Mexican Bell Stuffed Peppers with Monterey Jack Cheese!

I love crock pots! When I first moved away from home it was one of the first kitchen accessories I got myself. I had to get one of the largest ones I could find so I could fill it up and make a huge delicious meal to enjoy with friends. In fact, I think they’re so fabulous that they shouldn’t just be used for comfort food or soup in the Winter… they can still work magic in the kitchen in the Spring! Here’s a round-up Spring crockpot recipes to enjoy this year:

1. Crock Pot Mexican Stuffed Bell Peppers topped off with Monterey Jack Cheese.

2. This Cauliflower and Broccoli in Swiss Cheese Sauce recipe is a great side for any spring meal! Tillamook Swiss Cheese adds a sweet nutty flavor to these vegetables!

3. Lasagna in a slow cooker?! That’s right, start up the crockpot with this Vegetarian Lasagna featuring Tillamook Shredded Mozzarella and you’ll have a yummy Spring dinner with little effort.

4. I don’t know about you, but tacos are a spring stable in my house. With this Chicken Tacos recipe you’ll be able to make simple, delicious tacos and top them off with Tillamook Cheese and Sour Cream!

5. You might not think spring when you first look at this Spinach Artichoke Dip recipe, but if you had the foresight to start your spring garden and plant some spinach then all you have to do is skip to the garden, harvest your spinach, throw in the artichoke hearts, cheese, and sour cream, and you’ll have the freshest spinach artichoke dip anyone has ever tasted.

What other recipes will you be cooking up in your crockpot this Spring?

By Laura

It’s election season and Tillamook needs your vote! Tell us…what’s your favorite loaf? Is it smooth Monterey Jack, zingy Sharp Cheddar, spicy Pepper Jack, or the classic Medium Cheddar?! Click here to share your vote, and don’t forget to check back on November 6 to see which loaf wins! The elected loaf will be on sale for 25% off.

By Katie

Home Entertaining Recipepalooza: We asked some of our favorite bloggers to share a recipe and their tips for home entertaining. This queso recipe comes from Arena. Arena married a Nerd and now she knows way too much about Star Wars, flanges, and Magic: The Gathering. She writes a Dallas mom blog, The Nerd’s Wife, featuring recipes, photography tips, and stories of her family’s nerdy exploits. See this recipe on her blog.

Tillamook Queso Blanco

Overview
We always serve queso at our family gatherings – especially during football season! It’s the perfect tailgate dish! Gig’em Aggies!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of Tillamook Butter
1 can of Rotel tomatoes and green chiles
1 pound of pork breakfast sausage
12 ounces Tillamook Vintage White Medium Cheddar, shredded
4 ounces Tillamook Monterey Jack, shredded
¼ - ⅔ cup of milk

Preparation
Brown the pork sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat and then set aside. Drain the Rotel tomatoes and heat the butter on medium-high heat until melted. Add the Rotel tomatoes and sauté for about 2 minutes until fragrant. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, mix the cheese and ¼ cup of milk until the cheese is melted, stirring constantly. Add the Rotel and sausage to the saucepan. Mix well. Then gradually stir in milk until the queso reaches desired consistency. (Make sure the cheese is fully melted before adding any more milk. If you put too much milk, the queso will be too runny.) Serve immediately (it’s yummier that way!) with tortilla chips for dipping.

About Arena: 
Tips for stress-free home entertaining:
“For me, the key is to be prepared. I like to keep several options for dinner and dessert on hand, just in case company arrives unannounced. My freezer is stocked with pies-in-a-jar, frozen cookie dough, and enchiladas I can pop right into the oven.

Kitchen advice for other moms and dads:
“Find recipes to serve that are easy to prep in advance, but still unique and fun! I served Monkey Cupcakes at my niece’s birthday party – I baked the cupcakes and made the monkey faces in advance, and they lasted several days frozen. The cupcakes were so fun and cute – all the kids loved them!”

