Holy Panini, It's a Wrap!

About a month ago we went to Spokane for a business workshop that turned out to be useless for what we needed and so we left early and spent the day doing unexpected things. A good friend of ours was celebrating a birthday and his co-workers took him to lunch and we joined them. It was so nice to see old friends and tell them all about how we lost weight by eating just fruits and vegetables, whole grains and beans, all without added fat. It's fun to be able to brag about low cholesterol (okay, now I am sounding old). Anyway, we were able to spend a little time shopping too.
Spokane has a few stores that we miss now that we live 150 miles away: Huckleberries Market, Williams-Sonoma, Spokane Art Supply, World Market, Aunties Bookstore, that Woodworking store out on Sullivan, Mel's Nursery....if you ever find yourself in Spokane with some free time check out these places.
One of my favorite things to do in life is wandering though a kitchen shop admiring all the gadgets. I don't really NEED anything, just looking. Okay so once in a while I buy a new spatula or dish towel. This is really about covetting those items I have no room for and shouldn't be spending money on anyway. Secretly, for a few years now I have been wanting a panini press to make those wonderful hot sandwiches. I knew it was silly since I could do the same thing with a hot skillet and a heavy weight of some kind so I just couldn't justify the expense.
But on our Spokane trip we admired a panini press at Williams-Sonoma and discovered that it was on sale for about 60% off. Well, hello. This changed things. Suddenly I could envision myself serving wonderful panini sandwiches using the recipe from Rip Esselstyn's book, "The Engine 2 Diet". Yum!
You guessed it, we arrived home several hours later with our new favorite kitchen gadget! We use it almost every day. It does a superb job of grilling tofu, warming tortillas and of course, making sandwiches.
Last night for dinner I used it to put nice golden grill marks on a spinach wrap. Next blog: a recipe for a BBQ Wrap that will remind you of a BBQ sandwich, but without the fatty meat and too sweet coleslaw.

Breville Model BRG200XL