Recipe #2: Portobello Mushroom Sandwich

One great challenge about cooking is finding creative ways to re-use the ingredients from previous recipes, particularly fresh ingredients from the night before. I cannot express to you how much it stinks (literally and metaphorically) when fresh produce or even fresh meat goes bad under your not so watchful eye. But maybe you can empathize with me and agree that it is a waste of money and in general, just a waste. So I've decided to no longer be part of the problem and tonight I have successfully utilized most of the ingredients from the Grilled Eggplant Sandwich.

Tonight's recipe was thought out and planned this afternoon to incorporate the ingredients from last night so it really only required a couple of new ingredients from the grocery store. So after work, I picked up two large portobello mushrooms and a bag of spinach leaves. I chose to not spend the extra $1.50 on each item just because it was organic; although, that is a completely different debate for another time. I really don't have much of a stance one way or the other with organic ingredients. But personally, if I can spend the extra $3.00 I saved on the two items on a bottle of healthy yogurt salad dressing you can bet I will make that decision without thinking twice! That is all I will say for now on that.

Once again I got my recipe inspiration from visiting http://www.foodgawker.com/. There will be no surprise for the vast majority of my recipes I blog about as they are all primarily found on this particular website. But I will continue to inform anyone who is reading the credited website, cookbook, or word of mouth no matter what. I did put my own spin on this recipe and I can't help but think that without the added ingredients it would have been as fun to eat. But I think we all have to make things our own sometimes and it works out so well when you're actually cleaning out some of your refrigerator in the process.

Ingredients:

* 2 Large Portobello Mushrooms
* 1 cup of White Mushrooms
* 1 Large Yellow Onion
* 4 Cloves of Garlic
* 3/4 cup of Italian Dressing
* 2 cups of raw Spinach Leaves
* 2 thick slices of mozzarella
* 4 slices of bread
* 3 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
* Ground Pepper

Cooking Directions:

First, take the stems off of the portobello mushrooms by simply pulling them off. There should not be too much resistance from the mushroom, if any at all. Cut the mushrooms into about 1/2 thick slices and place in a baking dish. I had a cup of white mushrooms in the refrigerator that I had purchased on Manager's Special two days ago. I really needed to use them and this was a great opportunity to mix them with the portobellos.

The original recipe called for a homemade version of marinade for the mushrooms however I realized that I did not have 3/4 cups of olive oil when I got home tonight. I also realized I forgot to buy Balsamic Vinaigrette so obviously I couldn't make what the recipe called for in the first place! Luckily, I improvised and I had just enough Italian Oil and Vinager Salad Dressing to replace the recipe's marinade.

Pour the marinade into the baking dish and make sure both sides of the mushroom slices are coated nicely before setting the dish aside. Tending to the preparation of the other recipe ingredients allows the mushrooms to marinade very nicely, which is only about 10-15 minutes anyway.

Take the 4 cloves of garlic and dice them finely after they are peeled. Chop the yellow onion but keep it separated from the garlic. Prepare your cooking pan by taking 1 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and letting it heat over medium heat.

Once the pan is hot, place the slices of yellow onion into the pan. Let them cook for roughly a minute before adding the diced garlic. As soon as the garlic's color turns from yellow to very light, golden brown the 2 cups of spinach can be added. The marinated mushrooms are the last item to add to the frying pan as they will actually cook very quickly. As soon as the spinach leaves are wilted, add the mushrooms and cook until tender.

While the mixture is cooking down, cut slices of mozzarella cheese on the cutting board. I was able to use my hunk of cheese from last night and it worked great. Afterwards, place the slices of bread out on the cutting board. Drizzle them with olive oil and then flip upside down so the oiled sides are facing downwards.

Scoop out a healthy portion of the mixture from the frying pan and place it over two slices of bread. Take the cheese slices and place them over the top. Then top of the sandwich with the other piece of bread. This will make two sandwiches. I threw both of these sandwiches onto the George Foreman again and they grilled perfectly. After the cheese is ooey-gooey it is done and ready to eat!