Oh sweet little piece of deliciousness. This grilled cheese sandwich has become one of our absolute favorites. The simplicity of it is what reeled me in years ago when I saw it featured on a popular talk show. There is a secret ingredient that totally makes this sandwich!
The sandwich has a caprese feel which is one of my favorite flavors in case you couldn’t tell by this caprese sandwich, caprese burgers, roasted tomato caprese soup with mini mozzarella grilled cheese bite croutons (seriously to die for), and grilled caprese chicken.
Everyone we’ve ever made these grilled sandwiches for has been so hesitant about the ingredients list, whole wheat bread, havarti cheese, fresh basil, garden tomatoes, and the secret ingredient…HONEY. Yes, honey. And trust me it’s exactly what the sandwich needs. It’s like a little twist on the classic caprese flavors.
Recommended Equipment
Before you Begin…
Get all your ingredients ready…slice the tomatoes, rinse the basil leaves, butter (or use olive oil) the bread. Then assembling the sandwiches is quick and easy!
Ingredients for Havarti Tomato Basil Grilled Cheese
Well, pretty much all the ingredients for this sandwich recipe are listed in the title, so no surprises here! Except for that secret ingredient! Don’t forget that one!
- Havarti
- Tomatoes
- Basil
- Wheat Bread
- Honey
My best tip for choosing ingredients for a grilled cheese sandwich is that high quality ingredients make a high quality sandwich! The details for the ingredients can be found in the recipe card below.
How to Make Grilled Cheese
Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Prepare the sandwiches by spreading one side of each of the slices of bread with either butter or olive oil and then drizzling the other side of each slice with honey.
Layer the cheese, tomatoes and basil, and then top with the other slice of bread. Place the sandwich on the preheated skillet and cook until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden and toasty. Flip and let the other side toast as well.
This skillet Italian sausage and peppers with whole-wheat penne is the perfect home cooked meal and it’s all in one pot which makes clean up a breeze!
This dish is a family favorite for us! And it’s weird to say that because I have picky eaters (they are SO much better than they used to be), and usually peppers and onions aren’t on the “yes list” for picky eaters, but in this recipe, they just work! The flavor is bold, and everyone loves sausage and pasta!
When I need to get dinner on the table quickly, this is one of my go-to recipes. All you need is one pan and 30 minutes!
What Do I Need to Make Sausage and Peppers Penne?
Most of the ingredients in this dish are pantry staples, so all you will need at the grocery store are some sausage links, a couple of peppers and an onion. Here is a list of what you will need:
- Whole-wheat Penne Pasta – you can find this right by all the other pasta at the grocery store
- Italian Sausage – I generally go with mild uncooked sausage, but you could use spicy sausage or a sweet sausage depending on what you are craving
- Green Pepper – remove the stem and seeds and slice into thin slices
- Red Pepper – remove the stem and seeds and slice into thin slices, red peppers are a little sweeter than green peppers so they add another dimension of flavor
- Yellow Onion – use a sharp knife to slice the onion in the thin slices
- Red Wine (cooking wine) – we don’t drink alcohol so we cook with cooking wine, but feel free to use whichever you prefer
- Tomato Paste – a 6oz can, any brand works, just choose your favorite
- Tomato Sauce – an 8oz can, any brand works, just choose your favorite
- Water – thins out the sauce a little
- Italian Seasoning – a dried seasoning blend that you can buy at the grocery store that usually includes dried basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary, dried thyme and dried marjoram
- Sugar – enhances the flavors
- Salt – adds flavor
- Parmesan Cheese – great for a garnish to add an extra punch of flavor
The measurements for every ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. The detailed instructions for how to make this recipe are also in the recipe card.
Reasons You Will Love This Italian Sausage Recipe
Here are a few reasons that you are going to love this recipe:
- Easy: The ingredients are simple and easy to find. The recipe is made in one pot so cleanup is easy. The only techniques you need to know are slicing, sauteing and simmering. Nothing fancy here!
- Quick: I live for dinner recipes that come together in less than a half hour!
- Flavor: By sauteing the sausage in the pan first, it flavors the whole dish. The peppers and onions get flavored by the sausage and add their own flavors and then the tomato pasta and sauce with the Italian seasoning and red wine add all the flavor you need.
- Well rounded: This dish includes veggies, protein and carbs all in one pa
Easy orzo pasta with roasted garlic and tomatoes and fresh basil is just what I crave on a hot summer night. In the summer, I’m all about the quick and easy meals that are light and refreshing.
When Cade and I first started the blog I was whisked off on a fun little business trip where we got to try small servings of an entire menu. During the tasting a roasted garlic pasta was served to us with huge whole garlic cloves that were heavily fragrant.
I carefully ate around them only to notice my seat mate was enjoying the entire dish, full cloves of garlic and all. “Do people really eat garlic?” I thought. I mean, I knew it went in dishes but to be an actual component felt odd.
I sliced a chunk off of a clove, swirled and twisted my noodles up around it and the fork and I’ve been sold ever since. The sweetness of the garlic comes out in the roasting time and no, it doesn’t remove the smell off your breath, but it’s worth it!!
Ingredients in this Orzo Recipe
This orzo recipe may give you garlic breath, but we are going to add a few more flavor to it! Here is what you will need:
- Cherry Tomatoes: black cherry, piccolo or Vittoria varieties are our favorites
- Olive Oil: for roasting the tomatoes and cooking the garlic
- Salt and Pepper: for seasoning the roasted tomatoes and for seasoning the whole dish
- Garlic: flavor, flavor, flavor
- Butter: helps pan roast the orzo and adds loads of flavor
- Orzo: sauteing the pasta beforehand adds a delicious nutty flavor
- Lemon Juice: fresh is best
- White Wine: we use cooking wine, but feel free to use whatever brand you want
- Chicken Stock: could easily swap this out for vegetable broth to make this dish vegetarian
- Water: helps cook the orzo
- Basil Leaves: I highly suggest using fresh basil only.
