The Summer Sandwich Project, Part 1

Since we don’t get lunch service at work in the summer months (a fact of life I have conflicting emotions about, given the amount of administration an operating kitchen requires), and the UES remains a difficult place to purchase an affordable and efficient lunch, I begin each summer vowing to take my own lunch at least 4 days a week. Of course, by August I’m usually so sick of all my usual lunches that I’m going out most days anyway.  In an attempt to prevent that this year, I’m trying to come up with a new sandwich for each week’s lunch (since most packages of ingredients I buy are about a week’s supply).  These are my June sandwiches (only three because I started the project mid-month):

• Chopped chicken breast (okay, I use that Carving Board Chicken Oscar Meyer makes. Chicken breast remains my bete noire of actual cooking), blue cheese spread, and avocado slices on miniature pita bread.  This was inspired by my all-time favorite sandwich, The Cobb, at my all time favorite sandwich place, Tiny’s Giant Sandwich Shop. But that sandwich also includes bacon, which got me thinking about bacon on a sandwich, which led to…

• Crisp turkey bacon (with sea salt! I am being healthy!), with blue cheese spread, baby spinach, and tomato on pita.  I had to switch from the baby size pita (which I like because they fit in my adorable bento style lunchbox) to a half of a full size pita because the tomato and bacon slices fit better.  So. Amazing.  I ate this one with fresh blueberries and one of those green superfood juices and it made me feel so virtuous (the blue cheese spread is also low fat), while also really, really enjoying my lunch.

• Chopped chicken breast (yes, again) with apples and red onion on pita.  I made this one up kind of on my own  — we had a catering order at work that included a turkey sandwich with apples (that I didn’t get to eat), which gave me the idea, but I knew it was going to need a really good condiment to dress it up.  Then I found cranberry honey mustard at the grocery store, and it is exactly what this sandwich needed.  After Monday’s initial run, I decided to dice the apple and onion and mix them together in a psuedo-relish, which mixed the flavors together better.

I prefer pita bread because it doesn’t get soggy or smushed the way regular bread does (and also I can get through an entire package of it before it goes stale), but I bet these would all be good on some quality focaccia or maybe even as a panini. Look at me being a foodie or something.  Albeit a lazy one.