Caprese Grilled Cheese w/Baked Zucchini Sticks

OK. So I totally made up the name for the sandwich. I got the "recipe" from Pinterest (oh, how I love thee!). The link takes you to foodgawker.com, but not directly to the recipe, just to "most favorited all-time - page 3". I can't even find the same photo on that page that I pinned to my food board, but thankfully the original pin had all the ingredients. I call it the caprese grilled cheese because it has fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil pesto on the inside. Yum.

Ingredients, Caprese grilled cheese:

Fresh mozzarella

Sliced tomatoes

Basil pesto- I used store bought stuff b/c I didn't feel like making my own.

Bread- I went with sourdough here. There was no suggestion for bread and that's what sounded good to me in the store.

Directions (does anyone really need directions for making grilled cheese??):

Spread the pesto on one or both sides of the bread, layer with tomatoes and mozzarella, and cook in a pan, turning once. It's as simple as it gets. I waned to share this recipe because I'd never thought of doing this to grilled cheese. And it was delicious.

Now, the baked zucchini sticks aren't hard to make, but they take a lot longer than the sandwich (mostly because of the resting time). I'm trying to think of new ways to incorporate vegetables into our diet here at the Bodily house so it was worth the time. And they're super delicious.

Ingredients, baked zucchini sticks:

3 medium-sized zucchini, about 9'' to 10'' long, cut into sticks about the diameter of your finger (there are great directions for cutting the zucchini on the website)

1 tablespoon salt

Combine these two and let them drain for 1 hour or longer. Then rinse and pat dry and your ready for the breading.

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

Scant 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon pizza seasoning or mixed Italian herbs

2 eggs (for dredging)

Full Recipe

Yield: 3 dozen sticks

I did make the sweet onion dip and I decided it was too sweet for my tastes. The zucchini sticks were yummy enough on their own so I didn't end up eating it. I will definitely be making these again. It's a nice way to switch up how you serve veggies.