Grilled Cheese with Apples (and Deli Meat)

Course: Main Dish

Servings:

Calories: 421kcal

Dress up Tuesday night's dinner by adding apples straight on the sammie! Top with ham or turkey if that's your jam. (Oh... and maybe jam??)

Preheat a griddle or skillet over medium-low heat. Coat with butter or cooking spray.
Meanwhile, butter one side of each piece of bread. Flip over and coat with mustard.
Place up to four pieces of bread, buttered side down, on your griddle (allowing space for flipping, so do a couple of rounds if necessary). Top each piece of bread with 1oz of ham, 3 or 4 slices of cheese, and 3 or 4 slices of apple. Top the sandwich with another piece of bread, buttered side facing out. Cook until the bread is toasted, then flip.
Allow to cook until the cheese is melted and the other side of the bread has browned how you like it. Remove from heat and let rest a minute or two before cutting it. Serve with any extra apple slices on the side.

Be sure to keep the heat to medium-low. Yes, this takes forever, but it produces a much better sandwich than if you try to cook it over high (she says from 30+ years of anxious sandwich making experience.)

Dress It Up

Our favorite brand of sandwich bread is Angelic Bakehouse. It's the only "cootie free" bread we've been able to find that doesn't taste like cardboard. Bonus - it's only about 2/3 the size of regular bread, so gives you plenty of sandwich, but cuts out unnecessary carbs.
Speaking of bread, if you have any other reason to get cinnamon raisin bread, buy it and use it on this sandwich, too. Yum! (Maybe skip the mustard then though...)
A not-too-sweet preserve would be great on this sandwich. We like orange marmalade or even a mango chutney.
Gala or Fuji apples are our favorite for this dish, but anything this side of a Granny Smith should be tasty.
Same "choose your own adventure" idea when it comes to cheese. A sharp cheddar instead of mild would be bold. A gruyere or Swiss would make for a totally different (yet still delicious) dish.
Want to go really fancy with your grilled cheese? Check out our pear and gorgonzola version.

Meat Lovers

Other options for meat: deli turkey, leftover rotisserie chicken or bacon is always a winner in our house!