Tuna salad on rye is very good. For that matter, egg salad on rye is also good. My favorite sandwich is corned beef and Swiss on rye, with mustard. I have nothing against white bread, it’s just that certain sandwiches demand rye.
Sometimes I make up a big pot of beans (blackeye, pinto, whatever) with chopped onion, celery, carrot, and ham. THAT will take care of quite a few lunches, though you might want to keep some BeanO around.
I make sandwiches almost every day as well. Inexpensive and easy are important considerations.
One of my choices is the ham, sharp cheddar and good mustard and I agree with your evaluation. Another easy and inexpensive one is deli sliced turkey, mayo, lettuce (when I have it), sometimes cheese, and something flavorful. The flavoring I change to prevent getting bored. These include some good chutney or a Penzeys spice mix. This morning I added Tuscan Sunset which is lovely. Other good sandwich spices are the Greek Seasoning or Sweet Curry Powder. Plus, they can be used for general cooking as well.
Penzeys also has a Sandwich Sprinkle, but I haven’t tried it as the others work so well.
Another sandwich I like is big baloney, lettuce and mayonnaise, but that is because it is a comfort food for me. It was a favorite of mine that my mother used to make for me and having it brings back good childhood memories. However, with the fat content of baloney, I don’t make that one too often.
Meow meow, the hummus sounds great and I’m wondering why I haven’t tried that. Thanks for the suggestion. Silenus, I like your suggestion too. Lots of good thoughts in this thread.
If you like egg salad, you may be interested in an easy new product I found. In the refrigerator, right above where the raw eggs are, I found peeled, hard boiled eggs, in a resealable bag!! They were surprisingly affordable. A dozen raw eggs was running around $2.00, and a bag of peeled, hard boiled eggs (10 in the bag) was under $3.00. So it was pretty much like paying someone about a buck to do the grunt work for me!
This makes easy even easier, and, imho, meets the “cheap” requirement, too!
Mmm, chutney.
Another recent invention: sliced chicken in pita bread, moistened with artichoke-and-spinach dip (I hate mayo). That’s some serious yum.
When I wanna go wild, I try grape jelly instead of raspberry preserves on my PBJ.
Tried substituting creamy for my usual chunky, but that was just too “out there” even for an adventurous guy like me.
I had leftover chicken in a sandwich today, with string cheese and oreos. I vary the insides - roast beef, pastrami, sometimes left over pork roast.
I have an Orowheat/Enteman’s outlet store very near work, so I get bread cheap. They have a whole grain white that is better than any white bread I’ve ever had, and does well when I get tired of whole wheat.
I sometimes bring food to heat, but there is often a line at the microwave, so sandwiches give me more Doping time at lunch.
Mmm, I’m liking this idea. Instead of chicken I have deli turkey. I think that would work just as well, with bagged salad and bits o shredded parm in a tortilla. More interesting than a turkey sandwich. That’s what I’ll make for lunch tomorrow.
Regarding frozen dinners, I find that the best are italian red sauce types or mexican. I had a horrible beef tips Weight Watchers one that has turned me off any that are meat centric. I had to check the package to see of it wasn’t seitan- it had that same nasty (IMO) mealy texture.
I’ve been addicted to “spicy-peanutty-pineapple burrito’s” lately
Mix in a bowl:
1 small can pineapple chunks
handful of cilantro - if you like it
juice from a couple of limes
couple teaspoons of peanut butter
couple teaspoons of thai chili - i use sambel oelek
couple teaspoons of fish sauce
that makes a couple of burritos worth.
I take a tortilla and put romaine lettuce on it then the sauce and wrap it up.
I double what I wrote above and it lasts all week if I don’t take the bowl out of the fridge and eat the sauce as a snack. Which I’ve done a couple times and then had to remake the sauce the next morning for lunch.
I just finished a plain old cheese sandwich. Fresh lettuce & tomato, mayo, and 4 slices of chedder (vs. the normal 2).
Use a hamburger bun instead of regular sliced bread and make sure the cheese and tomato are on the top (big) bun. Then you can slide that sectioin…big bun on bottom, cheese & tomato into the microwave for a few seconds, remove and slam together with the cold mayo and lettuce on the bottom bun
…MELTED cheese & tomato sandwich.
How simple & cheap do ya want it?
I had no idea you could find canned chicken!
If one were to use chicken breast instead, would extra cooking or anything like that need to be done?
Since canned chicken is pre-cooked, all it really needs is some warming up. If you used some boneless, skinless chicken breast or thigh meat instead, you could always dice, season and brown it in advance and then refrigerate/freeze until you’re ready to use it.
One of the biggest differences (to me) between canned chicken and fresh-cooked is the texture. Canned chicken is. . .stringier or something. More shredded than chopped. Tastes fine, though, and really is a quick alternative to cooking chicken. I’ve been known to make a lazy man’s (well, I’m a woman, but still) alfredo by:
Boiling some noodles
Drain a can of chicken in a colander, and throw some frozen peas on top of the chicken
Strain the noodles through the same colander when they’re done cooking
Stir in alfredo sauce.
I count on the heat from the boiling noodles to warm up the chicken and frozen peas enough.
When I get back to the real world:
Chunky soup; put in a pot and match all the ingredients in there with more (add more noodles, rice, potatoes, vegies) or what you might like to add. Basically thickens it up a bunch and dilutes the salt. You end up with a stew. Divide into microwave bowls. Bring some great bread for dipping or cut the bread and add the stew mixture to make a sloppy sandwich.
Cheap and quick. Multi lunches and a dinner if needed. Best in winter climates.
I’m saving all the other suggestions too!!
yeah you would need cooked chicken but as was posted thats easy enough to do.
Costco has canned chicken, they used to have cous cous as well but the basterds stopped carrying it. (they had sundried tomato and something as well as the garlic/olive oil)
but thats an easy meal, with canned chicken all you need is a microwave a can opener and a fork (and you could bag up the chicken that morning if you didnt want to drain it at work for some reason)