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Ok, now I’m going to have to make that. Old fashioned and simple but it looks good.
We dont eat meat on Fridays and this is often our meal. A simple but sometimes necessary choice, especially if one hasn’t had the chance to get to the store. Tomato soup and cheese always seem to be at hand, and we are grateful that God grants us these simple comforts.
To enliven the sandwich some weeks, we mix two kinds of cheeses or slice an avocado in the sandwich, which adds a nice creamy texture as it melts. Bon Appetit, Father! :-)
A favorite for years. That was my lunch yesterday. So comforting & tasty, too.
Still love it. But I had a small piece of cod, a dolup of mashed sweat meat squash, and a small roll.
For some reason, I can really only bring myself to eat tomato soup during Lent, even now that I keep meatless Fridays all the time. Tonight’s dinner was linguine with a quick tomato sauce, with lots and lots of crushed red pepper on top.
I’m not a tomato soup fan but the grilled cheese looks good.
Found some frozen shrimp in the back of the freezer so last night it was Pasta with Shrimp and salad.
My kids know there are two times of the year we have grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. :-)
Last night was something my family calls “pizzelles,” which is pizza dough squares fried in really hot oil until it turns into big puffy pockets, then slit open and with mozzarella inside, and dunked in sauce. It’s not exactly penitential, but it’s meatless.
Living in Wisconsin, fish fries are everywhere on Fridays! I had two beer battered cod fillets.
I sometimes put some caramelized onion into the sandwich along with a sprinkle of garlic powder.
Question for you cooks out there (I stopped “cooking” years ago – had to throw away all of my cookware because of a strange mold infection and Since I hate cleaning the oven, I microwave): can one make melted cheese sandwiches in a microwave? Is it any good? [I suppose you could fake it by toasting the bread, then assembling the sandwich, and putting it for a few seconds in the reactor. My experience is that bread will get soggy in a microwave. You would do better to get a couple useful pans.]
The Chicken
It looks delicious… If you buy canned Tomato soup be sure to check the ingredients, it often has a meat stock (beef/chicken) as an ingredient. Unless meat stocks don’t count?
Masked Chicken: I don’t think you will like the results of microwave cheese sandwich, but if you have a toaster you can toast your bread first, then add your cheese to the toasted bread and try melting it in the microwave. I make my grilled cheese sandwiches in my toaster oven and it works great. First I toast 2 slices of bread, then add some butter to the toast and let it melt in the toaster, then I add the slices of cheese and toast again for a few minutes until it melts. It makes a nice crunchy cheese sandwich.
I like to make grilled cheese on sourdough bread. Smear a little butter on the “outsides” of the bread, a little mayo on the inside, and cut some fairly-thick slices of Swiss and a few slices of tomato, and assemble the sandwich. Sprinkle some oregano on the sandwich before putting the “lid” on. Grill on the stovetop. MMMmmm. Grilled cheese taken to the next level!
As a vegetarian I am feeling really sorry for you meat-eaters faced with meatless Fridays. But don’t worry I’m from the government and I’m here to help. :)
Here is an extremely easy and very quick meatless recipe that we really love: penne pasta tossed with toasted pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, basil, red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese. To make: while the pasta is cooking, toast some pine nuts, about a 1/4 cup or so (takes just a minute, put them in a pan with no oil and watch them carefully, turn them often and when they begin to brown transfer them to a plate so they don’t burn). Next, in a COOL pan poor a generous amount of olive oil, sufficient to coat your pasta with (don’t pour oil into a hot pan, never never never do that!!!). Turn on the heat and add the garlic, LOTS of basil (lots and lots), some red pepper flakes and the pine nuts. Saute for a minute or two. Drain the pasta and toss it with the oil mixture and serve with generous amount of parmesan cheese. It is really fast and tasty! Serve it with a salad if you want, and/or maybe some garlic bread.
Masked Chicken, you can make this in the microwave (just warm up the nuts instead of toasting them). Cook your pasta, drain it, and warm up your olive oil mixture in the microwave.
I hope this is helpful and gives you some ideas for meatless Friday meals, enjoy!
Grilled cheese tomato soup is such a winning combo. Whether you have campbells soup and American cheese on wonderbread or gourmet homemade soup with fresh mozzarella on sourdough, it’s the best.
The old New England way would be to follow up on Saturday night with franks and beans.
Ahhh, one of my favorites for Friday or any cold day!
My Friday lunches, when I’m not in school, might be Tom+Chee’s. It’s a grilled cheese and soup restaurant in Louisville and Cincy.
We had stuffed shells with red sauce last night; it was excellent.
Having been vegan for a number of years, I have a large veggie arsenal, let me know if you need any ideas! I’m also looking forward to a good honest fast now that I am not currently pregnant or nursing. Having no ethnic traditions or culture, I’m excited to embrace a Catholic culture and identity.
Looks good, but I don’t think I could survive on that.
In the islands, we snuggle a slice of pineapple into our grilled cheese sandwiches…..yeah, don’t mock it ’til you’ve tried it! Meatless for me last night was spaghetti tossed with butter, parsley, and fresh grated pecorino. Yummy.
Cheese and pineapple are an outstanding combination!
Dear Masked Chicken,
You can make a good grilled cheese sandwich using the ironing board and aluminum foil method: put butter or margarine on both sides of the sandwich, wrap securely with foil, and heat up the iron. Then hold the hot iron over each side of the wrapped sandwich (without pressing too firmly) until the bread is brown and the cheese melted. I learned this years ago from an Aunt who lived in a tiny apartment and was saving up money to have her stove repaired. Haven’t tried it myself since colege, so I can’t give specifics about timing and iron temperature setting.
Chicken, if you have a toaster, you can toast your bread as some have suggested, and microwave the cheese until it melts. Then spread it on the toast. Or, invest in a little panini machine…I love mine.
Comfort food at its best!
Sissy, that sounds like something Tom+Chee’s would do if it decided to have a Hawaiian special.
Menu here: http://www.tomandchee.com/TomandChee-Menu.pdf
Now, they could also put it on a donut…
Most Catholic (and of course, Orthodox, Coptic, etc.) countries and ethnicities have a very strong Lenten/various fasting levels/abstinence tradition of cooking. Sometimes, ethnic cookbooks will even give you handy sections pointing this stuff out. (And most cookbooks from the Middle Ages were arranged to deal with this.)
In 1975 &’76 I ate a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup every day for lunch. I’d do it again, although never on a Friday or as a Lenten meal. It gives me way too much pleasure.