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Panini and sandwiches

My duck egg sandwich: flavorful, rustic, and perfect for Meatless Mondays!

Ask me about some of my oldest food obsessions, and I’ll have two words for you: duck eggs. I loved these as a youngster growing up in Europe, I love them now, as a busy mom living and working in Chicagoland. What makes duck eggs so special, and how can you best enjoy them? Read on πŸ™‚

Duck eggs are packed with vitamin B12 and selenium, but they are not amenable to tiny appetites: famous for their high fat and cholesterol content, they exhibit an intense yellow yolk color and a rich egg flavor, which makes them a delicious, yet rather decadent treat. I remember eating my first duck egg hard-boiled, with salt and pepper sprinkled on top and crusty bread on the side, and marveling at the depth of egg flavor I was experiencing. It was rather overwhelming, to be honest! The good news is that duck eggs are versatile and can be incorporated into your diet in a variety of ways, hard-boiled or as an ingredient in cakes and custards.

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Good bread is king! A few words on my favorite Chicagoland bakeries

Now that spring is finally here (or so I hope!), I can scale down on typical comfort foods and go back to the dishes I crave the most: panini, sandwiches, light soups and salads. So easy to make, so flavorful, so nutritious and satisfying! We’re talking sandwiches, which means now’s also the perfect time to answer some readers’ questions regarding the bread I usually eat and use in my recipes. What is my go-to bread, and why? Do I have any favorite bakeries?

As someone who has lived in Chicago for close to 8 years now, I’ve had my fair share of good and bad bread-related experiences. Keep Reading

Oh kitchen, where art thou? Living on sandwiches again – but this time, it’s truffle mozzarella sandwiches :-)

You may remember how the story went after the birth of our daughter a few years ago: I took a long break from blogging and lived on grilled cheese sandwiches for months. History seems to be repeating now, following the birth of our son. I don’t have the time or the energy to cook – blame it on nighttime feeds, my son’s sleep disturbances, and overall poor physical shape. So yes, I have been absent from here and have been feeling guilty about all those posts “which could have been” πŸ™

Living on sandwiches can be repetitively boring, but I believe I’ve found a way to avoid said boredom. There’s no reason why your sandwiches can’t be upgraded and thankfully, there are plenty of upgrade options on the market these days. For me, the saving grace has been (drum roll!) truffle fresh mozzarella. Keep Reading

Grilled veggie panino: back to my first love!

I haven’t posted a panino recipe in awhile, but now I’m back with a vengeance πŸ™‚ This panino screams summer, sun, warm weather and clean eating – and I just love it for that matter! The freshness of the grilled veggies, with just a touch of charred flavor, works beautifully with the dill and sour cream, and makes up for a surprisingly light combo. I asked DH to grill the veggies for this panino on one of the hottest days of the summer, and he agreed reluctantly. Later on though, he realized the hard work – and the sweat! – had been well worth it. Keep Reading

Three mushroom & watercress sandwich: a super-nutritious vegetarian option for the cold winter months

Now that the holidays are over, we are back to our usual routine in the kitchen. No more batches of cookies baked in excessive numbers, no more turkeys or steaks served alongside generous portions of creamy, buttery carb-laden goodness. It’s a new year and time to eat lighter – and since it’s winter, it’s also time to eat as nutritiously as possible 😉

The sandwich below is perfect this season because it has key ingredients to build up energy and to replenish lost vitamins and minerals. It’s vegetarian and protein-packed, with proteins coming from several kinds of mushrooms: cremini, portobello (mature cremini mushrooms), and shiitake. It also has watercress, which should come as no surprise to you if you’ve been following this blog for awhile and have read my previous posts about watercress and my love for this rather underutilized veggie. Packed full of nutrients and easy to digest, watercress has a slightly peppery taste, which makes it the ideal partner to the robust mushroom flavor. Add a few sprigs of young asparagus, and you have the perfect light lunch or dinner option – all homemade and delicious!

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Grilled veggie sandwich: celebrating the end of summer with two secret ingredients to match :-)

Keeping the family happy and well-fed this summer has been easy thanks to a marvelous piece of technology: the grill! We bought our first outdoor grill back in June, and now we finally know what we’ve been missing out on. Grilling outdoors has made our weekends memorable, and our journey through charred flavors has been exciting and rewarding. Gone are the days of using a grill pan for our grilling needs. It’s grill pan out (for now), outdoor grill in! πŸ™‚

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When life gives you eggplants, you make an eggplant & sweet pepper panino!

Today, post #2 covering my Pure Flavor veggie cooking bonanza, where I highlight the taste and versatility of eggplants. I’m so excited to be writing about good, nutritious food!

I had a colorful assortment of Pure Flavor baby eggplants and I immediately thought I should use them to make my family’s version of baba ghanoush, one of the oldest recipes ever posted on this blog. In the end however, I decided to push myself a little harder (lol) and after some thinking and experimentation I came up with this vegetarian panino recipe, in which I married the gorgeous eggplants pictured below with the Pure Flavor Aurora Sweets peppers.Β  More on these peppers will be revealed in my upcoming veggie post #3 (hint, hint!) Keep Reading