I'm a white guy, and that basically means I like expensive sandwiches. I don't however, like paying five bucks (or $169.73) for a thin slice of dry chicken between dry bread and not enough soda to choke down the disappointment. For that matter, I don't want to wait forty minutes, tip someone, travel, deal with a singer/songwriter barista, or go between the hours of 11 and 12:30pm.
I'm not that whitey.
So lately, I've been toying with interesting combinations that would make me happy at a sandwich shop and even posted a few of the better ones here. To me, though, the hardest part is finding ingredients that won't cost me a fortune, and will last in the refrigerator long enough to actually use them. I swear lettuce goes bad by the time I drive it home from the market.
So here is my rotating list of sandwich ingredients that are good but stay a while and aren't larcenously expensive:
Bread & Dairy:
- Gigantic block o' cheddar
- Smaller block of swiss
- Parmesan cheese
- Port wine cheese and crackers
- Potato or wheat bread
- Chive cream cheese
- Plain cream cheese
- Pita bread
Fruit & veggies:
- Red onion (stays about a month!)
- Alfalfa sprouts (50¢ per package and lasts a while)
- Lettuce (organic in-the-box stuff lasts best for me)
- Applesauce side (OK, my fruit & veggie intake is lacking)
Spreads:
- Caesar dressing
- Sun-dried tomato paste
- Sun-dried tomato pesto paste
- Homemade hummus
- Pesto
Meats:
- Whatever you want, really, but try for the better stuff in the supermarket deli. Don't buy much, but mediocre meat brings down the sandwich. It's still worlds cheaper than eating out, anyway.
Notes:
Hummus is ludicrously expensive when bought pre-packaged. I have no idea why; garbanzo beans are about 50¢ per can for the good stuff. Buy some good olive oil, some sesame seeds (also dirt cheap), fresh garlic, tahini, and lemon juice (plus anything else you want, really) and a good food processor on Craigslist. You can justify the $30 food processor this way: it's the same as buying six of the pre-packaged stuff, and you get to flavor it how you like.Labels: food, health care, Maloney's, money, recipie, white people |
