As they sometimes do, my son Chris and grandson Justin came for a visit. Justin is about as picky of an eater as they come. So picky in fact that when we took him on a cruise he couldn’t find anything he wanted to eat at the chocolate buffet. Seriously, other than people with food problems that prevent them from eating chocolaty desserts, who couldn’t find more than they could possibly eat at a chocolate buffet? (On our recent trip on the Norwegian Pearl the chocolate buffet even included sugar free and gluten free selections and random non-chocolate items, so they did their best to provide for just about everybody.)
Anyway, back to the topic of this post, trying to feed Justin. He likes very few things and of those will eat very little so he is an extremely hard kid to feed. He does like plain cheese pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches though. So one day in trying to come up with something for him to eat after he had turned down every suggestion I had, I said jokingly, “How about a grilled cheese pizza sandwich?”
In spite of the fact that we did indeed have cold cheese pizza in the refrigerator and sandwich fixins, this idea met a resounding NO from Justin, and nobody could ever convince him otherwise.
The more the rest of us thought about it the more viable the idea became.
“You wouldn’t even need bread,” Chris said. “Just put the cheese side of two pieces of pizza together and grill the crust side.”
“Add some extra cheese in the middle and butter the crust so it gets nice and crispy,” my husband John added.
Every idea still met with a firm no from Justin, who ended up just eating a banana, and very reluctantly at that. He actually said he wished the banana would eat itself so he didn’t have to eat it.
I decided to give our strange new sandwich idea a shot though. It actually turned out pretty good. And if the pizza had toppings besides cheese on it, so much the better. Instead of grilled cheese it would become a gourmet sandwich!
Considering pizza is usually pretty greasy anyway, it probably could have done without the butter, especially in a non-stick pan.
Grilled Cheese Pizza Sandwich
Ingredients
2 slices cheese pizza*
thin slices of an easy-to-melt cheese (I used havarti)
*for gourmet grilled pizza sandwich use pizza with toppings
Directions
Select a frying pan with a lid. You need to hold the heat in all around the sandwich as it cooks to get the cheese in the middle to melt before the outside burns.
Heat the frying pan on medium heat. It’s ready when a few drops of water thrown in the pan sizzle.
Put slices of extra cheese on one slice of pizza, top with other pizza slice cheese side down.
Grease heated frying pan with butter if desired and place pizza sandwich inside. Cover with lid and cook until bottom side becomes golden brown.
Uncover frying pan and flip sandwich over. Cook second side until golden brown and cheese in the middle gets melty.
Remove grilled cheese pizza sandwich from pan. Leave whole or cut into smaller pieces for easier eating or to feed more people. Serve as is, or add ketchup or other dipping sauce to the plate before serving.
That looks delicious. I want some, but my waist line does not….
Yeah, that’s one reason for cutting it into smaller pieces to share with others.
Since I’m severely lactose intolerant and my gastroenterologist will not let me anywhere near a tomato, that sandwich would be instant suicide for me — but it surprises me that a kid wouldn’t go near it. When I was a youngster with fully functioning guts that sandwich would have been culinary bliss.
Pizza with fake cheese and alfredo sauce perhaps?
No. Alfredo sauce has cream and cheese. Dairy is a lethal weapon to my fragile gut.
Sounds like feeding you is harder than feeding Justin. (He can eat things, he just won’t.)
Wow… Justin sounds like quite a challenge! I laughed out loud at the “banana should eat itself”.
He does provide some entertaining moments. I’ll have to take him on another cruise sometime.
Good golly, that is the fussiest I’ve ever heard! 🙂 Wishes the banana would eat itself – got to laugh 😀
The sandwich sounds wonderful – going to try it the next time I have leftover pizza around.
He always has been quite a challenge to feed. The sandwich tasted quite good, even Justin might have liked it if he would ever try new things.
That sandwich sounds like 100% awesomeness!
That sandwich is 100% awesomeness!
It sounded good while we talked about it but looks even better in the pan. I will have to make it myself some time.
The odds that Justin will share it with you are not good.
I made it with a slice of peperoni and a slice of mushroom pizza. We got 2 one topping pizza special. I put real grated parmison cheese between the slices. It made a great lunch the next day. We also ordered garlic knots and we finished them off for breakfast the day after so we ended up getting three meals over three days with one order of pizza.
Sounds good. It does make a tasty sandwich, and it’s always nice to find a bargain.
Awesome idea!Good on ya guys!:)