Last night Laura asked if she could get up early and make waffles for breakfast. The idea sounded fine to me, so I told her it was a good possibility. But last night I did not sleep well, so I didn’t get up early this morning to help Laura get started on her breakfast project. I told her that we would plan on the waffles for lunch instead.

At lunch time I got out the cookbooks and started preparing to make waffles, when I realized that we have no eggs. Oops. No waffles after all. We talked about going to get eggs, and Isaac begged to be allowed to run to the corner grocery to get some eggs. But I wasn’t quite ready to do that. I sat on the couch for a minute to try to think about what to do. I decided that maybe we could do grilled cheese… but then I remembered that we have no cheese.

It was then that inspiration struck! I remembered a podcast that I listened to a few days ago, called “Munchcast“, where they talked about making Hobo pies on a campfire. They suggested using bread and ingredients for pizza. The idea translated perfectly into lunch using the ingredients I had on hand!

I hurried into the kitchen, pulled out bread, cream cheese, butter, pepperoni and spaghetti sauce. I fired up the griddle and then started assembling my sandwiches. The children always like to have a name for things, so I named this one “Grilled Pizza”. I put a nice thick layer of cream cheese on one slice of bread, and laid six slices of pepperoni on that. Then I spread a large spoonful of sauce on the other side of the bread and put the two pieces together. I spread soft butter on the top of the sandwich, laid it on the griddle (butter side down) and then quickly buttered the dry top side of the sandwich. After grilling both sides to a toasty brown, I served the first samples. It was a huge hit!!! I made sandwiches as fast as I could and everyone gobbled down all they could eat. There were repeated requests to be sure to make these again! Even the younger kiddos ate generous servings.

So, despite no eggs and no regular cheese, we had a lunch fit for a king. Thanks to “necessity” for being the mother of this invention!