I love when I’m invited to participate in fun foodie challenges. Recently my friend April (thetipsyhousewife) asked if I would participate in a Back To School- Mom Challenge. This was sponsored by the 112 year old company Chateau Foods.
The challenge was to make a lunch box friendly food item (snack, sandwich, bite) that our kid/s could enjoy using the Chateau Bread Dumplings. Gideon and I took to Jewel to seek out these dumplings and faced this challenge head on. In doing some brainstorming with the hubs, we thought of the fan favorite in our home, a Cuban Sandwich. Matt and I met in college (FAU), which is very close to Miami. Miami and Cuban food go hand and hand. This cuisine has always been very close to our hearts.
Below find the ingredients and how to make these yummy sammies for you and your children.
Serves: 4-5
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
Chateau Bread Dumplings
1 package TJ’s fully cooked carnitas
Butter/oil for pan
Swiss cheese
Yellow Mustard
Sandwich slice dill pickles
Sliced Black Forest ham
Mayo- optional
Directions:
- Follow the directions on the Chateau bread dumplings package
- Pull out the desired amount of dumplings (2 per person) and let them thaw
- Put a half inch of water in your stainless steel steamer, place your insert and spread your dumplings in the insert and cover
- Dumplings should steam up to 10 minutes or until soft and fluffy
- Heat your cast iron on medium-high
- Shred your swiss cheese, we used a half cup per sandwich, if you shred 3 cups you’ll be safe
- Cut your pre-cooked carnitas into thin slices
- Add butter to your hot pan and add a slice of carnitas
- While the dumplings steam, feel free to get a nice char on each side of each of your carnitas
- When the dumplings are done add two dumplings to the hot buttered pan
- Flip the dumplings and while still in the pan, top one dumpling with a folded piece of ham (1 or 2 slices)
- Next, top the ham with a cooked slice of carnitas
- Add 1 or 2 pickle slices to the top of the carnitas
- Top the pickles with a handful of shredded swiss cheese (1/2 cup)
- Pick up the lonely dumpling and drizzle a healthy amount of mustard and place the mustard side down on the swiss cheese
- Get a smaller cast iron and place that cast iron on the sandwich for proper smooshing
- Flip the sandwich and press a little more with the smaller cast iron on top
- At this point the cheese should be oozing out of the sides and you should have a nice char on the bread
- You can cut the sandwich and serve or eat it whole
- My husband likes to dip this Cuban sandwich in mayo, but that’s not very traditional
For those more visual people like myself:
Ready for the final product?
A happy Gideon= a happy mom!
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