Fresh Veggie Panini

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make something really “fresh” for dinner. So when I went to the market & saw both portabella mushrooms & eggplant on sale – I decided Paninis is was! I found some great inspiration from Panini Happy and got started.

I marinated the eggplant & mushrooms in some Olive Oil & Basalmic Vinegar then threw them on the George Foreman. I put some fresh hummus (more on that another day – I love making my own hummus) on the Olive Oil/Rosemary bread I had picked up at ShopRite, then layered on my grilled eggplant, mushroom, garden fresh tomato, & mozzarella. After about 5 (10?) minutes on the greased George Foreman – dinner was ready!

Earlier in the day I had thrown together a nice fresh salad – one I have been creating & playing with different variations all summer. This one was a can of (rinsed) black beans, a can of corn, can of Rotell tomato with green chilis, chopped stalk of celery, chives (onions – whatever) a few dashes of hot sauce, some (1/4 cup?) lime juce, some (1/4 cup?) olive oil, salt, pepper & you are good to go. I have been playing with other beans, cilantro, tuna, whatever in this – makes a great quick snack or lunch or side dish… think I will try to keep playing around with variations of this salad during the school year, it will be perfect for days that dinner was so good & there are no leftovers for lunch, or we are too tired to cook something, or get home from school and need a snack before diving into cooking – whatever… it is healthy, cheap & easy!

I hope to also keep using the George Foreman more as well, I seem to often forget that I have it and don’t use it!

Hope you enjoyed another “back-blog” of mine – taking things I cooked over the summer and blogging about them, soon I’ll have finished some of the highlights of the summer & will move onto “new” things 🙂