Hey guys,

As many of you know, I take nutrition quite seriously, and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for healthy sandwiches. The reason I'm asking is because I've pretty much only been eating smoked salmon sandwiches, with roasted red pepper dip/hummus, a leafy green, and my left over pulp from juicing, for the past two or so years; and I have it around three times a week.

I do have the odd grilled cheese sandwich, cheese and lettuce sandwich, or my jerk chicken mixture (slow cooker jerk chicken, caesar salad dressing, garlic, onion and seasonings) the odd time for a change, but I find it difficult to make anything else because I don't eat processed meat.

Most importantly, the sandwiches have to be a quick fix because I have limited time with my caregivers.

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Cam

Chicken Salad
Poached or grilled chicken breast cut in cubes
Mayo
Salt
Pepper
Celery
Finely chopped cucumber
Chives
Tarragon

Cold (toasted bread) or grilled tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil leaves (pesto would work too).

Grilled vegetable sandwich (zucchini, eggplant, onions, peppers with alfalfa sprouts. You can use the hummus or tzatziki with this.

Tuna Sandwich
Mayo
Fresh dill
Chives
Celery
Salt
Pepper

Chicken or turkey breast, avocado, tomato, leaf lettuce.

Organic peanut butter, sliced banana, fruit jam.

You can also substitute wraps for the bread portion, hot/cold. Sandwiches are very universal. Infinite possibilities.

PB&J.

I almost forgot about Nutella. It is a chocolate, hazelnut spread which is very delicious. Think of it like peanut butter.

How about the occasional slow cooker beef instead of chicken, with some onions & peppers cooked with the beef then used as toppings on the sandwich ?

Where do you get your smoked salmon from?

Chicken salad sandwich:
Roast chicken, celery chopped course, serrano peppers chopped, cilantro, lite sour cream, dollop of mayo, Ship Madras Curry Powder.

Tuna Salad Sandwich:
White Albacore tuna in metalized pouch, then same as above.

Vegetable sandwich:
French Baguette, sliced cucumbers, sliced radishes,sliced tomato, sweet unsalted butter.

Steak sandwich:
Tri-Tip or Sirloin grilled over mesquite coals rare, onion mushroom gravy, French baguette.
Douse Steak with olive oil, whap with Kosher salt, cover with granulated onion and granulated garlic, cover with course ground black pepper then grill over charcoal.

Saute onions until (brown) carmelized, add mushrooms, saute until brown, add massive sub-lethal dose of chopped fresh garlic (not from jar), deglaze with red wine, or dry vermouth and reduce.

Slice steak thick, and cover with onion mushroom gravy.

Not particularly healthy, but my goodness, this is a great sandwich.

Hamburger Sandwich:

5% ground beef, preferrably Kosher or Halal (no blood). Chop fresh mushrooms fine, serrano peppers and Fetah cheese, work into chopped beef with Kosher salt, granulated garlic and onion. Heat a heavy duty sauteeing pan (Rubber Maids are great) wipe with olive oil, place beef ball (1/2 lb+) onto pan and press down. Place sliced mushrooms and sliced sour pickles on pan. Turn over beef when it has a nice crust on bottom, cover burger with sharp cheddar and cover pan.

Serve on sesame roll. Tell me if this isn't the best burger you've ever had.

Hello wheelz, I see your avatar is now that famous crack smoking murderer, Huey Newton. Excellent choice for you!!

I suppose your choice of Huey is an improvement over your previous avatar choice of Che Guevara, a communist mass murderer.

Good work!

Wheels, the most important health factor in a sandwich is the choice of bread or wrapping. I use flatbread wheat wraps as a good source of fiber. I roll up meat or peanut butter with fresh veggies or pickles. Mustard only for low-cal condiment.
Quick, easy, and good!
Bill

You know what I like lately? Take pesto and smear it on two slices of grainy bread. Lay on some turkey breast or rotisserie chicken breast. Slap some havarti cheese on it. Top with your choice of greens (I like spinach) and/or pickle slices. Devour.

