Portabello Mushroom and basil Panini

My mom friends and I are always talking about how the older we get the more we sound like our mothers. I'm pretty sure my mom is the worlds wisest mom I'm ok with hearing her words come out of my mouth when I'm talking to my kids. What I never expected was to hear phrases and sayings my FATHER said come out of my mouth. I remember very clearly the first time I heard one of his sayings uttered by me. It was as if I were in slow motion and yet helpless to prevent them being spoken. A true out of body experience. I won't go into his doubtful words of wisdom sufficet to say i've managed to come to grips with the fact that i'm more like my father than I originally thought. One of the biggest things we have in common is our love of kitchen gadgets and the soothing, peaceful feeling we get when we spend time in the kitchen. Today's recipe is in honor of my dad a man who could find a million and one uses for a skillet and was the king of improvisation: As my dad would say if you don't have what you need you find a way to make it work.
Portabello Mushroom and Basil Pesto Panini
Ingredients
Sliced Ciabatta, or other sturdy Bread4 portabello mushrooms,
slice tomato
sliced onion (preferably vidalia if you have it otherwise a sweeter onion like a red would work just as well)
mozzarella cheese (sliced mozzarella if you have it but the shredded one worked just as well)
fresh basil pesto (save yourself some trouble and money and just pick it up at Walmart)
olive oil
salt and pepper
Method
1. Saute mushrooms in olive oil until tender over medium heat. Brush one side of bread with olive oil. Turn over and layer both pieces with mozzarella. Then add to one side a teaspoon of pesto, sauteed mushrooms, sliced onion and tomato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and put sandwich together.
2. Grill in panini press until browned.
If you don’t have a panini press, that's ok you can just grill it like a regular grilled cheese or you can improvise like dear old dad would have done and use a heavy plate or another smaller skillet to press the sandwich down.

If you are a member of the Produce Coop Portabello Mushrooms can be ordered through them. It's five pounds so I would suggest finding someone that can share them with you. Vidalia onions are also available through the coop but you're on your own with the cheese and bread :) I would suggest for money saving purposes hitting up your local discount bread store. You can often find the more expensive breads like ciabatta or sourdough on sale. If money is no option then Panera makes a great sourdough bread that you can buy and bring home to make these awesome panini's.

This weeks kid reviews for this recipe:

Gavin said: It's good but I don't like the green leaves. (that would be the basil)
Magnus said: More but I noticed he didn't eat the basil either.

Why I like this recipe:

Technically it's not a "recipe" it's a sandwich but I like it because it's a good hearty dinner without a lot of mess. You get a ton of veggies, protien and calcium from the mozzarella and it's a sandwich you can feel good about serving your children for dinner. For added vitamin oomph you can serve this with a side of Sweet Potato Fries. The best best best part of this dinner is it took less than 45 minutes to make it from the prep to table! For a busy working mom with after work activities you just can not beat that!!!

I hope you enjoyed this weeks I MADE THIS!! If you decide to try this at home I would greatly love to hear your feedback on what you thought. If you have your own reviews you'd like to add of this weeks recipe please feel free to post them below. I'm always on the lookout for great modifications to everyday recipes.

Thank you and happy improvising :)