Follow Arena and her blog online:
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By Tillamook

Austin Grilled Cheese Week partner Austin Daily Press serves up a yummy grilled cheese for Recipepalooza

You’ve seen “The Hangover”, right? Remember the scene where the whole crew is riding through the desert and Zach Galifianakis blurts into impromptu song, “We’re the three best friends that anyone could have…” Well, that about sums up the three Chefs and Owners of Austin Daily Press. Just three best friends hungry for great food and a shared passion for getting the most out of life that you possibly can!

Recipe Details

• Prep time: 3 minutes
• Total time: 6-7 minutes
• Yield (number of servings): 1

Recipe Overview

In celebration of National Grilled Cheese Month, Austin Daily Press is pleased to feature one of its signature hot pressed sandwiches, the Turkey Club. This sandwich is packed with mesquite smoked turkey breast, Monterey Jack and Sharp Cheddar Cheeses, smoky bacon, fresh tomato, and mayo all pressed to gooey, crispy perfection between a buttery bolillo roll. It is a classic that just makes more sense as a panini.

Ingredients List

• 1oz cooking spray
• 2 slices Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese
• 2 slices Tillamook Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 3 slices mesquite smoked turkey breast
• 2 slices bacon
• 2 slices fresh tomato
• 2oz mayo
• 1 fresh bolillo roll
• ¼ teaspoon cajun seasoning/season salt

Preparation/Instructions

Cut your bolillo roll in half and add 1oz of mayo evenly to each side. Lightly sprinkle cajun seasoning to each half of the roll. Place the 2 slices of bacon on your panini press or a nonstick frying pan with the 3 slices of turkey breast placed on top to heat through. While the bacon cooks and the turkey warms add 2 slices of jack to one side of the sandwich and 2 slices of cheddar to the other. Slice a tomato and add to one side of the roll.

When the Bacon is cooked and the turkey is warmed through removed from panini press and place over tomato. Close the sandwich and place back on the panini press in the bacon grease. Spray top with cooking spray if needed and press for 3-4 minutes or until bread is crisp and cheese is beginning to melt from the sandwich. Remove from press and let rest for 1 minute. Enjoy!

By Tillamook

A fresh take on your favorite sandwich

Healthy Mom’s Kitchen provides family-friendly fat burning recipes and menu plans as well as natural solutions for healing and cleaning with essential oils. Bloggers Nisha Riggs, Michelle Bailey and Brittany Hansen seek to empower moms with  tools to take care of their own health and the health of their families.

Recipe Details

• Prep time: 3 minutes
• Total time: 5 minutes
• Yield (number of servings): 1 sandwich

Recipe Overview

Attention cheese lovers – you still CAN eat healthy and enjoy grilled cheese comfort food!  This Tuscan Multigrain Grilled Cheese features three different kinds of cheese on a homemade multigrain bread with pesto, sprouts, and avocado to give it that healthful Tuscan flare.

Ingredients List

• 1 slice Monterrey Jack Cheese
• 1 slice Tillamook Colby Jack Cheese
• 1 slice Tillamook Medium Cheddar Cheese
• 2 slices Healthy Mom’s Kitchen Homemade Multigrain Bread (½ inch slices) See recipe
• 1 teaspoon basil pesto (½ tsp on each slice)
• 1 teaspoon Smart Balance Mayo
• 2 tablespoons sprouts
• ½ small avocado
• ½ small tomato

Preparation/Instructions

Cut 1/2 inch slices of homemade multigrain bread. Toast slices in toaster til lightly golden brown.  Slice 1 small roma tomato thinly.  Slice 1 small avocado thinly.  Measure 2 Tbsp sprouts.

Spread 1/2 teaspoon mayo on each slice of bread.  Spread 1/2 teaspoon pesto on each slice of bread.  Add Colby slice on one piece of bread, trim edges to fit perfectly on bread.  Add Medium Cheddar and Monterrey Jack slices on other piece of bread, again trimming edges to fit perfectly on bread. Lay bread slices on oven safe cookie sheet and broil on high for approximately 2 minutes.   Do not preheat oven – turn broil on once bread and cheese is in the oven.  Watch carefully.

