Mix up the menu with new flavors

Food Network chefs provide fresh ideas for snacks and meals to serve this fall.
FOOD NETWORK
GRILLED PEANUT BUTTER-JELLY-BANANA SANDWICH
8 slices good-quality white bread
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
1/2 cup grape jelly
2 ripe bananas, sliced
Butter the bread slices on one side, and place them butter-side down. Spread 4 slices with peanut butter and top with the banana slices. Spread the remaining slices with jelly and put them, jelly-side down, on top of the bananas. Press them gently to flatten them slightly.
Place each sandwich on a preheated panini press, and grill until the bread is toasted, about 5 minutes. Alternately, preheat a dry cast iron or nonstick pan. Place the sandwich in the pan, and weight it down with another pan or a clean brick wrapped in foil. Grill 5 minutes; turn the sandwich over; re-weight it, and grill for another 5 minutes.
Serve immediately.
Yield: 4 sandwiches
Tip: Grilled peanut-butter sandwiches ooze comfort, but many a mouth has been scalded by hot peanut butter, so make sure your children know what's coming. And a stack of napkins never hurts.
Tip: For a full-on Elvis experience, use honey instead of grape jelly.
Tip: Get fiber in any way you can -- use whole-wheat bread, whole fruit preserves and crunchy peanut butter.
-- Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence
BRICKED GRILLED CHICKEN
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 (3-pound) chickens, butterflied
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Whisk together the oil, lemon juice, garlic and rosemary in a large baking dish. Add the chickens and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours.
Preheat the grill to medium. Wrap 4 bricks in aluminum foil and set aside. Remove the chickens from the marinade; blot off excess oil, and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Place the chickens on the grill, skin side down, and place 2 bricks wrapped in foil on top of each chicken. Grill the chicken for 8 to 10 minutes, then turn over, and return the bricks to the chickens. Close the cover and continue cooking for 8 to 10 minutes or until cooked through. Let rest for 10 minutes, and cut into quarters. Serve with lemon wedges.
Yield: 4 servings
Tip: "Bricking" chicken is a fast way to get it to cook through. Even if you don't have the marinade, just brush it with some olive oil; season with salt and pepper; brick it, and grill it.
Tip: In addition to speeding up cooking, bricks also help the chicken get great grill marks and flavor.
Tip: Use large zipping plastic bags for marinating. The chicken stays immersed in the marinade, and cleanup is a snap.
Tip: If you want to use the "used" marinade as a sauce, you must boil it first.
-- Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay
MAC AND CHEDDAR CHEESE WITH CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound chicken-breast tenders, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 pound macaroni elbows or cavatappi corkscrew-shaped pasta twists
21/2 cups raw broccoli florets, available packaged in produce department
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
3 cups whole milk
1 cup chicken stock
3 cups yellow sharp Cheddar
1 tablespoon prepared Dijon mustard
Place a pot of water on to boil for macaroni.
Heat a medium pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Saut & eacute; a couple of minutes, then add onion and cook another 5 to 7 minutes until onions are tender and chicken is cooked through. Turn off heat and reserve.
To boiling water, add pasta and salt to season. Cook 5 minutes, then add broccoli and cook 3 minutes more or until pasta is cooked al dente and florets are just tender.
While pasta cooks, heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add butter and melt, then add flour, cayenne and paprika, and whisk together over heat until roux bubbles, then cook a minute more. Whisk in milk and stock, and raise heat a little to bring sauce to a quick boil. Simmer sauce until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Drain macaroni or pasta and broccoli florets. Add back to pot, and add chicken to the pasta and broccoli.
Add cheese to milk sauce, and stir to melt it in, about a minute or so. Stir in mustard, and season sauce with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over chicken and broccoli and cooked pasta and stir to combine. Adjust seasonings; transfer to a large serving platter, and serve.
Yield: 6 servings
Tip: If your children won't eat mac and cheese without a crunchy top, transfer this to a baking dish and broil until the top's bubbly and browned.
Tip: Make ahead and store in single-serving microwave-safe containers. It's not only a convenient dinner but also helps with portion control.
-- Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
ROMAINE SALAD
2 hearts romaine, chopped
1/4 cup whole leaves of fresh herbs, in any combination: parsley, basil, sage -- whatever you have on hand or your children like
1/4 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar: a couple of splashes
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
Salt and pepper
Combine chopped lettuce with torn leaves of mixed fresh herbs. Add halved grape tomatoes to your salad for color, and toss with vinegar and oil, salt and pepper, to your taste.
Yield: 4 servings
Tip: Keep cleaned greens on hand for quick snacks. A damp paper towel wrapped around will help keep them crisp.
-- Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
BAKED APPLES WITH BROWN SUGAR
Great comfort food. Best to make fresh but you can prepare the apples well ahead of time and just refrigerate until ready to bake. They'll brown up a little bit from exposure to air, but that won't matter once they're cooked, all bubbly, brown and delicious.
2 Golden Delicious apples
2 to 3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons light-brown sugar
Ground cinnamon, for sprinkling
Creamy Custard Sauce (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Wash and dry apples. Cut the apples in half and remove the core, but leave any stems intact. Place apples in a baking dish. Divide butter among each core cavity. Top each apple half with a tablespoon of sugar and dash with cinnamon.
Bake apples until the flesh is tender and they're bubbly and perfect-looking, about 30 minutes. Serve with Creamy Custard Sauce.
Yield: 4 servings
CREAMY CUSTARD SAUCE
1/2 pint light vanilla ice cream, melted (recommended: Ben and Jerry's)
2 egg yolks
Heat the melted ice cream in a small saucepan over low heat until hot.
Meanwhile, put the yolks in a mixing bowl, and whisk until smooth. While whisking, slowly drizzle about 1 or 2 tablespoons of hot melted ice cream into the yolks until blended. While whisking constantly, slowly add the rest of the hot liquid to the yolk mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and return to low heat.
Whisk the mixture over low heat until it thickens and the mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 1 to 2 minutes. Do not boil. Serve warm.
Yield: about 1 cup
Tip: If the eggs boil, they'll scramble, so make sure you keep the heat low on the sauce. Or stay classic and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream instead.
Tip: For a splash of color, use Rome apples.
Tip: Serve this as a special-occasion breakfast with real maple syrup instead of the custard sauce.
-- Recipes courtesy Dave Lieberman