Eat Out Eat Well

sandwich

How To Save 500 Calories At Lunch

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Here’s your Tuesday tip:

club sandwichAre you planning on having a sandwich for lunch?

  • You can substitute mustard for mayo and save 100 calories.
  • If you leave off the slice of Swiss cheese you save another 133 calories.
  • Ditch two slices of bacon from your club sandwich or subtract two slices from your BLT to save another 84 calories.
  • Put your turkey, ham, or roast beef along with lettuce, tomato and onions on a whole grain pita (74 calories) instead of between two slices of rye (180 calories).
  • When you tally up the calories you’ve saved a total of 423 calories.
  • If you walk to and from the deli or around the block several times and you’ve easily saved yourself 500 calories.

Slim Down Your Sandwich The Easy Way

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half of a sandwichHere are some easy ways to slim down your sandwich and still have it taste great.

Substitute mustard for the mayo and save 100 calories.  Leave off the slice of Swiss cheese for another 133 calories.  Ditch the two slices of bacon for another 84 calories.  Put your turkey, ham, or roast beef along with lettuce, tomato and onions on a whole grain pita (74 calories) instead of between two slices of rye (180 calories) and you’ve saved a total of 423 calories.

Walk to and from the deli or around the block several times and you’ve easily saved yourself 500 calories.

Of course, you could always just eat half a sandwich — but a slimmed down, good tasting one is so much more satisfying, isn’t it?

This is tip #5 for the “Five” challenge.  How are you doing?  Join the challenge — you have nothing to lose except some pounds here and there.

When You Eat A Sandwich Does The Filling End Up In Your Lap?

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Sandwiches, Wraps, Paninis

Whatever you call it, it’s food — usually meat, cheese, or fish, sometimes vegetables — sandwiched in bread holder. Doesn’t matter is the bread is sliced, a wrap, a pita, a bagel, or a roll.  Other stuff is added to make it taste good — and sometimes to make it look pretty.  Sometimes so much stuff if shoved in that toothpicks are necessary to keep it together.  Problem:  what happens when you take the toothpicks out and try to get your lunch into your mouth?  What’s your dry cleaner bill like?

Soggy Is Gross

Soggy sandwiches take a whole lot of the fun out of eating your lunch.  Some things that can decrease the dampness factor:

  • Heavier, grainy, crunchy bread adds texture and substance and usually holds up better than the softer, squeezier Wonder Bread types. Rolls and bagels hold up even better – and you can always take out some of the softer stuff in the middle of the roll that might hold some liquid.
  • Coating the inside of the bread with butter or cream cheese helps to keep the fluid from some of the sandwich ingredients from getting through to the bread.
  • With wraps, layering the inside of the wrap with a very dry lettuce leaf before adding the filling and then tightly rolling the wrap will help to keep the wrap dry and the lettuce intact.  Trying to eat a soggy wrap is a feat unto itself.
  • With plain old bread, putting the slightly wet lettuce toward the middle of the sandwich not just under the bread, will help keep the bread dry.
  • Ditto for tomatoes – they’re added to sandwiches – a lot.  So are pickles.  Both are really wet.  If you salt the tomato, it gets even wetter.  Ever pick up your sandwich and have the tomato squirt right out?  Sandwiching it in the middle of your sandwich filling helps.  Put the tomato or pickle slices in the middle of the sandwich – essentially sandwiched by the meat or bread.  This helps keeping the wet stuff away from the bread and, if done right, can help keep the tomato in your sandwich and not on your lap or splattered on your plate.
  • If you are transporting a sandwich, bring the mayo, pesto, ketchup, mustard, or whatever dressing you use on the side and add it just before eating.  This really helps the soggy factor.

Getting The Sandwich Into Your Mouth Without The Filling Going Splat

This gorgeous (maybe not) and yummy looking sandwich is staring at you waiting to be devoured.  The thing is it’s about 6 inches thick.  How are you going to get it into your mouth?

Good question.  Some suggestions, especially if you are making your own sandwich.

  • As above, put the wetter, thicker stuff in the middle – it helps with the slippage factor. This also goes for onions, peppers, shredded lettuce, and cole slaw.
  • If you are using thick bread or a roll, scoop out some of the doughy stuff in the middle.  It’ll make the sandwich flatter and hold the filling better.
  • Many delis and sandwich take-out places will not lay the sliced meat flat but layer it on in almost a crumpled fashion as it comes off of the slicer.  This adds volume to the sandwich and makes it look like you are getting a whole lot for your money.  This kind of layering is easily squishable because the filling is plumped up with air spaces between the filling slices. Squishing it may get the sandwich down to a size that fits into your mouth.  If you are making your own sandwich and want quantity over presentation, lay your slices flat so the sandwich fits into your mouth more easily.
  • Don’t put so much stuff on.  Balance the amount of meat and cheese or whatever your fillings are.  Too much of one thing makes it taste just like that one thing.  Balance and layer your fillings so that you can taste them all not just the one dominant flavor.

SocialDieter Tip:

Keep lots of napkins on hand.  Try using pitas that haven’t been sliced all of the way around.  Take some of the filling out of rolls.  Cut your sandwich in quarters – somehow it’s easier to eat.  Maybe wear an old tee shirt while you eat your sandwich – and then toss it into the washing machine or just walk around with your lunch on your shirt and not worry about it!

Your Sandwich Wonderizer

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How many calories are in your sandwich?  What’s its nutritional value?

Here’s a chance to have some fun and learn about what you chow down.

Wonder Bread, America’s first sliced bread (1925), and the inspiration for the phrase the  “best thing since sliced bread,” is close to ninety years old.

Build Your Own Sandwich

Wonder Bread’s website (complete with the same red, yellow, and blue balloons as on the package  (except they float on the website) has a Wonder-izer Sandwich Builder option that allows you to build your own sandwich.  You can add just about anything (not socks or dog food, but edible human stuff).  You choose your preferred type of bread, meat, cheese, condiments, fruit, and veggies.  You can even add coleslaw, chips, fig bars, pecans, and even candy corn or chocolate chips (and more).

This is not an endorsement of Wonder Bread. It is a recommendation for some sandwich fun and for a learning experience about the caloric and nutritional content of sandwiches.

When I was a kid Wonder Bread was the be all and end all.  Supermarket bread choices were not quite as extensive as they are now.  Wonder bread was the kind of soft squishy white bread that you balled up in your fist to make a dough ball.  I also remember lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that you could really squish in the middle.

On the Wonder Bread site, there are more than 20 types of Wonder Bread choices now – including several varieties of light, whole grain, and whole wheat, along with the nutritional information for each.  It is described as “still the soft, delicious and nutritious bread your family has always loved.”

A Fun Learning Tool

The Wonder-izer is fun, with great graphics.  As you add each item to your sandwich the top slice of bread pops up to add the colorful layer of food of your choice (grapes and chocolate chips are even options).  However, aside from fun, it’s a great learning tool to give you an idea of just how many calories and nutrients are in that sandwich that you order from the corner deli or make in your own kitchen.  You can certainly use the information and apply it to many “sandwich situations.”  It’s also a great – and fun — learning tool for kids.  Check it out.  Wonder-izer Sandwich Builder.