nutritious junk

I’ve always wanted to go to Italy.  It seems like I’ve been everywhere but Italy, and who wouldn’t want to go there.  They’ve got crazy cool guys from history like Leonard da Vinci and Galileo, gelato and amazing cars.  They also have paninis, those grilled sandwiches filled with warm, gooey tastyness.  So I was pretty excited that one of the new crazes in the frozen food world is grilled paninis you can make in the microwave.  I was all about it, until I found out there was no vegetarian options.  Then Healthy Choice came out with a tomato, basil, and mozzarella version. 310 calories, 4.5g of fat, 6g of fiber, 23g of protein. I picked one up, brought it home, opened it up and was a little floored by the size.  It was pretty small, but you know what they say, it’s not the size that counts…  It was also lacking in the veggies that were promised on the front.  But I decided to look these things over and make with making the panini. When I was heating my panini in the microwave after doing the art project described on the back to create a sort of grill, I could smell this great smell coming from the microwave.  The smell of toasting bread, pesto and whatever else the whole heating process was doing to make my frozen sandwich hot.  When I took it out of the microwave I was skeptical about the whole grilling thing.  But the bread was crunchy and had even browned.  But when I took my first bite I was a little surprised.  It tasted so…bland.  The amazing smells that had wafted from my microwave had not transferred to the taste.  I even felt it needed salt, which was odd since it already has 25% of my daily need for sodium.  The bread lacked flavor, the pesto had no basil tones at all and the only thing I really tasted was the flavor of the faded red tomatoes. By the time I had eaten a few bites the bread was starting to get soggy.  I really wanted to like this sandwich because it meant that I wouldn’t have to make a whole production out of making a grilled sandwich.  I think this sandwich would make a great candle scent.  I might even make this again to fill the house with that great smell.  But hey, quella è vita.