Take bread out of oven and top one piece of bread with tomato, sprouts, and avocado.  Cover with other piece of bread and enjoy!

Homemade multigrain bread

By Tillamook

All your favorite elements of a jalapeno popper in a grilled cheese

Bree Hester is a food lover and mom of three. She writes the food blog Baked Bree, where she wants you to eat well and laugh often.

Recipe Details

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Total time: 20 minutes
• Yield (number of servings): 4 sandwiches

Recipe Overview

A grilled cheese version of one of my favorite bar snacks, the jalapeño popper. This grilled cheese is a fun take on that snack, and would be perfect served alongside tortilla soup or chili.

Ingredients List

• 8oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup pickled jalapeños, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 slices Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese
• 2 slices Tillamook Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 2 slices hearty white bread
• 2oz Tillamook Unsalted Butter

Preparation/Instructions

In a small bowl combine cream cheese, green onions, and jalapeños. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Preheat skillet to medium heat. Arrange bread on a cutting board, and spread cream cheese mixture on both pieces of bread. Add a slice of Monterey Jack and a slice of cheddar. Close the sandwich and lightly butter one side. Place the buttered side down in a skillet. Let the cheese melt, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat if needed. Butter the top and flip sandwich over. Cook second side about 2 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bread is brown and toasted.

Jalapeño cream cheese mixture

Piling on the yummy

Grilled to perfection!

By Tillamook

South of the border spicy grilled cheese from Panini Happy

Kathy Strahs has been writing PaniniHappy.com, a food blog all about sandwiches and other innovative recipes for the panini maker, since 2008. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two preschoolers.

Recipe Details

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Total time: 45 minutes
• Yield (number of servings): 4 panini

Recipe Overview

The word rajas in Spanish literally translates as “strips”…as in strips of roasted chiles and onions that bring a punch of south-of-the-border flavor to all kinds of dishes. Grilling rajas is an easy job on the panini maker – it takes just minutes to get them nicely charred. Pile them on sourdough bread with Tillamook Pepper Jack for a spicy grilled cheese sandwich or, to tone down the heat, opt for Tillamook Monterey Jack.

Ingredients List

• 1 poblano pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 small white onion, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds, rings intact
• 8 slices sourdough bread
• 8 slices Tillamook Pepper Jack or Monterey Jack

Preparation/Instructions

Preheat the panini grill according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Slice off the tops and bottoms of both peppers. Stand each one up on its end and slice it open from top to bottom. With the poblano you’ll be able to open the pepper out flat; with the red bell pepper you’ll need to cut the walls of the pepper a section at a time. Remove and discard the seeds and trim any white ribs.

Lay the peppers cut side down on the grill and close the lid. Grill the peppers until they’re charred and blistered, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the peppers to a paper bag and leave them in there for 20 minutes to allow the steam to release the skin.

While the peppers are steaming, drizzle the onion rounds with oil and grill them until they’re tender with dark grill marks, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the onions to a medium bowl, separating the rings. Keep the panini grill on.

One at a time, remove the peppers from the paper bag, peel off the skins (if they don’t come off easily, try putting them back in the bag to steam for a little while longer) and slice the peppers lengthwise into strips. Toss the peppers in with the grilled onions.

For each sandwich: Lay a slice of cheese on a slice of sourdough bread. Top the cheese with a generous pile of peppers and onions and second slice of cheese. Close the sandwich with another slice of bread.

Grill the panini until the cheese is melted and the bread is toasted, 4 to 5 minutes.

Grilled peppers and onions give this grilled cheese a little kick!

By Tillamook

Local Texas ingredients + two kinds of Tillamook Cheese = YUM!

J. Black’s Feel Good Kitchen & Lounge talented and creative Executive Chef, Josie Paredes, combines her experience and passion for exceptional food to create a delicious selection of starters, sharing plates and artisan pizzas at their two locations in Austin, Texas and Dallas, Texas. Chef Paredes has had a passion for food ever since she saw her mother cooking at 7 years old in South Texas. Chef Paredes has been with J. Black’s since 2007.

