BLT Paninis

This isn't anything special -- just something we've come to love!  I created it after eating a BLT Wedge from a local eatery.  At six-something a piece, I had to recreate it since I couldn't afford to keep buying it.  Tried making the wedge first.  Don't know that I'll ever master pizza dough without a pizza oven (or at least that's my excuse), so I thought of making it into a panini.  All the ingredients, bread exluded, are from Aldi -- another reason I love this recipe!

Typically, I pull out my George Forman grill to make these, but I didn't feel like adding one more thing to my kitchen to clean!  So we used a flat griddle on the stove that can be cleaned in the dishwasher.  I'm willing to sacrifice those special panini marks on my sandwich to have one less thing to clean.

BLT Paninis

You will need:

Bread (we like fresh Italian sliced bread from the deli)

Butter/margarine

Bacon bits

Cheese (we like munster)

Tomatoes (we use cherry tomatoes since they taste a little better this time of year), sliced

Lettuce (picutured is Romaine, but Iceburg is better -- I think), broken up into bite-sized pieces

Ranch dressing

1.  Heat griddle and butter outsides of bread.

2.  Lay half of your bread, butter side down on heated griddle.

3.  Sprinkle about 1 - 2 Tbs of bacon bits on top of each sandwich.  (You may not think the order of bacon & cheese is important, but it is VERY important unless you want bacon bits all over the griddle when you flip the sandwich which I have proven by trial and error.)

4.  Layer sliced cheese next. Place remaining bread, butter-side up on top.

5.  Allow bread on the bottom to brown to desired level.  Flip sandwich and brown on the other side.

6. (This step is time sensitive as cheese will cease up if it cools down.) Remove sandwich from griddle.  Open sandwich.  Add lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing while cheese is still warm.  Close sandwich and serve warm.

ENJOY!