LEFTOVERS

Simple Cheap Use For Leftovers

The following recipe is thanks to the hillbilly house wife blog-see website on right



#1Simple Toast Dinner
March 14th, 2008

My husband and I had dinner by ourselves tonight. We were both tired, so something quick and simple was in order. While I was going through my pantry to come up with something that would fit the bill, I remembered a simple cheese toast dinner my mother would prepare for us quite a bit.

The idea is simple, but has endless variations. It’s more of a method than a recipe per say…

Start with a piece of bread and lightly toast it, add some toppings and then a slice of cheese. Put everything under the broiler or bake at 450 until the cheese is melted (which doesn’t take long at all - so keep an eye on it to keep it from burning).

Tonight I thinly sliced an onion and a handful of fresh mushrooms and sauteed them in some butter until they were tender. I seasoned the mixture with a little salt and pepper and spread it equally on 4 slices of bread. I topped each with a slice of processed cheese and baked it for a few minutes.

I served them with a simple green salad and it was wonderful. Perfect simple comfort food.

Isn’t it funny how we sometimes forget about dishes we loved as kids or young adults? I mentioned before that my mom would make this for us in all kinds of variations all through my childhood, but somehow I’d forgotten all about it and hadn’t fixed it for my own family in years. I’m sure that’s going to change and some version of this dish will grace our dinner table a few times a month.

Here are some variations on this simple toast dinner for you:

Tomato and Cheese
Slice a tomato and add it to the toasted bread, then top with cheese and bake until melted

Salami or Ham and Cheese
Same idea, but use a slice of ham or salami, then top it with cheese.

Toast Hawaii
Toast, ham, slice of canned pineapple, cheese

Pizza Toast
Spread some tomato sauce on the toast, then add pizza toppings like pepperoni slices and top with cheese.

Of course you could also use all kinds of leftovers on these toasts. Sliced beef and cheese would be yummy, or how about toast chicken parmesan style with breaded chicken (or even chicken nuggets), tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Play with this simple toast dinner idea and see what kind of creations you can come up with that your family will love.