Last week, I hosted the Kids Health Quest monthly Cook-Along. We cooked 4 different school holiday snacks and then I demonstrated my simple pre-make sandwiches and freeze formula. I thought I'd share my formula with you.
Pre-Make Sandwiches and Freeze Formula
Choose a good quality bread (I usually buy ours from our local bakery).
Pre-make the sandwiches when the bread is FRESH (not a day or more old).
Apply a thin layer of spread containing a good quality oil/fat to one side of each slice of bread. This adds a layer of protection by keeping the filling off the bread. Some examples are:
- real butter
- aioli
- mayo
- pesto
- hommus
- peanut butter
If you're adding cheese, grate it and mix in some grated carrot and zucchini to boost nutrition.
Assemble your fillings in the sandwich (avoid greens like lettuce because they go limp and tomatoes as they don't defrost well).
Write the type of sandwich it is on a brown paper bag. Then put the sandwich in the brown paper bag, folding in the side and the top so it forms a nice sealed package.
Place your pre-made sandwich in the brown paper bag into a large ziplock bag. The ziplock bag keeps the moisture off the brown paper bag, protecting your sandwich.
Lay the ziplock bag of sandwiches flat in the freezer.You can take the brown paper bag straight out of the freezer and put into a lunchbox. The sandwich defrosts and is still yummy and fresh. If you want to turn the sandwich into a toastie, you can take it out of the freezer and defrost for a couple of minutes then put it into your toastie machine.
To minimise waste, I reuse the brown paper bags a couple of times too. I just peg them on the line to air. The same with the ziplock bag.