A great fall Salad

Some basic ingredients for my cooking style.

I hate buying a certain spice or widget to use in a new dish only to find out I never end up using it again.  What a waste!   My goal of " Real Simple Meals" is a collection of spices and utensils that you can use in many ways and get different results.  I like to think of it this way,  My cooking is Flavored for spice lovers and it looks presentable at the table too!

So let's backtrack a little and show you some ingredients that I tend to use over and over again. Not always together, sometimes with other common items. Hopefully, you will see the end results is an array of spicy dishes that look good, are generally healthy and look pleasing on the plate-  a good way to win points with friends and loved ones.

The following are photos of spices a lot of my dishes have in them. Being a photographer, I figure a photo is worth 1,000 words. Here is 7,000.

Red Pepper Flakes are perfect to add before you cook or when it is ready to serve.  Adds nice flavor.

Honey- better than sugar and adds sweetness

A great meat rub.  a great seasoning for vegetables too!

The Best mustard Around! 4 different flavors each one outstanding. Write this name down.

Mae Ploy- Sorry it is half used, I love this on chicken and shrimp

Cole & Mason Pepper Mill.  Pricey but well worth it in the long run. 5 different settings!

Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce-  Once again almost out. Got to restock this staple item.

Grilled Chicken Sandwhich

Grilled Chicken, real simple meals

Thank you for checking out my food blog.  I had some drastic changes in my life lately. And with my supportive, beautiful wife I know we will get through the changes. Cause what is life anyway?  a bunch of changes in a row!  I will post new dishes when I can, but please don't go too far. I have the last 2 years of weekend meals photographed sitting in a file. I just need to attach a recipe to them for you.

Real Simple Meals... like the domain says.. keeping that theme going here is the latest.

So On Sunday you Grilled Chicken and veggies.  Here is the second simple dish to come from all that effort you put in a few days ago.

Grilled Chicken-Cheddar-Jalapeno Sandwich

Ingredients:
Grilled Chicken breast
1/4  green bell pepper
1/2 jalapeno pepper
4 slices ( per sandwich) quality Cheddar cheese
2 slices of bread per sandwich
1 tsp of butter or oil for skillet/ pan


Slice the grilled chicken breast in half along the equator or thin strips so that the chicken sits flat on the toasted bread. 

Slice up 1 HALF ( 1/2) of a  Jalapeno into little rings.  Figure 3 thin rings per sandwich at the most.
Slice thin slices of the green pepper (2-3) per
Slice the Cheddar thin so that 4 fit on the top of the sandwich with room to melt

The Sandwich looks like this before cooking

I used a Cast iron skillet to cook mine this time.  If you have the right amount of oil on them they don't smoke indoors.

Heat up the skillet and add a little oil or butter and wait til it starts to brown slightly.
Place the sandwich in the pan with the veggies on the top side of the chicken breast.
Heat should be at  4-5 ( 75%) at most.
reduce heat to 50%
Keep an eye on it. it only take a  few minutes cook time to brown the bottom.
place the bread on top and carefully....carefully flip the sandwich with a spatula on the bottom and your fingers on top.

let grill on the other side for a few minutes at the 50% heat level.

Carefully tilt bread up to see progress of the flipped side.
When to you liking, remove and plate.

This is what it should look like.