Grilled Vegetable & Havarti Pita-nini

Sunday was a busy day. I was baking mango, pistachio & crystallized ginger muffins, pitting nearly 10 pounds of sour cherries (I promise to post photos from the cherry picking and one of the things I did with them so far soon), making a berry/fruit/yogurt trifle, taking photos and avoiding doing the laundry.

Yes, avoiding doing the laundry counts as an activity.

Amongst all of my cooking projects, I also had to come up with a quick lunch idea. I had some adorable patty squash in my refrigerator from a farmers' market trip, red peppers, pita and havarti cheese. I thought I should make something with all of them...and thus came up with the idea for Grilled Vegetable & Havarti Pita-nini.

What's a pita-nini? Well, I just came up with this word...hope it's not as annoying as some of the cutesy words RR invents {y'all know who I'm talking about, right?}. Instead of using bread to make a panini, I used a pita!

You can obviously use any grilled vegetables you like and experiment with different kinds of cheeses. This is just an idea, not an exact recipe.








Grilled Vegetable & Havarti Pita-nini (for 1)

Ingredients
2-3 patty squash, sliced across {of course you can use regular zucchini}
1/2 red pepper, cut into large chunks
salt & pepper
olive oil to drizzle
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 slices Havarti cheese
1 wholewheat pita
1 ripe tomato, sliced
4-6 basil leaves

Directions
1. In a bowl, combine your vegetables with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Marinade for at least 30 minutes.
2. Grill your vegetables till they have softened and formed gorgeous grill marks. I used my panini maker for this: no need to turn your vegetables since they are being grilled on both sides at once! {about 7 minutes}

3. Using scissors, separate your pita into top and bottom pieces.
4. Build your pita-nini: pita, cheese, grilled vegetables, tomatoes, basil, more cheese, pita.

5. Cook your pita-nini for about 3 minutes on your panini grill just till the cheese melts.

I really liked the flavors in this dish, and it's simple to make and is not only colorful, but is super healhty! You can obviously make the same dish in a pan if you don't have a panini maker: just be careful when flipping the pita to cook it on both sides.

What are some of your ideas for a quick lunch? Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches do not count.

PS: for my other panini grilling adventures, take a look at Caprese Panini.