- Parmesan Cheese: freshly grated parm on top is the best
- Red Pepper Flakes: adds heat, add as much as you want!
- Pine Nuts: adds texture and flavor
The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.
How to Make Roasted Garlic Tomato Basil Orzo
This recipe comes together so easily and most of the time is spent waiting for the tomatoes to roast and the orzo to cook. Here are the basic steps:
- Roast the tomatoes.
- Pan roast the garlic and then the orzo.
- Let the orzo simmer in all the flavors.
- Add the liquids to cook the pasta.
- Season to taste and top with the pine nuts, basil and parmesan.
All the details can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post. You can also save or print the recipe from there.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
We have so many recipes that use garlic, tomatoes and basil. It is a classic combination of simple flavors that you can just never go wrong wi
Crisp cold lettuce wrapped around saucy flavorful turkey…and you have our favorite Thai peanut turkey lettuce wraps! A healthy and delicious appetizer or light dinner.
I love these turkey lettuce wraps! Years ago I was living in Chicago and we all went out to PF Changs for dinner. Everyone was ordering the lettuce wraps and I was like, “meat in lettuce??… yeah sounds really great…blah!” And then I tried them and they were awesome!!!!!!!! I was totally thinking it would be lame, but it was delicious.
This is one of my favorite meals to make in the summer months when you want a light easy meal!
Ingredients for Turkey Lettuce Wraps
A quick and easy recipe is just what I need in the summer time! It always seems like we are running to a soccer practice or rushing in from being at the pool, and simple and delicious is my summer jam! Here are the ingredients that you will need…
For the Filling
- Ground Turkey: You can go as lean as you want, but know that the leaner the turkey, the drier the filling will be.
- Celery: diced up nice and fine
- Carrots: You can shred your own carrots or buy them already shredded.
- Red Bell Pepper: You could use yellow or orange too, but I wouldn’t use green.
- Onion: minced up small
- Garlic: adds flavor
- Slivered Almonds: adds the most amazing crunch to the wraps
For the Sauce
- Peanut Butter: You want creamy and it adds all the great peanut flavor to the sauce.
- Brown Sugar: adds a depth of flavor and richness to the sauce
- Sugar: adds more sweetness to the sauce
- Hoisin Sauce: a thick, dark colored sauce that is both sweet and salty
- Oyster Sauce: a thick, dark sauce made from oyster extract that doesn’t taste fishy despite the name and adds an earthy flavor
- Rice Vinegar: made from fermented rice and adds acidity
- Soy Sauce: adds great umami flavor to the sauce
- Red Pepper Flakes: adds heat to the sauce
- Lettuce Leaves: you want whole large leaves with no tears in them
Scroll down to the end of the post to find all the measurements you will need of each ingredient.
How to Make Lettuce Wraps
You only need about 30 minutes to make this flavorful recipe. It’s as simple as browning the turkey, sautéing the vegetables and whisking together the peanut sauce. Here are the basic steps…
- Brown the turkey until it is almost totally cooked. Remove to a bowl.
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce in a separate bowl.
- Add all the vegetables to the skillet and sauté until tender. Then add the meat back in.
- Add the sauce and let it all simmer together for a few minutes.
- Spoon the meat mixture into the lettuce leaves and sprinkle with slivered almonds and sliced green onions.<
Teriyaki Pina Colada Burger is our favorite! It’s a secret blend of meat for the juiciest burger, topped with teriyaki sauce, grilled pineapple, crispy bacon and a special pina colada sauce.
Cade has created a monster. A real life hamburger monster. Annnd that sounds gross. I’ve never really cared for burgers, but slowly and surely I’m realizing that it’s all about how the burger is made.
In fact I had one in Portland a few years ago that is still one of the best I’ve ever had. Except I had to shower when I got home as all the spices had gotten stuck in my hair and made my hair smell horrid. But it was worth it.
Anyway we’ve been creating quite a few favorite burger recipes like the Brazilian burger and the rest I’ll list at the end of the post so you all can have a list of them. But this teriyaki pina colada burger recipe (which was inspired by the darling Jeana Hammer), well thanks to our 2 secrets for the best burger, is awesome!
How This Recipe Came to Be
This is one of those burgers that you kind of have to trust me on. I know some maybe find it weird that we baste the burger, but trust me, it’s so yum. Good golly it’s good! I mean, if you can make a teriyaki steak (which happens to be a favorite of mine at Tepanyaki grills) then why not a burger?
And then as they were cooking I thought, we just had Maui pork nachos with pina colada sauce which is one of our favorite football foods ever, so why not use the leftover sauce to make a pina colada mayo?! BOOYAH BABY!!
Ingredients for a Teriyaki Pina Colada Burger
Here is what you will need to make these heavenly burgers! This is just meant to given you an overview of the ingredients need. The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card down below.
- Brioche Buns – The bun makes all the difference and brioche is soft and fluff but will home up to the sauce and juicy burger.
- Ground Beef – We recommend using 80/20 or 85/15, but nothing leaner than that. The more fat, the more flavor!
- This recipe also works great with ground turkey or chicken!
- Teriyaki Sauce – you could make the sauce homemade or buy your favorite brand at the store
- Salt and Pepper – added flavor
- Butter – used to grill the buns
- Pineapple – that grilled brown sugar glazed pineapple ring is noth