Spice Up Your Sandwiches

It’s time for kids to go back to school, which means you’ll have to prepare sandwiches again. This is a very popular lunch in Quebec, thanks to its quick and easy preparation. Here are some ideas to avoid falling into the routine of ham and cheese sandwiches by adding flavour to your sandwiches while improving their nutritional value!

BREAD

Changing the type of bread you use can make all the difference. Pick from a variety of options, including tortillas, English muffins, bagels, naan bread, pitas, ciabatta, thin buns, commercial sliced bread, and bread bought from a bakery. Ideally, you should choose a type of bread whose first listed ingredient is integral or whole-wheat flour, and then pick one that contains the most dietary fibre and as little sodium as possible. To learn more about bread, I suggest you read the article How to Choose a Healthy Bread?

Why not make your own bread? If you have a bread maker, you can add any ingredients you like. Here’s an example in my video clip:

https://www.facebook.com/alyssafontainenutritionniste/videos/1738206129778613/

PROTEIN

Here are some meat-free protein sources to use in your sandwich:

• Falafels: you can buy them or make your own;
• Shrimp or lobster;
• Smoked salmon: try adding some Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs, light version;
• Canned tuna or salmon;
• Tofu or tempeh: available in a range of flavours, including smoked tofu and sriracha, or you can buy it plain, dice it, marinate and/or stir-fry it, and then season it with your favourite spices and condiments such as mustard, soy sauce, maple syrup, etc.;
• Veggie pâté;
• Eggs;
• Edamame hummus: crush edamame beans and mix with herbs, lemon juice and/or avocado;
• Legumes;
• Light cheeses (less than 20% M.F.): feta, Swiss, bocconcini, cheddar, ricotta, etc.

VEGETABLES

To change things up from lettuce and tomatoes, here’s a list of vegetables you can use to add flavour, vitamins, and minerals!

• Grilled vegetables: use a baking sheet to bake vegetables that were left in the fridge for too long, such as sweet peppers, eggplant, zucchinis, onions, and beets.
• Green leafy vegetables: watercress, lamb’s lettuce, escarole, and arugula.
• Fermented vegetables: buy fermented vegetables such as carrots, kimchi, beets, and sauerkraut.
• Fruits: mango, figs, or red apples. You can also grill fruits such as sliced pineapple.
• Various types of sprouts and shoots: red cabbage, pink radishes, Dijon, and arugula.

CONDIMENTS

If you’ve had enough of mayonnaise, try these handy condiments:

• Houmous;
• Tapenade;
• Tzatziki;
• Pesto: basil, arugula, or dried tomato;
• Baba ganoush;
• Salsa;
• Greek yogurt;
• Various types of mustard: Dijon, honey;
• Guacamole or crushed avocado.

You can also use dips as condiments in your sandwiches:
• Roasted Red pepper and feta Dip;
• Avocado Dip;
• Low-fat Blue Cheese Dip.

By Alyssa Fontaine, P.Dt., nutritionist for Zero Diet

The Zero Diet brand is first and foremost the conviction that healthy eating is a primary factor to attaining a healthy weight and a balanced lifestyle. Thus, we offer nutrition counselling with nutritionists who are members of the OPDQ with our Zero Diet nutrition program in our centers and in companies. We have also developed a healthy frozen food product line that fulfills rigorous nutritional criteria as well as two healthy Zero Diet cookbooks.

Photo credit: Pexel

Spice Up Your Sandwiches is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
Copyright © Nautilus Plus 2016