bottom piece of bread. Give it a peek every couple minutes. 

7. Flip and put a heavy pan or plate on top of the sandwiches to finish cooking. This helps the sandwiches to compress and heat all the way through. Sandwiches should be hot and both sides equally toasted. 

Note: Turn down the heat if the bread is getting too dark and use foil if needed in the shape of a tent to capture some of the heat to melt the cheese. 

Serve with raw crunchy veggies, tomato soup, chips, or your favorite lunch time snacks

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey

Lunch done. 

I need an easy button

Until next time from my Az Kitchen