Homemade Paninis

I’ve been making a LOT of homemade paninis lately and it all started with my latest Lodge purchase. It wasn’t that long ago that I bought my first Lodge 12″ cast iron skillet, inspired by my aunt, my friend Glen and The Pioneer Woman and My Cyber Monday Cast Iron Skillet. Now my family has grown to three and I love them all the same.

I originally bought the square grill pan, to grill meat with the lines without actually having to go outside. haha! But I don’t do grill outside. That’s the hubby’s job. Then I watched another Pioneer Woman episode where she used this pan to grill paninis and then I was SO glad that I didn’t get that panini-maker that the hubby had no idea I was so close to getting. I did NOT need another appliance. But I did NEED this pan! It’s the best.panini-maker.ever. Oh, and the fish turner that Ree uses on her show (see end of post for Amazon link). I NEED that too.

The totally awesome thing is that my girls LOVE paninis now, too! Both just gobble them up, which is way cool because I can get away with adding more stuff to them that I couldn’t in a normal sandwich. Plus, Little Sis has never been a huge fan of grilled cheese sandwiches (what’s wrong w/ her!??!) but she adores these. Yay!!

The first ones I ever made had sliced grilled chicken, muenster cheese, crumbled bacon, spinach, mayo, avocado and Wickles. Wickles are my weakness and they make just about any sandwich so much better!

Assemble them as such (I used three layers of cheese!!), generously butter both sides of the bread and then grill slowly over medium heat. Slooowwwly to get the cheesy goodness melted inside without burning the outside. Grilled to perfection:

So easy. So good. See? Lines!!!

Here’s one I made myself for lunch, just today! This one was made using Applegate salami, turkey and muenster cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo and of course my Wickles. YUM. Oh I used Trader Joe’s Organic Soft Wheat Bread for both paninis.

Can’t wait to make more variations. Maybe I’ll even come back to this post and add them here!

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Christine, aka happyvballgirl : )

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