pesto paninis

I actually planned on making these about a month ago, but I did another one of those unintentional “Pasadena grocery store tours” where I end up going to the six closest grocery stores because I can’t find what I am looking for.  (Two Trader Joe’s, Ralph’s, Vons, Whole Foods, and Gelsons.)  What was I looking for?  Focaccia bread.  One of the Trader Joe’s did have a spot for it on the shelf, but they were out.  And so I got pissy about wasting hours of my day and still not being able to make what I wanted to for dinner… so I texted my boyfriend and told him he was in charge of dinner that night.

Fast forward and I found myself at Whole Foods for lunch one day.  As I was waiting for assistance I happened to be reading the possible ingredients on the design it yourself sandwich menu and that is when I saw it, focaccia bread!  So I asked the sandwich maker if I could just buy two sandwiches worth of focaccia bread and she said yes.

I was so excited about it that I had to make them that night, despite the fact that I was already planning to make granola bars and sugar coated pecans for our hiking/camping trip that weekend.  And yes, I did follow through and was in the kitchen making all three.  For that reason I didn’t do a lot of measuring when it came to the ingredients for the paninis.  I just kinda did what looked about right.  We do not have a panini press but other reviewers said they had used their George Foreman Grill and it worked fine, and we do happen to have one of those so I used it and it did in fact work.

My boyfriend was making “mmmm” sounds with every bite so I think he liked it and it will be requested again soon.  I had struggled for awhile with what to have on the side and eventually opted for nothing which turned out to be the right choice because the paninis themselves were really filling.  Of course, each one barely fit in the GF Grill and like I said, I didn’t do a whole lot of measuring.

Oh!  And I should have mentioned before that I substituted plain old lunch meat turkey for the chicken.  As you know from this blog, we eat plenty of chicken already!

Click the link below for recipe:

CHICKEN TURKEY PESTO PANINIS