My kids absolutely love grilled cheese sandwiches. They especially love to have grilled cheese sandwiches when we have homemade tomato soup. While I appreciate how much they love this classic combination, occasionally it causes a problem.
Like when I’m too busy (*ahem* or lazy) to go grocery shopping.
On this particular day, I was scrounging around the house trying to find something to make my kids for lunch. I offered our standby: “How about grilled cheese?”
“Yes! And red soup!”
Ugh. I would have loved to make grilled cheese and tomato soup (or “red soup” as it is called in my house), but I didn’t have the ingredients for the soup, and it was late enough that I really didn’t have time to make a trip to the store. I dug through the shelf where I keep canned goods and found some pizza sauce. An idea was born. (Of course, now that I’ve had this brilliant idea, I discovered it was already floating around on Pinterest!)
In my cupboard I had pizza sauce, pepperoni, and split top wheat bread. In the fridge I had a block of mozzarella. Why not try pizza grilled cheese? The kids would get to dip the sandwiches, and I wouldn’t have to go to the store. Win-win. And, everyone loved them!
For each sandwich, butter one side of two pieces of bread. Add pepperoni (and any other desired pizza toppings).
Sprinkle on mozzarella cheese. I used a block of mozzarella and grated it, but you could use already-shredded mozzarella.
After you’ve decked out one piece of bread, top it with another piece of bread. Transfer the sandwich to a skillet, and cook until golden brown on the underside. Flip over and cook the second side until golden brown. The second side usually cooks much more quickly than the first, so you’ll want to keep an eye on it so you don’t burn your delicious lunch.
Heat up a little bit of pizza sauce for dipping and lunch is ready! This has become a favorite at our house. I hope it will be a favorite at yours too!