Thank you very much for the excellent suggestions, guys! Nearly every one appeals to me, and I'll give it a go at some point (with the exception to Ken's P&J suggestion ).



Costco



Bill, my bread of choice is whole wheat Dimpflmeier.

It's just like you to go off topic for the sake of ridicule.

Good work!

That does sound very appetizing, Peter.

I haven't had pickles in a long time, but I'm definitely going to pick some up now that they've been mentioned a couple times in this thread.

Yes pmb, and if you choose a notorious murderer as your avatar, you can also expect a comment.

My girlfriend thinks I'm weird, but I happen to like green apples in my Tuna. I only use water packed albacore and 'just' enough mayo to make it moist. None of that rancid non-fat mayo either, real mayo. Cube the apple into about 3/8" cubes and mix away with a wee bit of dill weed and squirt of lime juice. Sometimes I'll add horseradish too. I've been eating tuna for a long time, so one has to get creative after a spell, but it sure is hard to beat for a good, low fat, high protein meat.

Man this thread is making me hungry!

And strangely enough, wanting to commit mass murder...

With egg salad, the amount of mayo you add is really crucial. It goes from dry to overdressed, sloppy and disgusting really quickly. Usually start with one very small spoonful and mix it up. Overdressed tuna, salmon, egg and chicken salad sandwiches with the amount of mayo is the most common mistake IMO.

Yet again, you can't desist from slandering me, or denouncing very important historical figure's (with grotesquely erroneous statements), when it comes to aiding impoverished and disenfranchise people. Or people that you would most likely considered a pariah, and have nothing in common with.

Huey P Newton was a crack smoking murder, was he? This is typical right wing, uneducated, misinformed rhetoric. Leaving the silly crack smoking accusation aside, I'm interested to hear what murder he was charged for? It's indisputable that Che Guevara killed people, but when you're in an armed conflict with a dictator, you engage.

So, who did Huey P Newton kill? Where's the proof? I'm sure you haven't forgotten about the court cases where was found innocent.....

More healthy ideas and great tips to help me out! Thanks Michael and House.

You can also add pita bread to your repertoire. You can stuff or dip pita bread with just about everything.

One of my favorites is beef (filet mignon) or chicken (breast or thigh) marinated in olive oil, oregano, seasoned with salt and pepper. Grilled then sliced thinly. Diced tomato, black olives, cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, chiffonade of lettuce, feta cheese and tzatziki. All mixed together and then stuffed inside a warmed pita.

You ever use sprouts on your sammy? You can grow your own you know.

I used to be really into nutrition. Still am, but it's really hard and expensive to eat well consistently.

I dream of a day when all food that's bought and sold is of high quality, yummy and good for you!

But then, I'm a leftist, DFH (dirty fu#kin' hippie) and potential revolutionary mass murderer myself...

Now up against the wall pig, and make me a sandwich!

Power to the po'boy!!!

Damn, there are a lot of tasty-sounding sandwiches in this thread. Some of them even sound easy / healthy / tasty all at the same time.

My token contribution to healthy eating is that I started making kimchi at home again and just started my first batch of sauerkraut. Yeah, I weakened and ordered one of those big-ass Harsch fermentation crocks. Kimchi is great on sandwiches if you like the red pepper and garlic; sauerkraut is almost as good if you don't.

My "lazy man's work lunch" involves dumping some coleslaw mix, chopped onion, whatever vegetables are in the back of the fridge, some leftover chicken and some dressing into a plastic container, mixing it up a bit and taking it to work... and keeping a bag of tortillas in my desk. I'm not a big fan of raw cabbage but after a couple of hours in the fridge at work it's just about ready to wrap some in a tortilla and eat.

Pitas might work better than tortillas, now that I think about it.

Sorry, I can't resist this one....From the book of John.....

"if you go carryin' pictures of Chaaaiiirman Maaooo, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyyyhowww..."

That sounds good. Maybe a few walnuts for a bit of crunch and a bit of Wasabi to lift the top a bit, clear the sinuses and distinguish the sandwich from a Waldorf.

If everyone on the forum had a trail camera mounted in their kitchen...

