Croque Monsieur w/ Healthy Tweaking

Verdict: (Read to see*)

Neighbor-worthy?*

Have you ever made a meal based on a recipe you found online?  Probably.  Ever try to repeat it only to fail locating it again?  I was there today.  The internet can be a bitch.  All the information in the world at your fingertips and the thing you want to find eludes you.

A while back I found a recipe that I followed for Croque Monsieur that was incredible.  Truth be told, it may not have been the recipe nor my skill (this was before I really dedicated myself to my kitchen, mind you) that made it so good.  It's engulfed in cheese.  You could cover a shoe in cheese and it'll still be tasty. 

I could not find that exact recipe so I tried this one and voilà (see what I did there?  French)....

BUT-here's the challenge and risk....can I tweak this to make it a little less fattening and more heart healthy without ruining the joy of this indulgent eat.....?

Ingredients(for a bunch):

2 tablespoons butter fake butter

3 4 tablespoons flour

2 cups hot milk (I used 1%)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

pinch nutmeg

3 cups gruyere grated (dear god do I want to use it, but in the name of the blog...) low-fat swiss chopped

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

16 8 slices of white bread with crusts cut off

dijon mustard

8 oz baked Virginia low sodium ham

Pre-heat oven to 400°

Melt fake butter in a saucepan over Low heat and add all of your flour.  Stir with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.  Pour in your milk slowly and continue to stir while it cooks until it is thick.  Take the mixture off the heat and mix in the salt, pepper, nutmeg and 1/2 cup of the swiss and all of the parmesan and leave on side.

Lay out your bread on a baking sheet and throw in oven for 5 minutes.  Turn slices over and cook for another 2 minutes.  Brush the toast with some mustard, add a slice or 2 of the ham and sprinkle with 1/2 of the remaining swiss.  Top with another piece of toast.  Douse the sandwich with the cheese

mixture and sprinkle with the rest of the swiss.  Bake the cheese-covered sandwiches for 5 more minutes.  Finish it up by turning the broiler on for 3-5 minutes--Keep an eye on it--DON'T BURN IT. 

Eat it.

*Notes:
This was indeed a success and worth sharing with neighbors.  The tweaks I made were in favor of healthy (heart healthy and waist-conscious) choices and to test how far I could push the envelop without completely abandoning taste.  This is (obviously) not as good as the "real" gruyere heavy recipe, but it was damn tasty!

Tweak:
I didn't make a million sandwiches.   (1,000,000=8)

Healthy Tweaks:
I used fake butter
I substituted low-fat swiss cheese slices, diced up, instead of gruyere
I found low-sodium ham...well, lowER sodium than what I typically would've used.

Cheat:
I did not use freshly grated parmesan.  My grater broke and I am too cheap to go buy a new one yet.  Oh, and I woulda been too lazy to do it after work anyhow.

Any cholesterol, fat heavy recipes I can play with?  Send 'em to me.  theManicCheater@gmail.com.