I am ridiculously hooked on these sandwiches. Seriously hooked.  The slow cooked roast beef is packed full of flavor. Topped off with some creamy provolone on toasted rolls… so good!

I love how convenient it is to whip up a batch of meat on the weekend and stash in the fridge. Weeknight dinner is ready in 5 minutes when all you need to do is heat up the meat & toast some rolls. Simply perfection. I’ve been experimenting with some recipes using the leftovers so you’ll see more of those coming soon!

Italian Shredded Roast Beef

1-2 Tbsp olive oil
3.5 – 4 lb. whole Beef Chuck Roast, trimmed as desired
1 3/4 cups Beef Broth (low sodium)
¼ cups Water
3 Tbsp (heaping) Italian Seasoning
1 tsp Salt (optional)
½ jar (16 oz) Pepperoncini Peppers, With Juice

Preheat oven to 275°F.

In a heavy oven-safe pot or dutch oven, add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil. Over medium-high heat, add chuck roast. Add the roast and sear for 4 – 5 minutes, until nicely browned. Turn and sear the other side and then turn and sear the ends. This should take 4 -5 minutes for each side.Remove dutch oven from heat. Add beef broth, water, italian seasoning, salt (if desired), and pepperoncini peppers.  Stir to combine seasonings with liquid.

Cover dutch oven and bake in preheated oven for 5-6 hours, or until meat is fork-tender and falling apart. Remove from oven and shred meat. Return to dutch oven.

Italian Shredded Roast Beef Sandwiches
Yields: 8 sandwiches

1 recipe prepared Italian Shredded Roast Beef (recipe above), warmed
8 deli rolls, toasted
8 thick slices provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. On a large cookie sheet, toast deli rolls (butter is optional) for 5-10 minutes. Top toasted rolls with warm shredded beef & sliced provolone cheese. Return to oven 3-4 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Serve hot.

Source: Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

We have a bakery in town that has the best fresh baked breads. I could eat there every day. Really. They have delicious sandwiches. The sandwich that got me hooked on the eatery in college was the BLT though. Salty, fabulously thick cut bacon, freshly made mayo (I don’t even like mayo that much), romaine lettuce & an abundance of fresh sliced tomatoes on whole grain bread. Its my favorite sandwich there. So simple, so tasty. What’s your favorite sandwich?

My favorite BLT was inspiration for this wrap. I decided to spice it up a bit though with some spicy tortillas Yum! This is one of those its so easy it doesn’t really need a recipe recipes, but give it a try. Perfect for a quick lunch!

Spicy BLT Wraps

4 jalapeno flour tortillas
16 slices of bacon, cooked
1-2 romaine hearts
1 large tomato, sliced or diced
mayonnaise
black pepper

Spread mayonnaise (as desired) evenly over 1 side of each tortilla, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Layer lettuce, tomatoes and bacon evenly over tortillas; season with black pepper.

Roll up tortillas; cut in half diagonally, and secure with wooden pick.

Its summer time in Texas. Its hot outside already which results in lots of laziness and lots of reasons to stay indoors and keep the oven off! That means lots of grilling so we don’t add any heat indoors. It also means lots of sandwiches cause they’re quick and easy and don’t typically require heating up the kitchen Summer perfection!

The buttery mustard with the ham & creamy delicious avocado makes a perfect summertime sandwich! Give it a try!

Ham & Avocado Sandwich

1 baguette or other chewy, crusty bread of choice
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp butter, softened
3/4 lb deli ham, sliced
2 large avocados, peeled & sliced
romaine lettuce leaves
kosher salt & black pepper

Cut bread in half lengthwise. Stir mustard & butter together. Spread on both sides of bread. Top bread with ham, lettuce & sliced avocado. Season avocado with salt & pepper. Keep chilled and serve within three hours.

Source: Adapted from Country Living

Sometimes you just really crave childhood favorites. I feel like I’ve been craving childhood favorites a lot late. Perhaps I’ve been a bit nostalgic lately as I approach yet another birthday? I’ll officially be closer to 30 than 20 this year… 2-6. Its hard to believe. Remember those days as a child where being in your twenties even seemed old and was oh so far off?? If only we could slow down the clock. Time is going by far too quickly! Anyway, sloppy joes have been in my mind for months but I’ve never made them because of hubby’s dislike for tomatoes. Anything with a tomato base is tricky — sometimes I’m lucky and hubby likes it but far more frequently he’s not a fan. But I had to have some sloppy joes but none of that canned stuff. I wanted homemade so off to the kitchen we went. The result? Deliciousness. Quick & easy, and tasty. Not too sweet, not too spicy. Not too tomatoey. Weeknight meal perfection.

