you should also know we have a new weekly theme that we’ve been trying for almost two months now. and it might be the new, new favorite: sandwich night.
now, hear me out. before you’re like, “haley. I can’t do a boring ham sandwich each week. i’d rather eat socks,” here are the ways and reasons this is really working for us in this current season. and it just might convince you that a sandwich each week is the best.
why we love weekly sandwich night
ready?
it may sound like a boring theme, but it’s actually super flexible.
want to do a Build Your Own Sandwich Bar? great. want to do some meatball subs? great. want to do my favorite rotisserie chicken sandwiches? great. want to do an awesome chicken salad sandwich? great. want to do Brett’s favorite ham and cheese sliders? great. want to do pulled pork sandwiches, italian beef sandwiches, burgers, shrimp po boys, tuna melts, breakfast croissant sandwiches, good ol BLTs, grilled chicken sandwiches, bbq chicken sandwiches, or french dip sandwiches? great. want to do chicken caesar wraps, ritz cracker chicken ranch wraps, or build your own greek wraps? great. it all works. make sandwich night work for you - it doesn’t have to be deli sandwiches each and every week. ENDLESS OPTIONS HERE.
sandwich night can have so many interpretations…all of which are easy. we do Sandwich Night every Monday and I highly, highly recommend it as a gentle, awesome start to the week.
because really, we flip between a specific sandwich recipe and a Build Your Own Sandwich bar. the theme itself is so flexible. and so magical.
sandwiches make an AWESOME dinner…when good ingredients are used
because while I eat the same darn turkey sandwich each week (I’m the thirty year-old equivalent of a picky five year-old), Brett loves choices. he lives for a good spread. so, some weeks I set out a Build-Your-Own Sandwich Bar: 1-2 types of bread, 1-2 types of meat, 1-2 types of cheese. Greens, tomatoes - onions and avocado if I’m feeling feisty - the sky is the limit.
also hi, hello. i’ll say it: it’s fun having an excuse to try new, fun sandwich things. like, one week we didn’t care for our grocery store’s sub rolls. and we were like, “no big deal, we’ll try something new next week!” but, at the risk of sounding super elderly, it was fun having an excuse to try the less-than-stellar sub rolls.
but on the flip side, having an excuse to get fancy breads, cheeses, mustards, etc is SO FREAKING FUN. even going as far has hm, that recipe for bread looks good, should we try it? NEVER BEFORE WOULD I HAVE DONE THIS. or, delicious bread at bakeries and farmers markets have a whole new appeal.
(this week I straight up bought bread from Jimmy John’s for our Sandwich Night. because their bread is my favorite. talk about a sandwich night win!)
and before, I only had stuff for one boring type of sandwich (coincidentally, the only sandwich I loved) on whatever sad loaf of bread we had with only two types of sauce (mayo or yellow mustard), and Brett was not on board. But having options so that he can create a different sandwich depending on his mood and craving? Now he’s in love.
(hint: I peeked at a few of our favorite sub sandwich shops’ menus for ideas of what to buy. like, this week I’m buying an assortment of goodies so he can recreate his favorite Italian sub.)
I also set out our beloved panini press because oftentimes someone is feeling a toasty sandwich…or a grilled cheese.
side note: pb&js are also an acceptable choice here. the key here is choice so that it doesn’t feel monotonous.
our sandwich spread becomes both a quick lunch and an I’m-too-tired-to-cook option
and now that I’ve done Sandwich Night in a way that Brett’s on board, he’s thrilled to also have sandwich supplies as a lunch option. because usually he’s down for reheating leftovers, but he loves that now he gets to choose between leftovers or a sandwich.
and sometimes whatever I have on the menu plan just isn’t going to work out. either I’m too tired or it doesn’t sound good or life happens. and now, a nice sandwich spread comes to the rescue. no more blowing on budget on desperate calls to Dominoes or our favorite Chinese place. (those can now be treated as our treats, not our lifelines.)
