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Great Weekend Eats: Grilled Cheese, Mustard Roasted Chicken

Sally Michaelis

My favorite thing about Saturday mornings is sleeping in.  I like to wake up slow, cook a hearty brunch with my husband, and ease into the day – which usually means I don’t normally make plans before noon.  I tend to look at Saturdays as my time, I get up with my husband to see him off to work all week, I get up early for church, I’ve earned a couple hours of laziness.  But once I’m out of bed, you guessed it friends, my favorite part is getting into the kitchen.  I love how well my husband and I work together, especially when we’re cooking.  I’m so thankful that my darling is just as adventurous as I am when it comes to our food, there’s such a broad variety of things to try – really a show of God’s creativity, if you stop and try to wrap your mind around it all.  Yes, it’s completely possible to have a spiritual experience over a meal.

I digress.  A few weeks ago, my husband and I tried out this breakfast sandwich.  Now, grilled cheese sandwiches are probably my favorite comfort food.  The crispy bread with the gooey cheese, paired with a good bowl of soup – life doesn’t get much better than that. (If you’re into grilled sammies, check

Perfect for a brunch, or a snack, or any other time.
Perfect for a brunch, or a snack, or any other time.

out these Wayfarers)  So when I saw the idea for a breakfast grilled cheese, my interest was immediately piqued.  Yeah, this is another Pinterest chronicle, but this one came out every bit as tasty as it sounds.  We made a breakfast grilled cheese – all you need is goat cheese, strawberries, and bread of your choosing.  Yeah, I said it.  Combine the creamy tang of the goat cheese with the sweet acidity of the berries, it’s a match made in heaven.

Breakfast Grilled Cheese – makes 2 sandwiches

  • 4 oz goat cheese
  • 1 Cup sliced strawberries
  • 4 slices of bread
  • butter as needed

Butter one side of each piece of bread.  On the unbuttered sides of two, evenly distribute goat cheese and a layer or two of berries, top with the remaining pieces of bread, butter side out.  Place on a hot griddle and when the bottom becomes golden brown, flip it.  Enjoy with the remaining berries.

The second meal I’ve got for you this week is perfect for the incoming fall.  It’s hearty, it’s full of flavor, it’s oven-roasted so it’ll help make your house warm and homey.   I found this recipe of Real Simple’s website, and I had to reduce the recipe down to only feed two.  For the full recipe, check it out here. This mustard-roasted chicken and vegetables is what I think of as warmth and home wrapped up in a plate.  The spice of the mustard glaze, the sweet heartiness of the carrots, the acidic balance of the onions, the unexpected delight of the fennel, those flavors and personalities of the ingredients remind me of home and my family, not necessarily in that’s what we cooked at home, but those personalities remind me of the people I love.  That probably makes a lot more sense in my head, but sometimes, the stars align, and a meal done just-so take you to that place.  If you haven’t been there, you have to trust me.

Mustard Roasted Chicken and Vegetables (from realsimple.com)

Mustard Roasted Chicken and Vegetables
It looks fancy, but it’s so easy.
  • 2 bonless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 Tablespoons whole-grain mustard
  • 2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • kosher salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 small carrots, cut in half and lengthwise
  • 1 small fennel bulb, cut into wedges
  • 1 red onion, cut into wedges
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground thyme
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Combine the mustard, soy sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Add the chicken and stir to coat. Combine the carrots, fennel, onion, thyme, oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a roasting pan. Nestle the chicken among the vegetables. Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, 45 to 50 minutes.  Divide the chicken and vegetables among individual plates.

Tip of the week: Whenever possible, shake together your own spice mixes and try rubs.  There’s all sorts of resources online, but I love doing this for a couple reasons.  For one, more than likely you already have the ingredients in your cabinets, so why pay extra?   For two, you’d be really surprised by how many fillers find your way into the bottles of pre-mixed, and you’d be appalled by what is sometimes meant by the words “natural flavoring” (for more on that, read here.  For three, I get that salt drives a lot of flavors, and every blend needs at least a pinch, but many pre-blended bottles have a lot more than what you’d actually need.  Enable yourselves, you can do this!