WELCOME...

to THE SANDWICH & WRAP GURU's blog :)

Of course I say this tongue in cheek!  I don't know my way around a kitchen that well but...

What I do know is:

• Food doesn't have to be fancy to be delicious!
• Switching up your type of baked good takes the monotony out of eating "the same thing" day in and day out.  If you're a bread lover change your types - white, whole wheat, sour dough, something with seeds etc., use wraps, ciabatta, paninis, bagels, English muffins, waffles (there is a good recipe using frozen toaster waffles just shake things up a little)
• Making double the batch and freezing it saves time on food preparation and clean up - who doesn't like that?!
• Adding a little lunch note can brighten up someone's day! (see fun 'n' fab lunch box notes post)
• Even the smallest change to how your lunch looks makes it more appealing and interesting (see the Kids approved post for some fun ideas)
• Dinner left overs are perfect for your lunch sandwich or wrap the next day (or two).

Yum!

Here is a little freebie to get us started with our lunch box planning.  It's a monthly lunch planner - sometimes the planning is the hardest part - once you have it written on paper - lunch gets easier to tackle!!  Click HERE for this fun and free printable.

Who can't use this little cutie??!!

FUN SANDWICH FACTS:

• Did you know that May 10-16 is British Sandwich Week??
• World wide National Sandwich Day is November 3rd (this must be why we're having this class just now!!!)?
• Hawaii used to be called the Sandwich Islands after John Montagu who was the 4th Earl of Sandwich?
• The British spend a whopping £7.5bn per year on sandwiches (the most common sandwiches ordered by office workers is cheese)?
• The average American will have eaten 1,500 PBJ sandwiches by the time they leave school (not anymore I'll bet due to all of the peanut allergies out there!!!)
• The world's largest sandwich weighed 5,440 pounds?
• In the UK they had a limited time only Lasagna sandwich!

Not for me thanks!

The following Sandwich Truths are courtesy of the kblog lunch box lunch:

1. Pep-it-Up. Never underestimate the power of black pepper sprinkled over the interior of a sandwich.

2. Peace on Earth Eats. Sandwiches are a vehicle for peace and unity among humans. Have you ever met a person that doesn't like a good sandwich?

3. Perks. BBQ sauce, spicy mustard, pickles, fresh lemon juice, hot sauce or sauerkraut are tried and true ingredients to liven up a sandwich.

4. Your Bread Base. Really good sourdough, toasted, is a go-to bread for most sandwiches. And yes, "the bread" for your sandwich can make or break its success, so choose wisely. Fresh is best. Lightly toast to bring out the nutty aroma of the grains.

5. Splash it. A splash of oil and vinegar (is not just for salads) - livens up a sandwich too!

6. Drown it in Greens. Always pile on as many greens as will stay on the sandwich. Veg-overflow is an expected outcome of a well-stacked sandwich.

7. Side Sip. Lemonade and most fizzy beverages greatly enhance your sandwich eating experience.

8. Nix the Piled-High Chips. If you are devouring an entire bag of fried potato chips after you've finished your sandwich: you didn't make your sandwich big enough. Perfect sandwiches don't need gobs of chips. A few chips, sure. This same truth goes for fries.

9. Kiddie Kreations. Kids make the best sandwiches. No really, give a six year-old two slices of bread and watch magic happen. 

10. Veganize it. Pretty much any classic sandwich recipe can be veganized. Tempeh bacon, vegan chick'n and dairy-free cheeses made this happen. Challenge yourself to veganize your fave (or your family's fave) classic 'wich.

11. Good Stuff Tastes Good. Truth: A sandwich doesn't have to have nonsense on it to taste amazing. 

12. Picnic-Approved. Sandwiches are the perfect picnicking fare. Your hike, day at the beach or romantic stroll through the park will thank you. All you need to do is a little prep work at home for to-go meal bliss.

13. The Minimalist. A good sandwich only needs a few high quality ingredients. If you don't have high quality ingredients for your sandwich, don't bother.

14. Befriend Your Neighborhood Baker. Again, good bread is essential to a good sandwich. (Bread can come in many forms. Wraps, slices, rolls.)

15. Best Meal Ever? A simple, hearty, elegant sandwich may taste better than a four course, lavishly constructed meal at a five-star restaurant. Truth.