... how many pictures of startled people holding sandwiches would we have by now ?

Well...have we talked about healthy enough, Cam? I am having the urge to sidetrack this to....unhealthy? I indulge my impulses much less these days but....sliced, semi thick, sour dough bread with mayo, sharp cheddar cheese, sauteed (in a tiny amount of olive oil) baby portabella shrooms and topped with broccoli or alfalfa sprouts.....slow toasted, of course...

I am putting on my shoes and headed to the 24 hour deli....

I nearly eat 1 pb&J per day. It has to be the natural crunchy peanut butter with just peanuts and salt, no extra ingredients. I like the smuckers natrual crunchy the best, along with the smuckers "simply fruit" jelly.

Good stuff.

Nutella and banana sandwich.

Kosher salami and banana on rye sandwich.

Chopped liver and pimento on rye bread.

Turkey (real roasted breast meat) and Pastrami combo on rye bread with Russian dressing.

Scottish double smoked salmon, cream cheese with chives on a garlic bagel (real bagel not bread in the shape of a bagel).

I have to take a break now for a PB&J and a glass of milk.

YUM!

I made my own peanut butter in my Vitamix a couple weeks ago. Tossed some natural roasted salted peanuts in there and drizzled a tiny bit of (gasp!) grapeseed oil in there just to get things moving smoothly. It's been great! Easy to spread, even straight out of the fridge, and no sign of separation.

Jif extra crunchy peanut butter, strawberry preserves, on Streits Moon Strips. Glass of milk.

Thanks terzaghi.

I like to mix a spoonful of relish in with my tuna.

Last really good sandwich I made. My wife did not eat the lobster claws that came with her baked stuffed lobster. I took them home. I took out the meat and mixed it with mayo, salt and pepper. Served on oatmeal bread toast.

I'm just the tiniest bit unsure about that one...

I suggested one to my assistant. She made yakking noises. Very uncourageous of her.

Banana, salami, hold the mustard.

OK, maybe without mustard...

... although I have to admit, the voices in my head were making yakking noises too

Now if you wanna talk exceedingly delicious sandwiches that are bad for you, I've got two of the best right here...

The Cuban and the Reuben.

They are my favorites... and probably as bad for you as Charlie Sheen's lifestyle!

Seriously, whoever invented the Reuben must have thought: "This is the greatest sandwich invention since the hamburger!"

Thanks so much, guys. I'm going to print these off and pick up some of the ingredients today. Keep them coming , it's very much appreciated.



Cool, Peter. Have you tried a mixture of say peanuts and cashews? Also, EVOO works great, and is my choice if the butter is too viscous. Might be something you may want to try, and it's far less offensive than grapeseed oil .

I used to do that, but now I prefer to put about 2 layers of dill pickle slices on top of the tuna instead.

4 pages about 'healthy' sandwiches and nobody's used the "b" word yet?

To sidetrack off the healthy kick, I must admit I LOVE pressed sandwiches in a panini press. A local restaurant got me addicted to those. That is a new toy I want in the kitchen. I would probably pop the cherry with a Cuban sandwich.

Bazoombas?

:::picturing a bazoomba sandwich:::

No BBQ pork or smoked brisket on enriched white bread Smoked turkey or chicken?

You could have an egg substitute sammie or egg white sammie.

Bridgman, I may give this a try, it's just that I really limit my red meat intake.

Geez... talk about off topic lol

You could enjoy one while motorboating.

I think it's awesome that J.P knows what motorboating is!

I'm a motorboatin' sonofabitch!

Even I know what that is, so don't go gettin' all flblfblfblfblfblf over it.

I would rather have a 4 stroke than a 2 stroke.

My mom picked up some pre-sliced hot dill pickles with garlic, and some pepper rings. I'm not fond of the sodium content at all, but thanks to your suggestions, these will add a little extra something to my sandwiches.

She also picked up the ingredients for a couple of the sandwich mixture suggestions, and I'm going to get them made up tomorrow.

