Panera at Home

Do you love to eat at semi-expensive restaurants like PaneraBread for breakfast, but are sometimes frustrated at the high-dollar price you have to pay for a simple sandwich? Inspired by their breakfast sandwiches, I decided to try my own at home. At first I was hesitant because I don't have one of those really cool panini style sandwich griddles. However, what I realized this week is that I have an iron-cast, two-sided griddle for the stove top. One side of the griddle is flat for making things like eggs and pancakes and the other side is a grill-style. I became inventive and used the grill-style top and a handy-dandy spatula. I prepared my ingredients, cooked eggs, cooked the meat, and opened the ciabata sandwich style bread (purchased at wal-mart). Once I had all of the ingredients ready I first prepped the bread by putting it on the griddle inside-face-down to get a nice toast, and a warmth on the inside of the bread. I put the sandwiches together, cranked the heat up to just above medium and put the sandwiches on one at a time. I gently smashed the sandwiches down using a metal spatula. This heated the sandwiches up but also gave them those nice grill marks. I did this on both sides of the sandwich.

Enjoy some delicious home-made (cheaper) breakfast sandwiches at your pleasure!