Warm Dill and Arugula Egg Salad Sandwiches

After a long day, we weren't quite sure what to make. Something quick and easy was a must, so we went with warm egg salad. If you've never tried egg salad warm, you are in for a treat. It would be a lie if we said that our first warm egg salad experience was intentional- it was really just because we were too impatient to wait for the eggs to cool. However, warm egg salad on a toasted bun is super simple, and definitely tasty. Feel free to chill your egg salad if you're freaked out- but trust us...warm is good.

Warm Dill and Arugula Egg Salad Sandwiches

Serves 2

2TBSP mayonnaise

1tsp dijon mustard

1 small bunch of fresh dill

salt and pepper to taste

6 hardboiled eggs- peeled

4 hotdog rolls- buttered on the outside

1/2 bunch arugula

bread and butter pickles as desired

In a large bowl, add mayonnaise, dijon mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. Quarter your freshly peeled hard boiled eggs and add to the bowl. With a fork, mash the contents of the bowl together until the eggs are in small pieces and evenly coated in the mayonnaise mixture.

In a small frying pan, toast the hotdog rolls by placing them butter-side down until golden. Flip, and cook other side until golden. Remove from the pan, and line one side of the rolls with arugula leaves and pickle slices. Scoop the egg salad generously into each hotdog roll. Serve immediately.

Items You'll Need to Buy

1 jar of pickles: $2.99

1 jar of mayonnaise: $2.99

1 dozen eggs: $2.69

small bunch of dill: 1.99

12 hotdog rolls: $1.99

One of the great things about this meal was that we ended up buying enough ingredients to have this again. Not only were there enough eggs and hotdog rolls for us to have this again, but the other ingredients can be utilized long after. Since these ingredients will make at least 2 separate meals, we are cutting this cost in half! However, if we were making this for four people it would add up to about $12.65.

Total Cost of Meal: $6.32

Grilled Mortadella and Chevre Sandwiches

This recipe originally called for ham and swiss cheese, but we chose to revamp it with two of the most delicious food items known to man: mortadella and chevre.

Mortadella (Italian pronunciation: [mortaˈdɛlla]) is a large Italian sausage^[1] or cold cut (salume /sa'lume/) made of finely hashed or ground, heat-cured pork sausage, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat (principally the hard fat from the neck of the pig). It is delicately flavored with spices, including whole or ground black pepper, myrtle berries,nutmeg, coriander and pistachios, jalapeños and/or olives.

In case you didn't make it through that definition, allow us to paraphrase: mortadella = awesome. You can find it at specialty stores for a small fortune, or you can also find it at Whole Foods in the deli case.

Grilled Mortadella and Chevre Sandwiches

Serves 3

12 slices mortadella

1 package garlic & herb chevre

1 loaf sourdough (sliced into 6 slices)

1 bunch arugula

1ea vidalia onion- thickly sliced and drizzled with olive oil

dijon mustard to spread

Get yer grill going! Once it is ready to go carefully place the onion slices on the grates. These can be an absolute pain, and fall through the cracks. Allow to cook roughly 10 minutes on each side. While onions are grilling, assemble your sandwiches.

On one slice of bread, spread the goat cheese, and on the other slice of bread spread a thin layer of dijon mustard topped with several arugula leaves. Fold the slices of mortadella and add four to each chevre covered slices of bread. Now that your onions are done cooking, place them on top of the mustard covered slices. Place all 6 slices of bread onto the grill for about 5 minutes, or until bread is toasted and arugula is wilted. Pair each mustard, arugula, and onion slice with a mortadella and chevre slice and serve immediately.

Kelly has had this recipe in her binder since freshman year of high school and never tried it until now. We ate these so hard. They were so phenomenal that we cannot find words to articulate how amazing they were. The edges of the mortadella became crispy from the flames, the vidalia onions became sweet as they cooked, and the chevre- OH, THE CHEVRE. Combined with the warm, wilted arugula and spiciness of the dijon, the flavors of this sandwich were an absolute explosion of crispy toasted heaven. Consider these our go-to relaxed lunch!

Items You'll Need to Buy

Arugula: $2.99 per bunch

Mortadella: $6.75 for 12 slices

Boursin Chevre: $3.49

Vidalia Onion: $0.49

Sourdough Loaf: $1.50

Dijon Mustard: $2.99

Total Meal Cost: $18.21

Of course, you can cut back on the price of these sandwiches by using regular ham and cheese, but I feel that $18.21 for a filling lunch for three people is pretty darn good!

Garlic Shrimp Over Asparagus and Quinoa

Tonight we are made a pescetarian friendly recipe with some wonderful grains and greens paired with a delicious garlic shrimp recipe from Martha Stewart.

• 

We started out by cooking our quinoa (keen-wah) by following the advice of a clever little website called Cooking Quinoa- who knew there was an entire website devoted to quinoa? Since the grain takes the longest to cook, you should get it cooking first so you don't wind up with cold shrimp. While the website recommends a 1:1.25 ratio of quinoa:water, we found that we needed a little bit more water to keep our quinoa from burning. If you find that your water is cooking out and your grain is going to burn before it finishes cooking, add some more water, only a little bit at a time so you don't drown it!

Garlic Shrimp Over Asparagus and Quinoa

Serves 2

1/2 c. quinoa

1c. water

1 bunch asparagus

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4tsp red pepper flakes
6ea. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1TBSP butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a small pot, begin cooking the quinoa in the water. Prepare your asparagus for blanching by rinsing and cutting it into 2" pieces. Blanch your asparagus in salted water. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes; cook, stirring until garlic is fragrant and golden (about 30 seconds). Add shrimp; raise heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring until shrimp are opaque (1 to 2min). Add butter, and stir to coat. Season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately over quinoa and asparagus.

• 
  

Items You'll Need to Buy

0.32lb of quinoa- $1.21
0.21lb of shrimp- $2.47
Head of Garlic- $0.72
Asparagus- $3.00 at farmer's market

Items From the Pantry

butter, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, olive oil

Total Meal Cost: $7.40

Overall, the meal was delicious. The shrimp had a wonderful flavor with a little kick at the end. Our garlic slices ended up a bit crispy, which wasn't really what the recipe wanted, but we loved it. The flavor of the shrimp and asparagus paired with the natural taste of the quinoa was perfect. This meal was very light, but filling. It definitely gets our thumbs up!