Spicy Peanut Butter, Banana & Bacon Panini

This weekend, I was in charge of pretty much everything my family put into their mouth. Because of that, I had to pull together some dishes that involved meat options so everyone wouldn’t revolt completely!


About a month ago, I was in the grocery store and this peanut butter caught my eye. It’s called “The Heat is On” by Peanut Butter & Co. My husband LOVES anything hot and LOVES peanut butter, hello! Seemed perfect! I grabbed it and off I went.

It took me almost a full month to figure out what to do with it! I was too scared to open it & try it, what if it was horrible?! I’m not one for spicy things, and searching the internet kept coming back to the same idea, a Peanut Butter & Bacon Sandwich. Here’s what I ended up with:

Ingredients

The Heat is On Peanut Butter
Banana sliced into long strips
Bacon (or not)
Sliced sourdough bread
Butter for the pan

If you’re familiar with natural peanut butter, you know when it’s first opened, you have all the oil on top… this oil was a bright orange color from all the spices. A little intimidating! Once I got it all mixed, I tentatively tried it. At first you just get peanut butter, then there’s a slight burn in the back of your mouth. I actually LOVED it! It’s not so much hot as it tastes well spiced & seasoned.

Process:

As I cooked the bacon for the carnivores of the house, I spread both sides of the bread with a layer of peanut butter then added a layer of sliced bananas. Once the bacon was cooked, I drained the grease off on a paper towel, patted the bacon dry & added it to the sandwiches. I had heated a grill pan on the stove top & brushed it with some butter. Grill the sandwiches up on both sides until crispy, slice & serve!

I enjoyed just the sandwich (sans bacon) more than I expected, unfortunately husband wasn’t on the same page & my dad ended up finishing his sandwich off!

I would defiantly suggest this sandwich to anyone looking for something different to spice up any sandwich!

Ordinary vs. Favorites

Ordinary

I work 9-5:30 Monday thru Friday at a desk job (that generally I enjoy!) so in order to keep from having to sit all day, I try to hit the gym at lunch (we have two gym’s onsite at work). It gives me an opportunity to get away from the work, clutter & stress of my desk and move around for a good 30-45 minutes.


This also means that I have to either bring my lunch or pick something up from the café at work on my way back from the Gym. Two issues here… 1) I never get up early enough to pack a lunch, and never remember to make one the night before and 2) eating vegetarian at the cafe doesn’t offer too many options. Salad or a Veggie sandwich. (unless they happen to have a vegetarian based soup, which doesn’t happen very often)

I go through phases, some weeks they have good bread (multigrain or whole wheat rolls) and I’ll have a portabella or other grilled veggie sandwich. Others, nothing looks good and I eat salad every day. Neither of these options is terrible, but really… it gets quite boring.

Favorite


When we have people from other countries visiting the office (I do work for a pretty worldwide company) or someone leaving or coming back to work, our group is pretty quick to have a group lunch outside of the office. With most of the options in town, (especially the popular ones) I usually end up eating a Caesar salad or some other variation of a lettuce based lunch.

I was pleasantly surprised a few months ago when I happened across this amazing (not quite healthy, I’ll admit) lunch option at one of my favorite pre-vegetarian days restaurant.

It’s called the 3 Grilled Cheese and it’s pretty delicious!

Inside, 3 different cheeses melted together with ribbons of basil & honey smeared on the sourdough bread. On the side is a creamy Tomato Basil soup (that I’m pretty sure has some ricotta cheese mixed in to give it a different texture)

I’m sad to report, I believe they have since taken it off their menu... though I can’t imagine why!

I’m working on perfecting it at home... stay tuned! ;)

~ Sammie