My plan is to make a fair size batch of each mixture, and then freeze it in sandwich bags (each bag containing two or three servings). That way my caregivers can just defrosted in the fridge, and apply it to my sandwiches as need be. This is the only option that I can think of because of time restraints. I'm just unsure if this would have any impact on the overall quality. Any thoughts?

Does anyone know if mayonnaise has a very limited fridge life if it's been added to said mixture, then frozen, then defrosted?

Thanks

PB&N&B&B - Peanut butter, nutella, bananas, and bacon. To die for. Without the bacon, it actually is pretty healthy. Nutella and PB have good fats from nuts!

At the beginning of every class, my soon-to-be-retiring high school PE teacher would mention that "Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are better than sex. And I've had both."

The man liked his sandwiches.

I wouldn't freeze mayonnaise.

I believe you are correct. Freezing mayonnaise is uncool, er, uh, unsafe.

Thanks, guys.

I guess the only other option is to freeze the chicken that I want to use for chicken salad, take out the amount that I will use for the next couple days, then make enough mixture to last, and then add the chicken.

It's tricky for me to get my caregivers to make me a healthy sandwich with some sort of meat, within a 15 minutes max preparation time.

All of my dinner meals are cooked and frozen, so we just have to reheat them.

Cam: For any sort of meat salad, or even salad salads, prep all the ingredients. Even portion out the mayo if needed.

Do not combine any of the ingredients until you are ready to eat them. Cooked chicken in an airtight containter should last for days in a good fridge.

Same goes for any chopped veggies you may wanna put in there or for salad fixins. Keep all the ingred. in separate lidded containers in the fridge.

I can get almost a week in the fridge out of a shredded whole chicken for doggie meals.

Don't buy pre-prepped veggies at the market. They go bad way to fast.

All good advice BK.

Crap! That's 4 times here today that someone has agreed with me. Now I gotta ask my psychopharmacologist to take another look at my meds.

Cam, if by "fridge life" re frozen mayonnaise you're referring to a health risk, that isn't the problem. The ingredients of the mayonnaise(mostly oil, egg yolks and vinegar)separate when frozen and the result doesn't look or taste as good. The acidic nature of mayonnaise and the lower fridge temperature combine to form a very hostile environment for bacteria.

As far as easy to prepare sandwiches, I like either cube steak or similarly, ground round patted out about 1/8" thick and fried a minute or two on each side.

We were trying to scare him, so that we didn't have to imagine him eating thawed mayo, or rather, thawed mayo ingredients.

You are buzzkilling our pop psych which we can only employ when JP is asleep. God knows that work doesn't interfere with his time here, so we gotta work fast. Understood?

Well, I had that mixture (minus the tarragon because we couldn't find it) and added some hot peppers, all stuffed in half a pita for lunch, and it was fantastic.

The vegetables and chicken is chopped and sealed separately in the fridge so it's easy to whip up. I have a stainless steel GE Profile fridge which is excellent at keeping things fresh for a while.

I'll eventually work my way through the ones I like. So it's going to be a combination of House's and 2x's tuna salad next week.

Thanks again everyone!

Aside- As suggested, I also picked up some Nutella, which will be good to have once in a while rather than just peanut butter. Only downside is that I find it quite sweet. I consume very little sugar for obvious reasons.

I often use boiled chicken for my chicken salad. Then you end up with a pot of delicious chicken soup and a chicken's worth of chicken for chicken salad.

Trick is not to overcook the chicken. Use a whole chicken, cut-up, bring to a boil, skim the top, reduce to low/simmer, add celery, carrots and pepper corns, (lemon grass if you like) and cook for an hour. The chicken will not be dried out, the soup will be delicious.

Place the pot of soup in the fridge and skim off the fat which will end up a pancake of fat on the top.

You can use zip lock sandwich bags to freeze the soup in useable portions. You can add lemon grass, crazy hot thai peppers, and coconut milk or coconut cream. Do not overcook the coconut milk/cream or it will taste soapy.

Saute some of the chicken with garlic, fresh ginger, curry powder or yellow curry paste if you have and a bit of soy sauce, ladle some of the soup and chicken over rice, garnish with fresh basil, mint and cilantro, and enjoy.