No time?? quick & easy recipes

15 FAST sandwiches and wraps

These very BASIC recipes are all so quick, easy and tasty to make - they all have a maximum of 5 ingredients each.  It's up to you if you build upon these by adding extra ingredients to make them as you wish!

BBQ Chicken

• White CANNED (Kirkland brand) chicken breast from Costco is my preferred choice
• Your favourite BBQ sauce
• Grated cheese - your preference (OPTIONAL)
• Veggies: lettuce, onion, peppers (ALL OPTIONAL)
• Your choice of wrap, bread, bagel, buns - whatever

Open can, drain and mix with BBQ sauce - how easy is that??

As a side note: I use the above to make a quick and tasty pizza for dinner.  Cut a french loaf in half length ways and slather on the BBQ chicken and grate some cheese over it and put it in the oven.  With a bagged salad on the side, perfect for dinner in a hurry!

Quick & easy!

Ham and cream cheese roll ups

• Deli sliced ham
• Cream cheese (the more the merrier I say!!)
• Tortillas

Spread on cream cheese to wrap, place ham on top and roll.  Cut these up into mini pin wheels - they look cute and are bite sized!

Add any salad to your pinwheels too!

Nut Butter & Banana Wrap

• 1 tortilla
• 1 whole peeled banana
• 100% nut butter - your preference

Spread nut butter all over wrap, place banana in middle - roll up tortilla and cut in half

Also perfect for a healthy breakfast on the run!

Nutella and banana sushi

• Tortilla wrap
• 1 Banana
• Nutella
• Strawberries

This is just a more fun variation on the above...

Slather your wrap in Nutella, place whole banana at the edge of tortilla, roll up and slice into sushi sizes - wipe your knife between cuts so it looks pretty :)  Place strawberries on for decoration. 

Delicious!!

Cesear chicken salad wrap

• Tortilla wrap
• Romain lettuce
• Cesear dressing
• Chicken (either the canned stuff mentioned above or you could use left over chicken strips from last night's dinner!)

Mix lettuce and dressing, place in middle of wrap, chicken on top and wrap it up!

Add parmesan cheese if you like...

Turkey Cheese & Salsa pinwheels

• Deli counter turkey
• Tortilla wrap
• Cheese (your choice)
• Salsa and/or Avocado

Place grated cheese in middle of tortilla, pop into the oven for a few minutes until melted, add turkey and salsa and/or avocado.

They even have a little skewer in them to hold them together!

Chicken, rice and broccoli grilled burritos

• Tortilla
• Canned chicken
• Grated cheese
• 1 bag of cheesy rice and broccoli

Make rice as per instructions on bag, mix in a bowl with the chicken, sprinkle cheese into middle of wrap, tuck in end and roll up, cook in a frying pan seam side down at first then when slightly golden flip over and repeat.

Use any kind of packaged rice - Mexican, Spanish , plain, basmati... whatever!!

Fried veggie hummus wraps

• Zucchini
• Onions
• Red peppers
• Hummus
• Tortillas

Really you can use any veggies that you like to eat.  Fry up all the veggies in a pan, spread hummus onto a wrap, add veggies & roll.

Grill them afterwards if you would like

Beef on a bun

• Roast beef
• BBQ sauce
• Buns

Another great left over dinner recipe.  Make it for dinner one night and eat for lunch for the next 2 days!

Pulled beef, pork or chicken!

Freezer "breakfast" sandwiches

• English muffins
• Deli ham
• Cheese
• Eggs
• Salt & pepper to taste

Fry up or bake your eggs, slice muffins in half, add cheese and 3 slices of the ham into the muffin and place fried egg on top.  These can be wrapped and frozen.  Place in fridge the night before work and pop into your lunch box ready to eat at lunch time!!

Or Freezer LUNCH sandwiches!!

Tuna

• Flaked tuna (no name brand is good!)
• Mayonnaise
• Corn - yes corn!  It's a must for anyone from the UK!!
• Peppers (OPTIONAL)
• Grated cheese (OPTIONAL)
• Your choice of wrap, bread, bagel, buns - whatever

Super easy - you probably already eat this all the time... just add a little corn next time!!

A little slice of home!

Cheese dream sandwiches

I'm sure you're used to the North American way of making french toast (very sweet).  Now try the British version (very salty) but adding a little cheese as well...

