Chicken, zucchini and smoked mozzarella panini

For all of you that don't know me, I am a 22 year old law school student living in New York City on a law school budget, in a typical (read: small) apartment.  I love fresh, whole foods, trying new and weird dishes and experimenting in my kitchen, all of which are especially fun to do in the summer when farmers markets pop up around the city with fresh, cheap, and delicious produce.

I figured I'd start off my first blog post with today's lunch, a simple and easy panini that is absolutely delicious and easy to make, especially if you have either or both a George Forman grill or a grill pan.

The farmers market on my corner shows up on Wednesdays so on my way home from class, I picked up a few zucchinis--I will be so sad when the summer zucchinis are gone--and contemplated what I was going to do with them on the rest of the walk home.  As a student, I constantly make big batches of food on the weekend and make a variation of the same dish for the rest of the week.  This weekend, I had sauteed a bunch of chicken cutlets and had a few leftover, along with some smoked mozzarella I bought from the Amish Market in midtown.  They have an amazing assortment of cheeses at really reasonable prices!

I decided to grill the zucchini, and cut one small one into thin slices lengthwise (about a quarter of an inch thick).  I then grilled them on a grill pan (although the George Forman would have been a fine substitute) and let them cool off for a second while I slathered my thin, round bread  (I like Deli Flats, but this would be good on any type of bread) with honey mustard, and heated up my chicken quickly in the microwave.  When the chicken was heated through, I cut generous slices of the mozzarella to place on top of the chicken and bread and put an even amount of zucchini slices across the sandwich.  

The whole sandwich gets placed (gingerly--it's pretty big now) on the Forman grill, and it heats up in just a few minutes.  It is ready when the bread has nice grill marks and the mozzarella is bubbling.

This meal is pretty cheap and easy to make with leftovers; it happens to be delicious as well. Enjoy!