French Dip Sandwiches with Au Jus

1. This was very cost effective
2. This was extremely easy
3. Every single person in my family ate and loved all of this

There really isn't much "gourmet" about this. It's kind of a dump recipe. Somehow it made incredible results with amazing flavor. With how easy and cheap it was (aside from the meat..heh heh..) and the fact that no one could stop eating it, it's going back on the menu often.

Definitely fill your sandwiches more than I filled this one :). 4 kids and 4 dogs running around ya know, I was not being incredibly attentive here haha!

What you will need:

• 2 cans french onion soup
• 1 can beef consmme (you can just use beef broth like me)
• 2-2 1/2 lbs. chuck roast
• Provolone cheese slices
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

• Sear the outsides of your meat (you can cut it into chunks to sear and cook it)
• Pour cans of soup and consomme (or broth) into crock pot.
• Add the meat into the crock pot
• Cook on high for 6 hours
• Shred the meat and set aside
• Slice your preferred sandwich bread in half and place on a cookie sheet.
• Spread softened butter on each of the slice
• Pre-toast the bread at 400* for about 4 minutes. You don't need it darkened, but when you touch it, it's rough and a bit crispy
• While your bread is pre-toasting, place a strainer over a bowl and pour the broth into the strainer. It will catch all the extras, allowing just the jus to pass through into the bowl

• Pull out your pre-toasted bread and add the shredded meat and provolone cheese to the bottom slices
• Put them back into the oven until the cheese is nice and melted
• Serve with the au jus !

3 Ingredient Homemade Cheeze-Its

This week I decided not to refill the kids "snack box." They get to pick out one after school every day, but the choices were things like cookies, chips and, you guessed it, cheeze-its.

So I got all ambitious this week and was like hey, surely I can come up with snack box level deliciousness that won't cost my kids health quite so much. I stumbled on these homemade cheeze-its and thought well, at least these aren't going to be packed with over 20 crap ingredients.

The very best part about these? My kids LOVED them! My husband said they taste exactly like Cheeze It's....just....fresher. You're basically just eating baked cheese :). I call this a 3 ingredient recipe, but technically there's 4 if you count the 2 T water.....so...sorry I lied to you.

A few notes about this recipe:

On a scale of 1-10, the crunch/crispy factor was at about 7 with my first batch (I purposely baked small batches so I could do test runs first and not ruin them all at once). I made sure my cheese and butter were both room temperature so I thought about other ways to get them crispier. I tried rolling out the dough even thinner and baked them for about 10 minutes longer than the recipe says. (That was weird, considering that I usually have to cut my cooking time for most recipes with how my oven is). I also turned on the broiler for a minute at the end and I think that kicked up the score to a 9.

After using the 2 T of water like the recipe said, the mixture still looked dry and crumbly in the food processor. I decided to feel it and see how it was doing. It was PERFECT! So, make sure you feel the dough after the initial 2 T, you should be able to mold it all together into a smooth ball. It was a lot like play-dough. Hey.....a play dough recipe I won't panic if my 1 1/2 year old eats! Wahoo!

There was no specifics on how long to chill the dough. I stuck mine in the freezer for about 10 minutes the first time (remember that was the batch that resulted in a 7 on the crispy scale). So I left the dough in the freezer about 20 minutes the next couple times around. I think that helped!

I added some kosher salt to the crackers right before I put them in the oven on my last two batches. the first batch wasn't salty enough for me even with the original recipe calling for 1 tsp. salt. So I would just skip that part and add crunchy salt to the tops instead (but I have an insane salt tooth so judge it for yourself!)

All in all, make sure you're rolling the dough out thin enough and chilling the dough long enough and these will be perfection!

What you will need:

• 8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, room temp.
• 1 C all purpose flour
• 4 T butter, room temp
• 1 tsp. salt (optional)
• 2 T ice water

Directions:

• Add grated cheese, flour, butter and optional salt into a food processor and pulse until it's blended into a fine crumbly mixture
• Add in the water and blend until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the processor (will probably still look crumbly, but FEEL IT for a playdough-like consistency first before adding more water) 
• Preheat oven to 350*
• Shape dough into a ball and chill in plastic wrap until dough is more firm (keeping mine in the freezer for about 20 minutes I think gave me the best results)
• Roll the dough to 1/8" thick and slice with a pizza cutter into little squares
• Use a toothhpick or skewer to poke holes into the middles
• Add salt if desired
• Bake for about 15 minutes and check every 5 minutes after that until they are desired crispiness