SANDWICHES 101
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard.
Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible. ~George Claude Lorimer (1838 – 1904)
BRING LUNCH
A brilliant way to simultaneously eat well and save money: make a sandwich! Since many workplaces have pantry areas with a refrigerator and a little counter-top, consider actually making the sandwich right there at work. But just because your workplace lacks this particular convenience is no excuse, really, to not bring a sandwich from home. Brown bag lunches are one way you can know what your young children are eating for lunch.
The single most important element in sandwich-making is the bread. If the bread is boring, so follows the sandwich. Different sandwiches call for different breads. Here are a few ideas; feel free to experiment with whatever moves you.
- Ham, corned beef and pastrami’s best companion is rye bread.
- A dark, rich pumpernickel is great for for sandwiches with cream cheese.
- Tuna salad is wonderful on sprouted wheat berry bread which has a nice crunch.
- Roast beef goes well on sourdough, a French baguette or Italian sub roll.
- Choose simple whole wheat or egg bread for classics like PB&J and BLT.
- Try a toasted English muffin as the base for a sandwich.
- Pita comes in two sizes; smaller pita loaves are easier to manage, especially for kids. Slice off just the top 1/2” or so to keep sandwich contents in the pocket.
- Bagels, croissants and challa or egg bread are some of the endless possibilities that make sandwiches interesting.
- You can pick up some prepared meatballs in marinara at a hot salad bar, slice them in half and make an average-sized sandwich at half the price of the giant hero subs that delis make with whole meatballs.
Keep a pantry stocked with modest sandwich-making supplies:
- Condiments:Â mayonnaise, mustard, butter.
- Greens: lettuce or greens like arugula, basil or cilantro rinsed and kept in your refrigerator crisper. Lacking this bit of foresight, stop by a deli or grocery with a salad bar and pick up a handful of greens. They are cleaned and light-weight, giving you twin benefits of costing mere pennies and making a good sandwich great.
- Other trimmings for every sandwich-making opportunity:Â sliced tomato, different cheeses and things like avocado, hard-cooked eggs and alfalfa sprouts because they are easily picked up, as needed, at the neighborhood salad bar.
If you like avocado on your sandwich and want to bring them from home, keep in mind their delicacy. Ripe avocados have a short shelf life. An avocado that you slice in the morning will be likely to have turned brown by lunchtime, so consider these strategies:
- Toss sliced avocado in lemon juice to retard browning and drying before adding to sandwich.
- Put the sliced, lemony avocado in an airtight container. Add it to sandwich just before eating.
OR
- Keep your lunch-time avocados at work so you can have one that has just ripened with minimal transporting. Slice avocado in half and remove the seed. Peel, slice and add to your already-made sandwich OR
- After removing the seed, simply eat with a spoon right out of its own little cup. Bite of sandwich, spoonful of avocado.
- Avocado is great with sushi and, rather than suffer tiny slivers of the soft, green miracle buried in a sushi roll, slice an avocado and eat right alongside.
Ways to make dining al desko more interesting:
- Have a book or magazine to read to foster the idea that lunch is your own time rather than work time.
- If you like tea, bring in a variety of flavored teas to have hot or iced, further food budget saving. If you like a lot of tea, you might want to have a small tea pot on hand. Make tea in the morning, place in freezer for iced tea by lunch time. You can do the same with coffee, in a tea pot dedicated to coffee.
- A place mat relegates a dining space on your desk to keep food away from papers and keyboard while having a working lunch. A coaster will control condensation under a chilled drink.
- A few paper towels stored close by will allow you to deal quickly with cleanup in your cubicle.
Keep these at work to supplement lunch:
- Nuts – almonds, pecans, pistachios, sunflower seeds.
- Fruit – whatever’s in season that you like (apples, bananas, grapes, tangerines, pears, even a grapefruit is suitable for peeling)
- Snap peas, peeled & sliced carrots.
- Celery sticks: add a scoop of peanut butter or almond butter for a quick protein pick-me-up.
- Plain yogurt with live cultures; mix in a little jam just before eating.
- Make an after-lunch sweet: a cupcake (cranberry nut cake) or chocolate pudding to have with coffee or tea.
- If your workplace lacks a refrigerator, pack a frozen water bottle if you are concerned about keeping things fresh.
- Check out my previous post about lunches at school or work.
Today’s Preparation is a variety of basic Sandwich combinations to keep lunch lively, but the fun is making up your own!