Give this one a try! This is one you could easily whip up over the weekend and simply reheat for a really quick weeknight meal! Oh and obviously, you don’t have to make them as sliders, but everything is more fun when its in mini-form, right??

Sloppy Joe Sliders

1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10.75 oz) can tomato puree
1 tsp mustard powder
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
10-12 slider buns/rolls

In a large saucepan over medium heat, add beef, and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink. Add diced onion & green bell pepper. Cook until softened, stirring occasionally, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add tomato puree, mustard powder, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, and chili powder. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 8 to 10 minutes. Season with salt & pepper as desired. Serve warm on slider buns/rolls (even better when toasted & buttered).

Source: Adapted from Everyday Food, January 2008

Work. Its that pesky thing I do from 8am-5pm every day. It pays the bills. Unfortunately, I don’t like my day job and some days it really gets to me. I get home tired and a bit depressed (I’m working on getting out of the position but God is trying to teach me patience ). Some days, getting in the kitchen and cooking and creating something from scratch is exactly what I need. Other days, I need to put on PJs, bum out in front of the TV with junk food. Now I wouldn’t call these freezer pizza junk food exactly but it satisfies the craving without eating anything too bad for me or my waistline.

We love pizza though. I especially love how easy they are to freeze. You are almost always guaranteed to find some sort of homemade pizza in our freezer. Some of our faves are bagel bite and english muffin pizzas. But you can also freeze Pita Bread to use as pizza crusts as well! It wasn’t until Shawnda posted about freezing homemade crust that I started making my own crust and freezing it. Why did this not occur to me before??? Homemade crust makes way better weeknight pizza than bagel bites or english muffins! Thanks Shawnda!

The thing I love most about making Frozen Pizza is that they are so easy to whip up over the weekend. I start with at least a double batch of dough so I can knock out several meals all at once. You can top them with all the toppings of your choosing so all you have to do is take it from freezer to oven, or you can leave these crusts untopped and top them off when you’re ready to eat. Your call. Personally, I think they taste a little better if you top them off just before baking with fresh ingredients but they’re not bad at all totally assembled and tossed in the oven! Give this one a try!

Frozen Pizza

Pizza Dough (highly recommend making at least a double batch of dough)
Toppings (if desired)

Make your dough according to recipe instructions through the point where you need to shape the dough. Set oven rack in middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500°F. Sprinkle baking sheet(s) lightly with cornmeal.

Divide dough into desired number of crusts. (For the recipe above I usually make 2 crusts from 1 batch of dough). Stretch each dough round into a 7-8 inch round and place on the prepared baking pans. Bake the crusts for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Repeat for as many crusts as you need to prepare.

To freeze: Place the cooled crusts on a baking sheet that fits in the freezer. If you want to freeze your pizza assembled, top with toppings of choice. Put baking sheet(s) in the freezer. Once frozen through, store the pizzas in freezer bags (since frozen individually, you can store however many you can fit in a bag; they won’t stick).

To reheat: Set oven rack to top third of oven. Preheat to 425°F. Place the frozen pizza on a baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until toppings are bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Source: Adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride

We’ve been grilling a ton because the weather is so nice so tried our hand at grilling pizza last week. Oh my goodness, how have we not tried this before??? We loved it!

I topped mine with Canadian bacon, grilled sweet onions & fresh basil. Hubby had plain old pepperoni… how uncreative! I can’t wait to try out all sorts of topping combinations in the future… the grilled topping ideas are endless!

How to Grill Pizza
(Using a gas grill)

1 recipe pizza dough, divided into 4
Olive oil
pizza toppings as desired

After dough has risen, punch down and divide into 4. On a lightly floured surface, roll each crust thin (6-7″ diameter, or larger if desired).

Preheat grill burners on high, covered, 10 minutes, then reduce heat to moderate. Prepare all toppings and have nearby grill.

Lightly brush crusts with olive oil. Carefully flip dough rounds, oiled sides down, with your hands onto middle of lightly oiled grill rack and brush top of each with oil. Grill crusts, uncovered, until undersides are golden brown , 2 to 3 minutes on gas grill.

Flip crusts over. Top with tomato sauce, cheese and other toppings as desired. Cover with grill lid until undersides are golden brown and cheese is melted, about 3-5 minutes.

