Grilled cheese sandwich?

So when I started my diet, I thought I had to get over my favorite food ever: grilled cheese.  The last couple of days, I have come to a realization: The bread that we get only has 60 calories per slice (it's very tiny, however), and we just purchased shredded cheese that has 120 calories per 1/4 cup, and we have margarine to coat the frying pan with.. so why haven't I made a grilled cheese yet?  Tonight's dinner.

Does anyone have any fantastic recipes for healthy grilled cheeses that I can spice up my ordinary grilled cheese with in the future?

Thanks!

Mmm love grilled cheese.

I'd definitely throw some baby spinach and turkey the mix.

Tomato between the slices is good too. I don't know how healthy your bread is though. Is it whole wheat? Instead of having a full grilled cheese sandwich, I often take one slice of whole wheat bread, layer some tomato on top, then sprinkle however much shredded cheese I want on top of the tomatoes, then pop it in the toaster oven for a few minutes. So yummy.

Jalapeno pepper under the cheese is also good. Also, maybe try some awesome new cheeses like mozerella with tomatoes or, dare i say it...... cheddar cheese and bacon!!! <--- behold the craziness!

Mmm....

If you want a reeeally low cal way to make it (not as nummy of course), you can use 45 calorie bread (toast it first so that it gets crunchy with no margarine or butter needed). Then use some low cal cheese mixed with a highly flavorful cheese (like fat free cheddar/american mixed with some pepperjack) and nuke the thing for 20 seconds.

It's not quite grilled cheese, but it's gooey and cheesy and warm and you can add tomato or avocado and make it really decadent. :)

It's a decently satisfying grilled cheese for about 150 calories.

i make my grilled cheese the same way i always did (low fat cheese?  blech!) but i make half a sandwich instead of a whole one: half the ingredients, all the satisfation!

I must be the only one who loves the taste and texture of kraft fat free cheddar (or american) slices. They taste great to me. :D I guess I'm lucky.

meh - i don't envy you that.  cheese is not my enemy :)

Not my enemy either. That's why I love it so much. ALL of it. Low fat, high fat, no fat. If it even remotely resemble cheese, I adore it to bits. I have yet to find a way in which someone can ruin cheese.

Original Post by yummy_kitty:

If it even remotely resemble cheese, I adore it to bits.

i prefer that it does more than remotely resemble cheese.

Cheese snob  ;D I can dig it.

You'd probably enjoy this really expensive block of Monterey Jack my aunt bought for me as a gift the other week. It was beyond decadent. I melted some of it over french bread (like an open-faced grilled cheese) and I wanted to cry it was so good.

I had grilled cheese for dinner tonight.  It was brilliant.  Bloody delish.

I smeared horseradish on two slices of sprouted grain bread, slapped a quarter cup of cooked egg white in there (I nuke it in a saucer), layered up onion, red peppers, and tomato, and finally put a piece of muenster atop of all of that.  I preheated my Foreman grill, pam'd it up, and grilled my sandwich for a couple minutes and it was fantastic.  The horseradish *makes* the sandwich.

It's also awesome without the pepper and onion, but I was short on veggies today and was trying to sneak in as many as possible. xD

Thanks so much for all your ideas :)  I'm going to try all of them.  We just get the generic bread from Food 4 Less (Ralphs/Kroger) which is like 99 cents, and it's white bread and it has 60 calories per slice.  Not bad. :)

I'm a fan of cheese, but not white bread. Wholemeal bread might have more calories but it fills you up for longer and is more nutritious... my pick every time.

Original Post by merylwhite1:

I'm a fan of cheese, but not white bread. Wholemeal bread might have more calories but it fills you up for longer and is more nutritious... my pick every time.

I'm not a huge fan of white bread either- I mean I love the way it tastes but it makes me feel yucky after eating a lot of it, which is one of the reasons I love my cheap 60 calorie bread haha because it's small enough where I don't feel yucky after eating it.  All that nutritious bread is too expensive for me!

It's a little expensive, but the Weight Watchers Rye bread is only 90-100 calories for 2 slices, and their cheese is FANTASTIC and only 45 calories per slice.  That and some tomato absolutely satisfies my grilled cheese cravings and tastes deliciously similar to what I grew up on!

This is how I make my grilled cheese:

2 slices of Pepperidge Farm Light Soft Wheat bread - (45 cal each, so good)

Put fat free american single in between bread (30 cal)

and spray the outer sides of the bread with I Can't Believe Its Not Butter Spray (0 cal, 0 fat, tastes delicious on toast and stuff too, amazing)

and throw it in a frying pan! Yummm!! Total cal = 120

Salsa tastes fantastic with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Or red peppers and spinach.

Or sliced tomato and rosemary.

Salsa tastes fantastic on everything! Yum!

I make mine with low cal bread (Sara Lee Delights - 45 cals a slice) with SHARP cheddar cheese or pepper jack cheese. If I use sharp cheddar I cook some ham to put in there too. They're really not that bad for you. 200 cals?

I use the i cant believe its not butter spray for the butter. Around 10 squirts does it. Approx adding on another 15 cals..

Poof!

I see some others have already suggested using cooking spray instead of butter, I have a similar suggestion. I like to use an olive-oil spray pump, you get just a fine mist like cooking spray but can use your own choice of oil, I use a lovely extra-virgin olive oil (some say extra-virgin had too low of a smoke point to cook with but I don't find that, maybe my elements are not as hot). The results are crispy deliciousness without the greasiness of butter or margarine, I never did like that part about grilled cheese.