I love to cook, I really do.
But the act of cooking every single meal, every single day tends to grate on my patience.
So I tend to cook more food, less frequently. Like, maybe once a month… sometimes less!
My tiny freezer somehow turns into a T.A.R.D.I.S. and allows for a months worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners to cram their way inside. Plus, freezer meals save a ton of time and money by keeping you from eating out in a pinch.
This recipe is also fast, easy, and cheap!
Hot Sandwiches on the Go!
Ingredients:
- Sweet Rolls
- Cheese (I use Heinie’s Raw Cheddar)
- Deli Meat (I use Boar’s Head Cajun Turkey)
- A Sauce of your choice (I use half mustard/half mayo, mixed well)
- Roll of aluminum foil
Directions:
- Cut rolls in half
- Spread sauce thickly across both halves
- Add meat and cheese to your liking
- Place sandwich TOP DOWN onto foil and wrap tightly. Make sure that everything is completely covered!
- Throw them into the freezer.
- When you are ready to heat them up, toss them in the oven and set the temp to 350. Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy the best hot sandwich you’ve ever had!
* If the sandwiches are not frozen, 15-20 minutes in the oven should be perfect!
Do you have a favorite “make ahead” meal? I’d love to hear about it!
Jaime says
First of all, LOVE your site! Looking forward to lots of browsing!
Second of all, freezer = T.A.R.D.I.S. ??? Brilliant!!!!! 🙂
I have not had good luck with pre-assembled sandwiches like this – I like them fine but DH got a little whine-y about it, lol
Instead, a quick weeknight meal may indeed be hot sandwiches, but I’m pulling out the homemade bread, pre-sliced, from one freezer bag, cheese slices from another (although we usually have some in the fridge), and then the meat from another.
We always slice and save all our leftovers when we cook a turkey, even the bits and pieces work great in sandwiches like this. When hams go on sale I’ll cut up part in sandwich size thick slices and freeze those. Leftover bacon from a weekend breakfast (I know, that’s a laugh right?) also gets frozen when it happens. We can then quickly mix and match the meat we want with the bread and cheese of choice.
I use the microwave on defrost to partially thaw everything – then assemble the sandwiches and pop them in the panini maker. A George Foreman grill works great too. Or a regular frying pan! I used to do that all the time before we were given a Panini maker. I would just let everything heat up real good on one side then press down hard with a wide spatula so things would stick together well enough to flip. It takes a little practice, but sometimes I still do it just to save cleaning the Panini maker!
I’d like to experiment more with hot sandwich fillings – like pairing a turkey and Swiss with some of the apple butter I’ve canned, and so on…
Victoria says
Left over bacon ???????????? Good one!
Yes, we don’t use the premade buns any more either, just homemade ones. I love the idea of turkey and apple butter sandwiches!! How have I never tried that??
I have a few jars of apple butter left from my fall canning and some frozen turkey from thanksgiving… Trying that asap! Thanks for the tip!