I wanted some easy meals for this week so I grabbed my cookbooks and flipped through for some easy meals. Philly Cheesesteak immediately jumped out at me. Hubby loves Philly Cheesesteak, and it sounded pretty good. This is the third recipe I’ve made from my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook. And I have to say, I’d definitely recommend this cookbook. So far, everything has been wonderful. This was a deliciously easy meal!

Philly Cheesesteak

3/4 – 1 pound sirloin steak, trimmed of fat
2 6-inch sub rolls, split lengthwise
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 large onion, sliced
salt & pepper
2-3 slices provolone cheese
mayonnaise (optional)

Cut the meat into 1-inch wide strips. Put on plate and freeze the meat until the exterior hardens but the interior remains soft, about 25 minutes. Do not freeze more than 30 minutes or meat will become grainy. Slice sirloin as thin as possible using a sharp knife or use food processor fitted with slicing disk.

Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400°F. If desired, spread mayonnaise on split rolls on a baking sheet. Bake 5 to 10 minutes. Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until shimmering. Add the onions and saute until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the shaved meat, salt & pepper and continue to cook until the beef is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.

Turn the heat to low, shingle the slice of cheese over the meat, and allow to melt, about 1 minute. Fold the melted cheese into the meat. Divide the meat and cheese mixture evenly among the toasted rolls.

Source: Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, America’s Test Kitchen, 2006.

Last time we were in Singapore we ate a place in Holland Village called Pizza Bar. It was probably some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. It was amazing. Tonight I decided to replicate one of the pizzas we had there, prosciutto and arugula pizza, and it was pretty successful. This update also serves as my entry for this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging which will be hosted by Cook (almost) Anything.

You’ve probably had arugula in one of your salads. But if you haven’t ever tried it, you ought to give it a try. Arugula is an aromatic green often used in Italian cuisine, its also known as rocket, roquette, rugula, or rucola, depending on where you live. Too me it has a faint peppery-taste, almost even a bit nutty. Its a great addition to salads, pizza and pasta. Give it a try! Judging from personal experiences, its not for everyone. My father can’t stand arugula, which is a little surprising to me because I don’t find the flavor that strong. But give it a try and see for yourself if you haven’t had it already!

 Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza

uncooked Pizza Crust
1/2 cup pizza sauce (more or less as desired)
1 1/2 – 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (more or less as desired)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
10 very thinly sliced prosciutto
1 1/2 cups Arugula, washed & dried

Top pizza crust with sauce. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Bake per crust instructions (12-15 minutes). Once removed from oven, let rest 5 minutes. Top with Arugula & then prosciutto. Slice & serve hot.

Tonight, I topped off the pizza with Canadian bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, red peppers & some parsley. It was a great combo! Hubby and I are on a pizza kick right now, as I just recently started making my own pizza crust. Its amazing how much homemade crust can transform a pizza… no more Pillsbury crusts in our house!

Pizza Crust

3/4 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 cups (or more) all purpose flour*
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 Tbsp cornmeal

Add yeast to 3/4 cup warm water. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes.

Brush large bowl lightly with olive oil. In another bowl, mix 2 cups flour, sugar, and salt. Add yeast mixture and 3 tablespoons oil; process until dough forms a sticky ball. Transfer to lightly floured surface. KNEAD dough until smooth, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is very sticky, about 1 minute. Transfer to prepared bowl; turn dough in bowl to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Punch down dough.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Dust work surface lightly with cornmeal (cornmeal will help prevent sticking and make the dough much easier to move). Roll out pizza dough to desired thickness. Transfer to baking sheet/pizza stone. Top pizza with selected toppings. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

* I substitute half the flour with wheat flour

Source: Adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine, March 2007. Giada DeLaurentiis.

Tonight we tried roast beef with gruyère & arugala on Focossia. I’ll be honest and say I’m very leary of new cheeses. I don’t like strong cheeses like bleu cheese. But I was dying to try something new on our grilled sandwiches so I decided I’d give gruyère a try. Its named after a district in Switzerland (and I did buy Swiss imported Gruyère). It had a distinct flavor but it wasn’t overbearing. It melted well and it added a nice savory flavor to our sandwiches.

I of course had to put some roasted red peppers on mine as well. I love the extra flavor they add… the little bit of sweetness. I enjoy them too for a bit of different texture too (I’ve started using them instead of tomatoes). I don’t really have a recipe, just wanted to share the combination of flavors… yum! Oh and we used a dry mustard. They were delicious!