• Bread
• Grated cheese
• Eggs
• Milk
• Salt
• Pepper

Mix bottom 4 ingredients in a bowl, dip in 2 slices of bread and fry them on one side, flip one over and sprinkle cheese all over it and place other slice on bread on top.  Fry until cheese is nice a gooey.  Once fried to golden perfection add a dash more salt and pepper.

Stick some ham in there too if you fancy it?!

Chicken & Cheese Quesadillas

• Tortilla wrap
• Chicken
• Grated cheese
• Greek yogurt or sour cream
• Salsa

Sprinkle cheese on wrap, mix together chicken and salsa, scoop onto wrap and fry in a pan. Once golden dip into your yogurt or sour cream.

You can even dip it into some more salsa if you like it nice and spicy!

Grilled Ham and Cheese Waffles

• Frozen waffles
• 1 tbs dijon mustard (optional)
• Deli ham
• Thinly sliced cheese
• Butter

Spread mustard on one side only, top with ham, cheese and another waffle.  Spread butter on the top waffle and melt more butter in a pan.  Place waffle into the pan butter side up.

Big stack!

Chicken Club Lettuce wraps

OK... so this recipe has 8 ingredients but it's the only one :)

• Lettuce
• Chicken
• Mini tomatoes
• Avocado
• Bacon
• 2 tbs dijon mustard
• 2 tbs sour cream
• pinch of pepper

To make djion sauce: mix together dijon, sour cream and pepper.  Put chicken into lettuce leaves, add on top all ingredients including the sauce.  Pick up the wrap like a taco and enjoy!

Change up the sauce to BBQ/Buffalo/Ranch... whatever!!

TIP: Fed up with the same old breads?  Try a naan instead!

Naan bread to shake things up a little in the lunch department!

Kid approved lunch ideas...

Why not make some light hearted lunch box additions for our little ones - who knows, something fun and interesting in there might even tempt the pickiest of eaters!!

DOs

• Make your sandwich look interesting... which would you prefer??

This?

OR

These??

Of course we don't have time to be sandwich (or wrap) artists all the time so these simple, quick ideas should help (of course at the end of this blog post I've included some over achiever pictures for you to try at home!)

• Stick a lollipop/cake pop stick into your pin wheels - simple but fun:

How easy?

• Use fun shaped cookie cutters:

From this...

Cool!

Simple yet sweet

To these!

• Sandwich kababs - what a difference a skewer makes

Sandwich on a stick!

• Have them decorate their own sandwich:

Use foods that they like to eat to decorate with

• or wrap:

The yellow peppers could be his hair!

• If you're like me and not super creative, use Mr Potato Head pieces to jazz up their lunch:

Or give them a blank canvas (the sandwich) and give them the pieces in their lunch box and they can create their own - lunch and an activity all in one!!

• If your kids like wraps, give them a variety of colours:

Don't these look fun?

You could bake your own and go crazy with the colours!!

Halloween lunch box ideas:

No I'm not being sponsored by Honest Kids!

Again, the use of a cookie cutter makes all the difference

You can buy these from The Dollar Store

You don't even need a cookie cutter - just cut up the coffin sandwiches!

More Dollar Store fun!

Over achiever alert...

These works of art are truly fabulous!!  My kids are wishing these moms were their mom :)

Who has the time to do all this???

Disney eat your heart out!

Health on a plate!

I hope they do this for a living!!

Angry Birds but not Angry Kids when they open this lunch box!!!

The one with the teeth scare me a little!!

There had to be a Minion one in here somewhere due to the popularity right now!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Yeah... I'll get right on these!

FUN 'N' FAB Lunch box notes

These fun (and FREE!!!) lunch box notes/jokes/messages are a great way to let kids (and adults!!) know that you're thinking of them throughout the day!  For best results, print them on card and laminate them for durability.  The pictures show the types of notes on each blog - click the link to take you to them.  There are so many options out there: LEGO, Star Wars, Ponies, Christmas, Dinosaurs, Food, Superheroes etc. etc. etc. here are just some samples for you:


To get the above cute Halloween themed notes, click HERE




To get the above Halloween JOKE lunch notes, click HERE




To get the above generic notes (and fabulous first day of school signs), click HERE



To get the above "boy" themed notes, click HERE



To get the above "girl" themed notes, click HERE




To get these fun religious notes (and loads of other holiday themed ones), click HERE




Some optical illusion lunch box notes to save you being bored work :)  Click HERE



How about these inspirational quotes to pop into adult lunch boxes... including your own!!  Click HERE