The following is a guest post from my cousin, Erin Scott. This is a family favorite recipe and was a favorite of mine before I went vegetarian. I do mine a little different as I leave out the onion and butter in our recipe and usually don’t even follow a specific recipe but combine the ingredients until it looks right!  I also use my Ninja chopper to combine the swiss cheese and ham to make the sandwich mixture instead of leaving it in slices.

Here is an easy, but oh-so-yummy, recipe. These sandwiches are a must at many of my husband’s family gatherings and so easy to make.

Baked Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

• Diced onion
• ¼ C butter
• 2 Tbls yellow mustard
• Buns
• Sliced swiss cheese
• sliced ham

Combine onion, butter, and mustard. Spread on top half of buns. Add cheese and ham. Wrap sandwich in aluminum foil. Bake on 350 for 10-15 minutes.

I recently included this recipe in a cookbook that I gave my co-workers for Christmas and one of them sent me a message on Facebook a couple of day later:

“Hey Erin, I made your ham and cheese recipe from our cookbook and Brent was so funny, “Oh my gosh.., these are freakin’ awesome,… why haven’t you made these before?” I laughed so hard. If wrapping a sandwich in foil and baking it 15 mins. not dirtying a single dish (paper plate) makes him that happy, good for me. Thanks!!”

Of course you can use whatever meat is your fridge like turkey, a different cheese, or a different kind of mustard – just make sure you mix the butter, mustard, and onion prior to placing on the sandwiches and wrap the foil tight! Enjoy!

The ideas and opinions in this blog are those of Erin Scott. It was written as a guest blog for Bargain Briana. Erin Scott resides in Daleville, IN. She is Wife to Corey, Mom to Jack & Ben, and a Dental Hygienist. Erin is very active in her community. She loves reading and traveling. Her favorite vacation destination is Disney World and loves to plan her trips there as well as everyone else’s trips to the Happiest Place on Earth. She is always looking to use her creativity in different adventures and venues – Check out her jewelry blog Let’s Bead This.

If you are a Bargain Briana Facebook Fan, you may have been following along to my cooking day. I decided to take a stab at the Once a Month Mom September Menu all by myself. After this long day, I know why Tricia recommends finding a cooking partner!

I shopped.

Prepped the night before by cooking the meat….

Chopped the veggies…

Shopped my pantry and set out all my pantry items…

Followed Once a Month Mom’s detailed instructions. Well, I tried too anyway. I highly suggest crossing off the items as you go or you will get to the end and wonder why the instructions have you cook the penne pasta so soon before using it. I actually skipped around 4 recipes somehow and ended up doing them at the very end. It all worked out but had me really confused!

My work station was ready to go.

I started the morning off with the Apple Baked Oatmeal, which are very tasty! It was a quick and easy way to start off the day!

As you know, I don’t eat meat anymore but the rest of my family does. So this meant I had to make a few variations or leave the meat out to be added later.

Something new I’m trying is the Morningstar Crumbles. I’m kind of grossed out by the items that are suppose to resemble meat but aren’t meat but thought I would try these as a substitute for the ground beef/sausage in a few recipes.

Below is the Pizza Soup (meatless variety), which I froze in a few individual containers.

I set aside a few cups of the Down Home spaghetti sauce before I added the meat and meatballs.

The pizza croissant are going to be a huge hit! Though, I highly recommend reheating these in the oven and not the microwave. Otherwise, they are a little mushy from the oven.

The meatless variety I deleted the pepperoni and added spinach instead.

These are quick and easy to make and is a easy way to make use of all those Pillsbury refrigerated bread deals we find!

The Baked Pasta Eggplant is going to be a new favorite too! The meatless variety just omitted the sausage.

I now have a freezer full of meals!

I made all the meals plus a few extra (not pictured) except the California Sushi Rolls. I decided no one in the household would be eating them especially if they had crab meat. There are a few meals I’m concerned that the entire family might not like. However, it isn’t going to hurt them to try something new.

We started Sunday off with the Down Home Lasagna. My oldest son has some freakish aversion to red sauce so he wasn’t too hip on it but the two little ones were almost surprised themselves that they actually liked it.  I didn’t make a meatless variety of the Down Home Lasagna. Though, if I did, I would have used Eggplant or spinach instead of the meat. This meant it actually made two meals for the family instead of one meal. One meal down, many more to go!

I didn’t track my hours but I would guess I spent 2 full days shopping, prepping, cooking, and cleaning. This is probably why a partner is recommended. Already I have the satisfaction of having meals in the freezer and discovered a few new favorite recipes already – my son loves the breakfast burritos! My husband did complain that most of the meals take too long to cook so we will have to still do some pre-planning of our meals.

I will let you know at the end of the month if it was worth it.

Stay tuned for more follow up!

“What’s for dinner?” asks someone in my family every evening on our way home, which is usually after 5pm. Totally stressful coming home not knowing what we are going to have for dinner. Usually, it is what we call a “Free for All.” Whatever, you can find or make.

Since this isn’t the most healthy or economical situation, I’ve decided to make a change this month.

Have you ever heard of the Once a Month Mom? If you haven’t, it is a site by a friend of mine Tricia, who does these fabulous meal plans every month. I’ve raved about her before but I’ve never actually done a full once a month menu.

I’m finally doing it.  I’m not a big fan of cooking as it just take too much time to prep, make, and clean up! I’m looking forward to basically just one day of cooking and the rest of the month enjoying the meals I cooked and sharing them with my family.

As promised, I’m going to share this experiment with you!

To start with, I’ve done batch cooking before. However, it has been me compiling the lists and is not organized in any way. Invariably, I would always be missing a couple of key ingredients. With the Once a Month Mom’s handy grocery list, I was able to check my pantry for items I already had and then create my grocery list to shop for the items I needed.

I had quite a few items already in my pantry and refrigerator, which was good news. However, I still needed quite a bit on the list including some expensive items like spices and meat.

(Items I already had stockpiled)

I decided to do this on Tuesday, which didn’t allow me much time to stockpile some of the list items at a the best prices. However, I decided in the end, I would be saving money and time so I went ahead and splurged on the remaining items. I spent $225 additional at the grocery store and much of that was fresh produce, spices, and a few items I purchased so I could make portions of each recipe meatless. I would estimate I had $50 in stockpile items already purchase for a total of around $275.

(This is all of the pantry items I need to complete my meals!)

Once a Month Mom (Tricia) held a Facebook discussion tonight for questions pertaining to the September Menu. As soon as I get this post done, I’m going to get chopping.

I’m really enjoying the step by step instructions and already have our meat in the crockpots cooking. Tricia has years of experience of once a month cooking and has to spend hours creating these menu plans and detailed instructions. I’m looking forward to using her information and get cracking!

Oh, Once a Month Mom highly recommends a cooking partner! Since, I decided to do this minute and Bryan claims I’m a loner, I didn’t get anyone to partner up with me. I do think I’m a bit crazy!

Stay tuned for updates on the actual cooking day, the meals, and follow up!