Cold weather, football and parties go hand in hand. So does the all-time favorite convenience food, the sandwich.
With NFL playoffs fully upon us and the Bears in the thick of things, you’ll want quick, but tasty, sustenance on game days. A typical order-in submarine can be loaded with saturated fat and calories, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
No matter how you slice it, your sandwich can be delicious and deliciously good for you. The trick is to use nutrient-rich breads, pile on vegetables and select leaner meats. Also use fats judiciously and go for those that pack a lot of flavor in a small portion.
First down: The bread
It all starts with the bread or, if you’re an outside-the-box cook, a wrap. Either way, whole grain provides more nutritional benefits than bleached white flour. Hundreds of compounds in whole grain are absent in refined grain, according to American Dietetic Association spokesman Dave Grotto. For example, whole grains provide vitamin E and stanols–compounds that have been shown to fight heart disease and lower cholesterol.
For those who can’t break the white bread habit, new on the market is whole wheat white bread. This white bread has all the elements of whole wheat: the bran, the germ and the endosperm.
To make your party sandwiches really special, buy artisan whole grain breads that are widely available in grocery stores and bakeries.
Piling on
Bread provides a great source of complex carbohydrates for sustained energy. Add some protein from the animal or plant world, some veggies and you’ve got a complete meal.
Cheese is a good complement to many sandwiches, especially when you can choose from a wide variety of powerfully flavored cheeses, such as smoked hard Cheddars. A little goes a long way. Think very thin slices of cheese.
“Use cheese more like a condiment to enhance the flavor,” Grotto recommended. “An intense blue or brie enhances taste value and adds some protein as well.”
According to the USDA, 1 ounce of brie has about 95 calories, 6 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat and 52 milligrams of calcium, whereas 1 ounce of Cheddar has about 114 calories with 7 grams of protein and 9 grams of fat but four times the calcium, 204 milligrams. Nutrients do vary according to how the cheese was made. There are no hard and fast rules, but generally speaking soft cheese has 25 to 50 fewer calories per ounce than hard. As you can see in the above example, however, the harder cheese has more calcium.
Have some fun with those cheeses by pairing them with specialty breads. When executive chef Martial Noguier of one sixyblue makes his creations, he thinks of balancing flavors and textures. For example, with goat cheese he might use a bread with olive oil and black olives. With blue cheese he would use walnut-raisin bread with roasted walnuts and fresh grapes. Then he continues to build.
“Goat cheese is salty and lemony,” Noguier explained. “I will use some arugula, which is peppery and cuts the fat of the cheese.”
Grotto recommends that a typical sandwich have 3 to 4 ounces of meat
cheese combo. A ham and cheese sandwich, for example, might have three slices of ham with one slice of cheese. Lean meats should not exceed 4 ounces.
Necessary roughage
And of course feel free to add vegetables liberally. Among Grotto’s favorite ways to get a couple of servings of veggies into his day is to make a sandwich using grilled veggies with a bean or hummus spread.
To heighten the flavor, he drizzles on a little aged white balsamic vinegar and a few drops of toasted sesame oil. A little of this vinegar and oil combo goes a long way.
Mustard and low-fat mayonnaise are two more options. Mustard, even when it’s flavored, is naturally low in calories and fat while adding a strong burst of flavor. And for those sandwich lovers who consider mayonnaise a must-have, low-fat or light varieties supply ample flavor with about half the calories and fat.
A sandwich grounded in these fundamentals should sustain you through a long game, and even into overtime.
Grapes of wrap
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
– This recipe was developed by Sharon Grotto for her husband Dave’s forthcoming Random House book, “101 Foods That Could Save Your Life!”
2 cans (6 ounces each) tuna or chicken, drained
1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup red grapes, quartered
1/2 small red onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, optional (this ingredient as published has been corrected in this text)
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon chopped dill, fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon each: dry mustard, freshly ground pepper
6 whole-wheat tortillas
Lettuce and sliced tomatoes, optional
1. Combine tuna, celery, grapes, onion, mayonnaise, sesame oil, honey, dill, lemon juice, dry mustard and pepper in a medium bowl; mix well.
2. Divide salad among the whole-wheat tortillas; garnish with lettuce and tomato. Roll up; halve each tortilla. Secure each half with toothpicks.
Nutrition information per serving:
234 calories, 30% of calories from fat, 8 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 27 g carbohydrates, 18 g protein, 439 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
