This grilled sandwich is not your typical turkey sandwich.  It’s really sensational.  Inspired by a grilled Reuben, I’m using turkey instead of pastrami and homemade crunchy coleslaw instead of sauerkraut.  The bread is still spread with my skinny Thousand Island dressing and topped with reduced-fat cheese. When this Panini is made with regular ingredients it contains 621 calories and 37 grams of fat.  My skinny Panini has 398 calories and 14 grams of fat.

Prep Time: 20 minutes (including making the dressings and coleslaw)

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

For Thousand Island dressing:

¼ cup Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing or reduced-fat mayonnaise

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 tablespoon pickle relish

1 teaspoon yellow mustard

1 dash paprika

For the Panini:

1 recipe for Simply Crunchy Slaw

2 tablespoons reduced-fat butter or Smart Balance Light.

8 slices Dark Rye or Russian Rye Bread

8 ounces turkey breast, thinly sliced

4 ounces reduced-fat cheese such as Jarlsberg or Swiss

Mustard to serve on side

Instructions

1. Prepare the Thousand Island dressing by adding all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.  Mix until smooth.

2. Prepare the recipe for Simply Crunchy Slaw.

3. Preheat Panini Maker or George Forman Grill.

4. To assemble each sandwich: Spread both sides of two slices of bread with a little reduced-fat butter. Flip the bread over and spread the inside of both pieces with a little Thousand Island dressing.  Place one fourth of the turkey on top of the dressing.  Top with coleslaw.  Place one slice of cheese on top of the coleslaw.  Top with the remaining slice of bread, buttered side up.  Repeat the steps to assemble other sandwiches.  You’ll have a little extra coleslaw leftover.

4. Place the sandwiches in the Panini Maker or Grill and cook for about 4-5 minutes until well toasted.

5. Slice each sandwich in half and serve at once.  Serve with mustard on the side.

Makes 4 sandwiches

Food Fact

Cabbage is one of the most consumed vegetable in the world second to potatoes.

Healthy Benefits

Sliced turkey breast is the healthiest of all the cold cuts.  It has minimal fat and very low in calories.  It does however contain a fair amount of sodium.

Cabbage is rich in fiber with only 20 calories per cup.

Cooking Tip

If you’ve got a Panini maker or George Forman grill use it but if you don’t that’s ok too.  Use a nonstick pan.  Add the sandwiches and weight them down with the bottom of heavy pan or pot when grilling to create the Panini-style sandwich.  The cook time will be doubled since you need to cook the sandwiches on each side.