Dismal Failure : Vegetable 'Toasties'

Have you ever had an idea that you thought would be awesome but then when you try it, it turns out to be, well, not so awesome?

That happened to me today:


A few weeks ago I had an electrical appliance clean out. I got rid of my second blender, an old mixer and a steamer that hadn't worked for over a year (?), but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of my Breville sandwich maker. You know, the old school type, that cuts your sandwich into two triangles and seals all the sandwich filling goodness in with nice and crispy crusts:


Since I no longer eat bread, I needed to come up with something else I could cook in it. So the idea of a vegetable 'toastie' was born. It was simple enough - A mash of vegetables, herbs and bacon cooked in the sandwich maker, emerging with a golden crust that would crack as you took the first bite. Hmmmm delicious!

So I made my vegetable and bacon mash and gave the sandwich maker a hefty spray of olive oil before loading it up:


I filled it to the brim so when I closed the lid, the vegetables oozed out the side.


But when we lifted the lid, after waiting for a lot longer than I normally would have, this is what I saw:


Erk! Upon closer inspection, I did get the golden vegetable crust I was after, but it stuck to the top despite the hefty spray of oil. So after I scraped it all out, this is what lunch looked like:


It still tasted good, but it was a pretty disappointing result!