Grilled Mushroom & Cheese Sandwich Among Others

A lot of things were going through (and messing with) my head this past week and despite already having "the talk" with my dearest hubby, I am still stumped with what to do next.  I realize, having too many achievable goals in your life may lead you to not achieve, actually, any of them.  Knowing your priorities is definitely a good thing, but still worrying about numbers 4, 5, and 6 will not get you anywhere.  I need a good shaking before more road detours get in the way... And speaking of which... Yesterday it was a fairly nice warmer weather so we decided to walk home from the office.  The danger with this though is that there are so many distractions along the way.  A perfect example: we weren't able to resist one of our favorite restaurants, XOCO, because we were after all, tired, starving, and tempted by the thoughts of hot tortas and empanadas!  By the way, I did not expect that a torta would actually be some sort of panini or grilled sandwich, because growing up, we referred to torta as an omelette.  As in ground meat and veggies wrapped in scrambled eggs.  Nonetheless, as you can see in the picture above, it still looked appetizing and was actually delicious - the flavors are new to me and I was more than delighted.  I got the woodland mushroom torta so it was a vegetarian one with lots and lots of mushrooms and arugula.  It was also served with a tangy, spicy, peppery salsa.  YUMMY.

This evening, hubby and I were supposed to go out and walk all the way to Navy Pier and watch a movie at IMAX theater as the weather was just perfect.  But when the clock struck 5PM, we got lazy and decided to just be couch potatoes and relax at home. At 8PM, I got bored and needed a little inspiration.  So we went out for a walk with no other plans but to get some frozen yogurt.  But before even reaching our destination, we did a little shopping - well, I did at Urban Outfitters.  Bought a nice pair of teal leather thong sandals at 50% off - score!  Now I need to get myself some nice pedi... Next stop, Forever Yogurt.  This place never fails to make me happy - and especially with less guilt, because yogurt is the healthier option (so they say).  As the place was packed with no seats available, we decided to eat our yogurt while walking.  It was still early and Whole Foods was just right around the corner, so we did a little grocery shopping.  We were getting a bit hungry despite the yogurt fix, so I got some bread, veggies, and pesto to make sandwiches at home.  I remembered we still have some fresh mushrooms and ham in the fridge and so we're ready to check out.  Okay, before I change this post's title to something else, here's a quick run-through of how I made this torta-inspired sandwich, but I made it more "Italian":

Ingredients:

- Ciabatta Bread

- Fresh White Mushrooms (Baby Bellas are also good)

- Fresh Herb Mix (Arugula, Lettuce, Spinach)

- Swiss Cheese

- Basil Pesto 

- Olive Oil

- Sea Salt

Steps:

Sauté the mushrooms with olive oil and a dash of sea salt for about 3 minutes.  Set aside.  Place the mushrooms in a microwaveable plate and top with a slice of swiss cheese.  Heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until the cheese melts.

Slice the Ciabatta crosswise and place both pieces onto the pan (same used for the mushrooms) and press with a spatula until toasted.  Do this on both sides.

Pile up the herb mix, mushrooms, and cheese onto the toasted bread.  Drizzle with pesto.  

 I think I'll have this again tomorrow night...