Great Food Friday Catch-Up: Sandwiches & Favorite Mix

Sheesh. Been a while since I've done this blog thing. First things first, I need to catch up on my Great Food Friday entries. I'm been very negligent!

1st: Sandwiches

I bought a kick butt panini press from Costco a few months ago and I am in lurve! Here's my favorite:

Caprese Panini

Bread of your choice (I recommend thickly sliced French or Ciabatta rolls)
Really good tomato, sliced
Buffalo Mozzarella, sliced
Fresh Basil Leaves
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar

Heat the press. Drizzle the olive oil on the outside of the bread (that will touch the press). Between the bread, layer the tomato, mozzarella and basil. Drizzle a little vinegar on top before closing the bread. Be sure not to overfill your panini, it will just end up squishing out during grilling. Place the panini in the press, grill till crisp on the outside and the cheese is melted. Yum! you could totally do this as a grilled sandwich in a regular pan (but I think it's better as a panini).

Other panini ideas:
Tuna and cheddar (tuna melt!)
Roast beef, swiss and horseradish
Nutella & strawberry or banana (dust with some powdered sugar)

2nd: Favorite Mix

I love cake mix. It's very difficult to really tell the difference between scratch and mix, especially with this recipe. It's from Jessica Seinfeld's 'Deceptively Delicious'.

Yellow Cake

1 18oz box of yellow cake (any kind)
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/4 cup water
2 T vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 egg white
6 oz nonfat vanilla, lemon or banana yogurt

Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a nine inch cake pan with cooking spray and flour lightly. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pumpkin, water, oil eggs, egg white and yogurt. Beat till smooth - 1 or 2 minutes. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

You can also do this as chocolate cake, just use chocolate cake mix and stick with the vanilla yogurt.

My sister in law does this recipe as cupcakes for all the kids birthday parties. They're so good, even better than the bad for you cupcakes. The kids LOVE them. We're still looking for a healthy frosting!