Your favourite epic sandwich creation ideas please!

[catsofa]

OK I'm 11 weeks pregnant and although I've not been sick at all I have been drifting off into eating all sorts of crap, including too much fat and not enough vegetables.

I want to tackle this partly by getting into making awesome sandwiches at home as often as possible, so please could you all give me your delicious ideas for sandwiches to inspire me?

I am also trying to control my calorie intake so low-cal options would be good, but I adore cheese and will be giving up cake so can spare a few calories out of my daily budget for a really good hi-cal affair occasionally, good nutrition is the most important factor really. Not for packed lunches so it doesn't need to be keepable or transportable at all, I will be scoffing it straight away.

I'm currently eating lots of ham sandwiches which consist of cheap ham, low cal mayo, wholemeal bread, plenty of mustard and slices of cucumber.

I think there should be something nice based on beef slices and cheese and pickles but can't quite think what cheese to use.

I'm sure you can do better, please inspire me!

You can get those little sandwich bag toastie things as well - just make up the sandwich, put it in the bag and put the whole thing in the toaster. A lot easier to wash than a sandwich toaster as well. Can't remember where I got mine from but they are very cheap.

I'll second the lime pickle and cheddar - awesome!

Also the Barefoot Contessa one - basically toasted bread with humous spread on and topped with a tuna mayo / red pepper / spring onion mix for an open-face sandwich is incredible.....

Hummus, Falafel, mango chutney, cucumber raita and salad

Hummus, mackerel, salad

My two fav ones

Bagel, slice of cheese, egg (scrambled or fried), salad optional.

Bagel with cream cheese and salmon.

Banana sandwich - lots of butter and sliced banana, not mashed. Could add peanut butter as well :)

Tandoori chicken with mint yoghurt is yummy
Onion bhaji and mango chutney in a wrap

Could just eat a sandwich now.

Oh wow thank you these are brilliant! I had a brown roll with pastrami and mayo and mustard and a big pile of salad leaves and some pasteurised brie earlier on, it was heaven.

I will work my way through this list starting with breakfast tomorrow.

Don't buy a sandwich maker! Buy a panini press, you don't have to butter the outside and it makes great toasties with normal bread. I picked one up on Asda whoopsie shelf last week for £15.

My favourite sandwich is avocado/crispy bacon on granary. Sorry, no cheese!

Bacon sandwich

Bacon, cheese, avo, Mayo, salad leaves

salami, cornichons, Mayo, mustard on baguette

Cheese, Mayo, marmite, cucumber, lettuce and sweetcorn on toasted bread (drools)

Chèvre and very ripe tomatoes and rocket on toast. Mix the tomatoes with some olive oil, salt pepper and bit of balsamic. Yum.

Canteen at my work does a "Montana smokehouse" soft chunky white bread, BBQ sauce, turkey, smoked cheese, tomato, lettuce and mayo. Nom

Am also v partial to bacon lettuce avocado and tomato. And ham grated carrot raisins and mayo.

Bacon, blue cheese (not for you i guess?), avocado, mango chutney and leaves with a touch of vinaigrette. amazing. have with tomato and pepper soup!

I really loved cottage cheese, salad cream, tomato, cucumber and lettuce sandwiches when I was a child. Dunno why but the combo of the first two really works.

Ok I'm going slightly off the 'nutritious' route here, well very, but if you ever need sheer comfort food:

Philadelphia with corned beef in a toastie - needs to be in toastie maker though or cheese leaks.

Make a ham sandwich as normal woth butter. Dip in beaten egg. Fry. Heaven.

Ok back to healthy. Houmous is good for energy, homemade is great if you can be bothered as you can reduce salt content. I also throw a few sweet potatoes and some paprika in mine. Then I'd probably have with a big pile of salad leaves and maybe some chicken.

Mozzarella, rocket, pesto and either chicken or parma ham (if you can have when pregnant?)

Avocado, cheese and pickled onion.

pulled pork, avocado, mayo, fresh chilli.

going to have to go to Sainsbury's now!

In a pitta bread:
Slice and griddle/fry

• slices of aubergine and/or courgette
• slices of red pepper
• slices of halloumi

Low fat mayo in the pitta then layer up the above with a couple of handfuls of green leaves - spinach or rocket is good.

Pulled pork and coleslaw

Pastrami and melted jarlsberg and cherry tomato

Toasted brie and cucumber

My current fave is
Left over chicken, mayo, sliced gherkin, jalopenos, tomato, red onion and lettuce in granary. It's a monster sandwich but so yum! I find if you cram it with extras I dont actually miss the meat aspect.

I had bacon, Brie, mango and salad this evening and it was lovely!

Have you read the Grilled Cheese Social site here? Love it.

Here's some of my faves-

(1) Sub roll spread with mango chutney. Layered with lettuce and cucumber chunks. Torn up onion bhaji's, salt and pepper. Another dollop of chutney or raita.

(2) Brioche roll toasted (Aldi's are best). Spread with Branston, then a layer of lettuce then chopped cornichons. Dollop sauerkraut over this. Then sliced tomato. Slice cold meatloaf or a hamburger and balance on top. Melt Jalopeno cheddar (from any supermarket) onto other half of brioche bun. Serve with burger relish and ketchup. Plenty of salt to hasten that MI even more.

(3) Brioche roll toasted. Candied bacon (place rashers of streaky on roasting tray then scatter with brown sugar. Roast until crunchy and the sugar is all caramelised. Lettuce and tomato layered. Mayo. Ketchup.

Todays sandwich was mayo, pickles, mustard, cheddar, pastrami and salad. Thank you all, this is really helping!

Apparently brie gets listeria after the milk is pasteurised, so not good in pregnancy unless it's cooked to kill the bugs.

I once had bacon, brie and redcurrant jelly all wrapped up in a pancake thing which involved melting the brie all over the pancake, so I might try that tomorrow...

Yesterdays was very simple-

Good sourdough. French thin sliced ham. Italian unsalted butter, thin sliced Emmenthal and cornichons on the side.

I call it the EU.

Today's was chicken in sweet chili mayo, sweet corn lettuce and cucumber. On crusty baguette. Yummers.

Yesterday's was a spinach wrap, smoked salmon cream cheese and cucumber.

My all time favorite hoagie (Philadelphia style sandwich) is chicken salad (light on the mayo), avocado, bacon and parmesan on a sesame crusty bread. Heaven.

A lighter option is salted butter and lettuce leaves (a lot of them) in a baguette. Just that is pretty amazing for the calorie intake!

I'm pregnant too and I'm currently addicted to red pesto and mature cheddar salad sandwiches. Easy, cheesy and not half as bad for me as some of the things I want to eat right now :)

I'm roasting three chicken breasts tonight, one for me for dinner, one for the cat and one to make sandwiches with tomorrow. I think Philadelphia should probably be involved, and I might go and buy an avocado.