Sandwich Night gives me a break and eliminates decision fatigue
having dinner themes and a meal rotation helps any decision fatigue that inevitably rears its ugly head at some point during menu planning. because at some point, you look at the blank week and think, “I have no idea what to serve these people this week.” themes give me THE BEST starting off point and it makes menu planning quick.
see my full post on our dinner themes and our meal rotation here.
also, our themes were designed to give me a break. snack dinner on saturday? brett grills on sunday? sandwiches on monday? alllll chosen both based on foods we love, but also a way to give me a break. because, as I said, I love making dinner 6-7 nights a week because i get a break from cooking. as in, a few of those dinners each week are more assembling rather than cooking. and for me, that’s the key to eating at home for us. (that and a few choices within the meal. pick and choose what you want but these are your only options for tonight’s dinner kind of thing. so oftentimes brett’s plate looks way different from mine.)
similarly, it’s SUPER handy in a less-than-ideal disaster setting
that week when Texas iced over and lost its mind? the week we lost consistent power - thanks to rolling blackouts - as well as the ability to go to the grocery store? we were thrilled to have ample sandwich supplies on hand. THRILLED. I wish we had this for the early stages of the pandemic….as well as postpartum.
i also keep extra bread and sliced cheese in our freezer. like, if I buy or make six sandwich rolls, and we’re only using three? i’ll freeze the other three for a later week. if we don’t use alllll the sliced cheese, I’ll freeze it for another week. and, similarly, I try to keep a spare loaf or two of my favorite bread in the freezer at all times
(perfect for spicing up Sandwich Night, limiting food waste, and extending our grocery bill…but also perfect for disasters. read more about our prepared-ish home here.)
side note: having things on hand for snack dinner saturday reallyyyy helped those less-than-ideal disaster times, too.
our sandwich stuff doesn’t go to waste
before Sandwich Night, I’d buy sandwich meat at the store just in case. and I may has well have just thrown dollar bills in the trash…because usually I forgot it existed. now that sandwich meat is the MVP.
side note: now if I have produce leftover at the end of the week, I’ll use it in a salad or a burrito bowl for Leftover Night. or Brett will add it to his compost bin. if we have leftover lunchmeat, I’ll add it to my weekly meal prep of an oven omelette or muffin tin frittatas. bread can get turned into garlic toasts with dinner or a breakfast casserole. cheese can be put in…anything. but i particularly like taking that bread and cheese and turning it into a grilled cheese. or cheesy eggs on toast. okay, I’ll stop now. I can go on for quite awhile on how to repurpose ingredients, and I need you to stay awake for the rest of this. just know that sandwich stuff is awesome for reusing in other meals.
also, let’s talk sides.
keep it simple with chips. put out some fruit. throw together a bagged salad. make a good, homemade salad (currently loving this one). whip up a big pot of soup. it’s whatever you want. again, it’s super flexible. offer two or three different things and let everyone pick and choose what they want. we thrive off of those set-ups, especially since Brett and I have different tastes, and to also accommodate KK’s modified plate. (she’s 9 months old at the time of publication, so while she eats what we eat each night, it may be modified.)
we actually do Soup and Sandwich Night each week. (sorry to omit that important nugget up until now, but I wanted you to do what works best for you!) because I love soup for dinner but it’s hard to get Brett on board with soup. so I offer both a soup and sandwich to live out my dream of weekly soup - and we can each choose what we want. (I’ll usually throw in some fruit or chips or a salad too and we can pick what we’re craving, while having the best leftovers all week.)
I love having an excuse to make a different soup recipe each week (or I’ll pull soup out of the freezer) and I love having soup for lunches and leftovers. and I love freezing our leftover soup to stock the freezer…and eat for other Soup and Sandwich nights.
and because the sandwich part of the meal takes no energy at all, I can totally focus my energy on making soup. (or, if it’s a crazy week, I’ll - as I just mentioned - pull one of the soups from a past week out of the freezer.) make themes that work for you.
bonus: built-in adventure food
kinda similar to what I’ve already gone over, but an added bonus we didn’t see happening is that by having a weekly sandwich night, we have picnic food (and weekend food in general) ready to go. like, before, if we were going to go on a day trip or a hike somewhere, I’d have to make sure I added things to my grocery cart for this ahead of time. but now, we usually already have an array of sandwich stuff, chips, and fruit ready to go. which means on weekends, whether we’re out adventuring or chilling at home, we’re set.
