Avocado Spinach Panini

The couple of people who actually check out this blog might be wondering why I do it. Basically, I'm the heaviest I have ever been and the only way to get the weight off is to eat right. And to eat right I have to completely change my approach to food. That involves serious motivation and I've found that I stick to it better if I document it here. Lately I've had great success drinking green smoothies (try incrediblesmoothies.com for great smoothie ideas) for lunch and breakfast and having a vegetarian meal at night. I was a vegetarian many moons ago but since I didn't enjoy many vegetables it was a sad existence. I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

This recipe was adapted from a Vegetarian Times recipe.

1 flat bread cut into sandwich sizes
1 avocado, sliced
red onion slices (about 1/2 a small onion)
raw spinach leaves (I used about 1 loosely packed cup for 2 sandwiches)
California Sun Dry Sun-Dried Tomato Spread (or julienne sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil)

Cut open the flat bread (or bread of your choice) and spread the tomato spread on both pieces. Layer the rest of the ingredients.

Use a panini press or cook them in a skillet the way you would a grilled cheese. You want it really flattened out though. I struggles with this because half the time the ingredients ooze out more than I'd like but I think the bread has been too thick for my cheap panini maker!  It still tasted great. I love the crunch of the bread with the creamy avocado.  And the sun-dried tomatoes give it zing.  The onions were perfect and I couldn't even taste the spinach. I added bacon to the sandwich for the non-vegetarian eater in the house.