Saturday Sandwich 48, 49 & 50: Tomato, Marmalade and Nutella Sandwiches

This week we're combining three sandwiches in one post because they're all quite basic sandwiches which quite frankly don't deserve a whole post about themselves!

First up is the Tomato Sandwich. Simply slice up a ripe tomato and sandwich between two slices of buttered bread. Seasoning it with salt and pepper. I had just half a sandwich as I'm not keen on tomatoes.

It was pretty good. The beauty of a one-ingredient sandwich is you can enjoy the flavour of just one thing with nothing getting in the way of it. The down-side of a one-ingredient sandwich is that there's only one thing in it and that's a bit crap after numerous sandwiches stuffed with delicious foods. We've been spoiled lately and this sandwich left us a bit wanting.

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma -2


Next up is a sandwich made famous by a bear called Paddington.

To make a marmalade sandwich spread marmalade liberally on a slice of bread and finish with a second slice of bread. So easy even a small bear could do it.

Again, this was a reasonably nice sandwich but not very interesting to eat. Marmalade is delicious on first bite but gets increasing bitter the more you eat it. I prefer jam or lemon cheese to marmalade.

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma - 2


Finally, the Nutella Sandwich. This is a sandwich I've eaten plenty before but with the twist of toasting the bread and adding a sprinkling of salt to the nutella.

Toasted nutella sandwiches are great. The nutella has slightly melted and gone gooey making it even more delicious. I liked the salt addition too because salt really does bring out the chocolate flavour. I'll be toasting the bread for my chocolate spread (because we usually buy the supermarket brand instead) sandwiches in the future.

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 3

In conclusion, we really like sandwiches with more than one ingredient. Please don't let yourself be led down this dangerous sandwich path because then you too will only love sandwiches with many ingredients stuffed inside. :(

Coming up next Saturday - Kookoo Sabzi Wrap

Adventures in Healthy Eating 4: No-Bake Healthy Brownies

Next up to try are these no-bake brownies --> http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/-Bake-Brownies-34874819

Put stuff in the food processor.

Look it's all blended nicely. Mix in gross mashed banana and apple sauce.

Smooth it out into a square pan. Refrigerate for ages and then chop into small squares. The smaller the better since the less you eat the healthier you are, hah.

They were easy to make and were actually better the next day after a night in the fridge to firm them up a bit more. Leigh seemed to really like them and finished them off after a few days, everyone else tried them but weren't that keen. I ate a couple and they were ok but I felt slightly disgruntled that they weren't brownies at all.

Which is the problem with most healthy recipes. They promise something like 'healthy brownies' but what they give you is something entirely different but still call them brownies. I'd prefer if they called it a oaty, nut, banana bar or something so you're not tricked into thinking you'll have something as delicious as a brownie. It's obvious from the ingredients that they won't be brownies but I feel sad that people being healthy think they have to eat pretend not-brownies and never taste a delicious proper brownie ever again.

I'd rather eat one brownie than 3 of these which would be just as healthy but actually enjoyable. That's probably it for trying health foods. We'll stick to homemade regular foods instead.

One thing learned from these experiments is that Leigh and Erin are great at trying new foods now and Leigh will eat anything vaguely chocolatey. :D

Saturday Sandwich 47: Pulled Pork & Coleslaw

Yes, yes I know it's Sunday today but we ate the sandwich yesterday so it still counts. JD made me stay up late playing video games until I was too tired to post :p

This sandwich was the easiest to make. We just put the pork joint in the slow cooker with a bit of water and then went out to the cinema. When we got back the house smelled of delicious pork. JD drained the water and added barbecue sauce to the pork. An hour later we were having our pulled pork sandwiches.

 Once the pork has been cooking in the water for a few hours it easily pulls apart with two forks to become pulled pork.

Fill a bread bun with the pork and add some coleslaw.

These sandwiches tasted great. The coleslaw made it a bit messy to eat and to be honest we both would've preferred the sandwich without the coleslaw.  Even so, the coleslaw does go well with the pulled pork and the soft bread buns are perfect with the pulled pork. We quite often have pulled pork anyway so it was a nice excuse to eat it again even with the addition of coleslaw.

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 3

Coming up next Saturday - A Trio of Sandwiches

Adventures in Healthy Eating 3: Chocolate Hummus

Lord knows what the kids will think of this as a snack. Erin likes regular hummus and Leigh likes most chocolatey things, so there's a chance :D

Ingredients:

1/4 cup ground almonds
5 pitted dates
1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup skimmed milk

It couldn't be easier to make, just chop the dates and then put everything in the food processor.

 I didn't chop my dates and they wouldn't process so I had to get them out and chop them after instead. Messy job. -.-

 Ta-da, chocolate hummus ready for dipping things in.

 And what better than biscuits. Apple slices would be healthier if you want to one up us. :p

Nobody liked it, not even me and I'm usually all over anything chocolate tasting. Which was the problem really, it didn't taste very chocolatey at all. A bit disappointing! We all had a good try of it, even Erin dunked all her biscuits in it.  It had a nice texture and was pleasing how it stuck to the biscuits.

Back to the drawing board. :)

Saturday Sandwich 46: Spamwich

What's more romantic than Spam? :D Ok, pretty much everything is but still here we are on Valentine's Day about to eat a Spamwich for lunch.


Ingredients: Spam, white bread, lettuce, tomato, mayo and chilli sauce.

 Slice up the Spam and fry it in a little bit of oil until it's crisp on each side.

 Spread mayo on white bread then top with lettuce and tomato.

 Sprinkle hot sauce on the top slice and top the salad with the fried Spam slices.

It's a surprisingly nice sandwich. The spam is salty and a lovely texture once it's been fried. Spam's a lot nicer than people give it credit for. It was in the guilty pleasures section of our sandwich book but I'm proud to say I enjoy a Spamwich. We'd have it again maybe with a fried egg included on top.

Ratings: JD -3, Emma - 3

Next Saturday - Pulled Pork & Coleslaw Sandwich

Saturday Sandwich 45: Po' Boy

The Po' Boy sandwich is from Louisiana and consists of roast meat or fried seafood in a baguette or sub roll. We chose to go with fried prawns like the recipe in our book. Much to my dismay really because I usually don't enjoy prawns. :(

Here's a recipe if you want to try one yourself --> http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/classic-fried-shrimp-poboys-recipe.html

 We made up some mayo mixed with mustard, lemon juice, chopped onion, salt & pepper.

 The prawns are deep fried after being coated in egg and cornmeal mixed with cajun seasoning (made up by JD).

Make up the sandwich with lettuce (JD also had tomato), fried prawns and cover in the mayo sauce. Sprinkle with hot sauce if you like it.

I really enjoyed the Po' Boy after getting used to the texture of the prawns (shudder). The whole sandwich tasted delicious with the hot sauce adding a lot of spice to an already spicy cajun taste. The mayo sauce was lovely and smooth (except for the lumpy onion bits) which contrasted with the crunchy lettuce. JD didn't enjoy the mayo sauce and thought it had a weird taste. He also didn't enjoy the prawns even though he usually loves prawns...apparently not in a sandwich.

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma - 3

Coming up next Saturday - Spamwich