Pesto Turkey Paninis

This post is just the beginning of what I’d like to call “take it easy in the kitchen week”. I have come down with a cold. It happens to me every year around this time. I guess it’s something in the air. I have had zero appetite for the past few days, but I’m actually starting to feel a little better. I had been planning to make these sandwiches this week anyway so I thought they would be a perfect easy dinner tonight.

But my cold isn’t the only thing that will be keeping me out of the kitchen. I’m having all four of my wisdom teeth removed this week. And let me tell you, I’m thrilled. Thrilled to have the surgery, thrilled to deal with the pain, and just thrilled that I get to eat applesauce and soup for a week. In fact, I may not even be reading any blogs this week because looking at all the great foods that I can’t eat will just be torturing myself. I plan on stocking the freezer and pantry with frozen pizzas and sandwich fixings for my husband. I doubt I’ll be cooking a whole meal for him each night especially when I can’t even eat it.

So back to these paninis. So simple and so good. Here’s how I made them.

Pesto Turkey Paninis

1 small loaf italian bread, sliced into 1/4″-1/2″ slices
sliced deli turkey
sliced onion
sliced tomato
sliced provolone or mozzarella cheese (feta would also be great)
basil pesto

Place turkey, cheese, tomato and onion on one piece of bread. Spread the pesto on another slice and place on top of the other ingredients. Spray a pan with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Place sandwiches in the pan and place another skillet on top. Set a couple cans in the top skillet to weigh it down. Flip the sandwich after two minutes and again place the skillet with the cans on top. Cook another two minutes or until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.

*Alternately you can use a panini press or other sandwich maker, but I don’t have one so I improvised.

Pesto Presto!

Ok, yeah I know that’s a cheesy title, but that’s what came to mind so that’s what I went with. I haven’t been very inspired in the dinner department lately. I think I was trying so many new recipes all at once that I sort of had recipe overload. So lately I’ve been making easy meals with staple items in my pantry. Tonight was no different. I had some pesto in the fridge that needed using up so I thought what goes better with pesto than pasta and chicken. Plus, my husband is always up for pasta so I knew I’d get no complaints from him. It took no time to make and was really delicious.

Pesto Pasta with Chicken

2 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips
2 cups dry pasta (I used farfalle but any pasta would work)
1/4 cup chicken broth
2-3 Tbsp pesto
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Begin by heating the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Salt and pepper the chicken and add to the pan. While chicken is cooking boil the pasta and drain. Once the chicken is done, add the chicken broth to the pan to deglaze it. Make sure to scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan for flavor. Add the pasta to the pan. Stir in the pesto, coating the pasta and chicken. Top with grated parmesan cheese if desired.

All the things I love, on a pizza!

What do you get when combine pesto, feta, and sun-dried tomatoes? The makings of a fantastic pizza! On their own, all those ingredients are still very good, but together they are unbelievable. I really like using different ingredient combinations on pizza other than the traditional pepperoni or sausage and the usual vegetables, so I thought this would be good way to use up some of the things I had sitting in my fridge. It turned out so great! I had originally planned to put some thinly sliced grilled chicken on the pizza too, but my husband said he’d prefer it without the chicken. I still think it would be good with it so I’ll try that some other time.

Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomato Pizza with Feta

1 pre-made pizza crust (you could also use fresh or frozen pizza dough)
3 Tbsp basil pesto
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
3 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, drained
2-3 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese
2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven according to your pizza crust/dough. In my case, 450 degrees. Brush the olive oil on the pizza crust. Spread a thin layer of pesto over the pizza crust. Top with shredded mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta. Bake as directed. Slice and serve.

Basil Pesto Chicken

My husband says I never make the same thing twice which is really not true. I do try to mix it up and try at least a couple new recipes every week so it may seem like I never make the same thing twice to him. Tonight I proved him wrong. When he was plating his chicken at dinner he asked “haven’t we had this before?,” as if he couldn’t believe I would actually make it a second time. The truth is, we’ve had this probably 3 or 4 times before. It’s just been a while. It’s a simple recipe with lots of flavor from the garlic and pesto. A nice change from boring old chicken.

I originally came up with this when I saw a recipe somewhere online for pesto chicken rolls. The recipe seemed a little bland to me so I took the idea and just changed it up a bit. We had this tonight with my garlic mashed potatoes and a garden salad.

Basil Pesto Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp italian seasoning
2-4 tsp prepared basil pesto (either homemade or jarred)
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly salt and pepper each chicken breast. Sprinkle chicken breasts with italian seasoning. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add garlic and cook 1-2 min. Add chicken to the hot skillet. Sear on each side to add color as well as seal in the juices of the chicken. Place chicken breasts in a baking dish. Top each piece of chicken with 1-2 tsp of pesto, depending on the size of each chicken breast. Top with 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese each and place in the oven. Bake for about 25 min or until juices run clear.