Gourmet grilled cheese, honey carrots

One of my favorite easy meals (I have lots of them!) is what I call Gourmet Grilled Cheese. I used to host a group of scifi-minded friends back in South Carolina on Friday nights and we'd all bring a different contribution.

I have made these sandwiches with any kind of cheese - pepper jack, cheddar, Havarti, Swiss, Gouda, you name it - and with sliced tomatoes, jalapenos, black olives, peppers, onions, avocado, bacon, ham, mustard, hot sauce, sour cream, ranch dressing. It really kicks the traditional sandwich up.

I usually pair this with tomato or some other kind of soup. Here's the result of last night's:

I used bacon, cheddar, pepper jack and avocado and grilled on the griddle side of my waffle maker, though you could do it the traditional way on the stove in a skillet or in a sandwich press.

We paired it with chips and tomato soup.

Right in line with my discovery that we weren't eating enough veggies, my father-in-law blessed us with a HUGE mess of carrots from his garden. He had so many this year they filled up a wheel barrow which sits out in his garage, just like it is in a frig.

So I cut them up and steamed them in my veggie/rice steamer, then put them on the stove with some butter and honey. Oh boy it made them sweet and sumptuous!

And while I had the steamer out, I also steamed up a quick batch of broccoli, then cooked it with butter, a little lemon juice and lemon pepper.