Recipe Details

• Prep time: 5 Minutes
• Total time: 8 Minutes
• Yield (number of servings): 1

Recipe Overview:

In celebration of Austin Grill Cheese Week, J. Black’s The Feel Good Lounge has put together the Open Faced Grilled Cheese B.A.T., featuring an overload of Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and Monterey Jack, topped with Niman Ranch Bacon, local Texas baby arugula and Texas tomatoes on a fresh thick cut of Challah bread.

Ingredients List

• 1oz Tillamook Unsalted Butter
• 2oz Tillamook Sharp Cheddar, shredded
• 2oz Tillamook Monterey Jack, shredded
• 1 thick cut slice of Challah bread
• 3 slices of Niman Ranch Bacon
• 2oz baby arugula
• 2 – 3 tomatoes slices

Preparation/Instructions

Lightly butter one side of thick sliced Challah bread and place it butter side down on medium heated pan or flat grill. Place shredded Sharp Cheddar and Monterey Jack Cheese on bread. Let cheese melt while checking the underside so as not to burn. In a separate pan cook the bacon until crispy. Once desired melted cheese consistency has been reached, remove from heat and top with baby arugula, bacon and tomatoes. Serve and enjoy.

By Tillamook

Check out Cate's unique chile rellano-inspired grilled cheese!

Cate Melton of the blog Cate’s World Kitchen is a full-time teacher and new mom who loves to cook, bake, and run. Her blog is where she shares her favorite recipes and a little peek into her life.

Recipe Details

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Total time: 30 minutes
• Yield (number of servings): 6

Recipe Overview

Inspired by the flavors of a chile relleno, these sandwiches feature roasted portobello mushrooms, green chilies, and Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese with spicy mayo on cornbread.

Ingredients List

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 portobello mushrooms
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 1  4-oz can diced green chilies
• 6 pieces cornbread, halved horizontally
• 6 slices Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese

Preparation/Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Slice the stems off the portabellos and scrape the gills out with a spoon.  Carefully cut each mushroom in half horizontally.

Arrange the mushroom pieces on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil.

Roast the mushrooms for 15-20 minutes, flipping them one, until tender.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

While the mushrooms are roasting, mix the mayonnaise and hot sauce together (add extra hot sauce if you prefer spicier food!)

Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on half of a piece of cornbread, then top with a slice of cheese.  Place under a broiler or in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Lightly butter a skillet and set it over medium heat.  Place a piece of portobello and about 2 tablespoons of chiles on top of the cheese.  Top with the other half of the piece of corn bread and cook in the skillet for about 3-4 minutes on each side.  Repeat with remaining ingredients.

By Tillamook

With the launch of our Cheese’wich App, we’ve been staring at so many photos of grilled cheese sandwiches that it left us hungry for the real thing. We experimented with making grilled cheese sandwiches on a Cuisinart sandwich grill. On the cheese list: Tillamook Medium Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese. Let’s get grillin’.

A grilled cheese press, three Tillamook loafs, Tillamook butter and some Oat Bran wheat bread.

The first sandwich we made was with Medium Cheddar. First we spread butter onto each slice of bread, then placed a generous slice of Medium Cheddar between the bread.

Onto the grill it goes!

Each sandwich took about 2-3 minutes in the grill.

Yum! Using Medium Cheddar makes a classic American grilled cheese sandwich.

Next we made a sandwich with Monterey Jack.

The Monterey Jack has a more subtle taste than Medium Cheddar. It was tasty by itself but might have been even better with a bowl of tomato soup.

Last we made a Pepper Jack grilled cheese.

We experimented with both white and wheat bread to see which suited Pepper Jack better. The wheat was a nice compliment to the zing of Pepper Jack cheese and came out as the winner!

We cut the sandwiches into small pieces so everyone could sample each kind.

In the end, we still liked the classic cheddar grilled cheese sandwich on white bread best. What kind of cheese do you like on your grilled cheese sandwiches?

By Scott