Cuban Sandwiches, Finger Foods, and Much Needed Breaks

Once upon a time, long before I went back to school and found myself with zero free time, I made Cuban sandwiches.

If you look at pretty much anything I wrote here before returning to school, you'll notice that I generally went all out.  I did it all from scratch- I tend to be a bit of an overachiever.

I made Cuban bread for goodness' sakes.

The pork?  I marinated that in a citrus marinade and it was fabulous, just fabulous.

Do you know what I don't have time for these days?

Any of that.

Just...no.

I have a freezer full of convenience foods and am now well versed in which brand and variety of frozen lasagna my family prefers.

Part of me hates that.

The other part?

Well...she's pretty darn proud of me, to be honest.

My family is fed and happy- that's what matters.

This weekend I took a bit of a sabbatical from school work.

I had work to do but nothing actually due on Monday and I needed a moment, so I took it.

I had fun playing around in the kitchen working on new recipes for the Allrecipes Allstars and I, in addition to a couple of other fun recipes I will share soon, I came up with these Cuban Sandwich Bites.

I don't think it needs to be said that these are far less labor-intensive than my original attempt, but honestly- they're so delicious.  

So delicious they're gone- and I had all of two or three of them.

My husband and daughter polished these off in no time!

These are so ridiculously easy, honestly.  All you need is a couple of sheet pans and some simple ingredients.  I was lucky enough to have a cooked pork loin in the freezer but no worries if you don't- you can throw one in the oven without much thought but I've noticed that my grocery store deli often has them cooked in-house and I can just grab some there.

Mustard.  Pickles.  Swiss cheese.  Ham.  Pork Loin.

Delicious.

Enjoy!

Cuban Sandwich Bites

Click to see the recipe on Allrecipes.com

1 baguette, sliced into 1/2" slices

3 Tbsp yellow mustard

3 Tbsp dijon mustard

1 lb honey ham, sliced

1 lb cooked pork loin, sliced

1 1/2 lb Swiss cheese, sliced

4 oz dill pickle slices

1/4 C mayonnaise

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place cooling rack on rimmed baking sheet. Cover cooling rack with baguette slices.

2. Mix yellow and dijon mustard together and spread evenly over slices of baguette. Top half of bread slices with half of Swiss cheese, reserving remainder. Top the same half of bread slices with pickle slices, ham, pork loin, and remainder of cheese slices. Top sandwiches with the half of bread slices that have only been coated in mustard.

3. Spread mayonnaise over top of sandwiches and sprinkle with garlic powder. Spray bottom of a second sheet pan with cooking spray and place on top of sandwiches. Weigh down the top pan with a heavy oven-safe pan such a cast iron skillet. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove top pan and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven.

4. Allow sandwiches to cool for several minutes. Slice into bite-sized sandwiches before servin