I thought I'd create a spin off thread from the random sh!t thread for this.

The other week someone mentioned a money saving method of preparing sandwiches which basically involved making a big batch of sandwiches (enough for 2 or 3 weeks) and sticking them in the freezer. Then you can take them out of the freezer before you leave for work and by lunchtime they are ready to eat.

At first I thought it wasn't possible so I had a quick Google and found that lots of people do it.

I tried yesterday with a cheese and ham wholemeal roll and I was amazed! It tasted and felt as fresh as when I'd made it on Sunday night!

Because of the success I've deicded to be a bit more adventurous and went out yesterday to buy some ingredients. I've also taken advice from a few websites about what can and can't freeze and rules on proparing the sandwiches.

What can freeze...
Meat (ham, chicken, beef, bacon, etc...)
Cheese
Sauces (salad cream, ketchup, mustard)
Low water content veg (spring onions, peppers, avocado, etc...)
Peanut Butter
Jams and marmalades
Fish (tuna, salmon, etc...)

What can't freeze...
High water content veg (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, etc...)
Oil based sauces (mayo, salad dressing)

Tips...
Butter both slices of bread to reduce liquid absorption.
Double wrap the sarndwiches before freezing.
Label the sandwiches (unless you want to play lunchtime lottery)
Meat and cheese can keep for 3 to 4 weeks in the freezer.
Buy the best ingredients you can get. The nicer they are before they go in the freezer the nicer they will be when the defrost.

So far the ham, cheese and spring onions has been an absolute success!

Today I am trying egg and mustard/mayo. I've read that this doesn't freeze well but I've also seen reports of success with it.

I'll keep you posted...

The what

I've tried it in the past, but have always managed to eat them when they are either partially frozen still, or have gone soggy (perhaps I didn't double wrap them though).

When I was at Sun I had three fillings: Tuna mayo, cucumber, cucumber and humous. Each I had for about three months before changing to the next, I'm lucky enough to not get bored of food

I'm intrigued how this saves money though?

Because I can never be bothered/don't have enough time to make sandwiches everyday.

Then the loaf of bread goes off because I haven't eaten it quickly enough and I end up buying food from the canteen at work.

Taking sandwiches to work = ~£1.50 a day
Buying lunch from the canteen = ~£5.00 a day

OK, first failure.

The office here obviously isn't warm enough.

Either that or I need to unwrap the sandwich from the tin foil as it's too insulating.

Sandwich still icy in the middle.

Will have to eat my banana first or something.

Apart from that it smells and looks OK.

This all reminds me of a woman I used to work with.
To save precious moments in the morning, she'd use frozen milk in her tea.
Two cubes gave the right amount of milk (for her) and chilled the tea to a drinkable temperature, thus avoiding having to wait for it to cool down from near boiling, and watching how much milk you put in.
I imagine over the course of the job, she must have saved seconds.

It's a hell of a lot more convenient for me.

I wouldn't have had time this morning to make sandwiches so would have spetn aroun £5 at the canteen getting lunch.

Saving £3.50 a day saves me £70 over the course of a month.
That's £840 a year!!!

I must confess that always freeze my bread for the simple reason that it goes mouldy before I finish the loaf if I don't.
The sandwiches are perfectly reasonable and it toasts fine (even if it does take a bit longer).

There is also the added benefit (depending on your point of view) that it's much easier to spread the butter/spread thinly on solid bread than warm stuff.
It's never occurred to me to freeze the whole sandwich though.

Final verdict on egg with mustard/mayo.

One side was bit soggy on the underside (I think due to opening before they were defrosted) but apart from that a perfect sandwich!

Bonus!

Another advantage to freezing sandwiches is that if you have any fruit or anything in your lunchbox it won't crush the sandwich.

Ahhh, I see. I have to get up at least an hour before I leave the house otherwise I'm a grumpy bugger all day. I usually get up and hour and a half to two hours before I need to open the front door...

My Dad's had frozen baps for lunch for as long as I can recall. We (used to) quite often sit down on a Sunday evening after clearing the table and make a month or two's supply with the television on in the background. (For reference we store them in freezer bags, closed with a little wire tag thing.)


I nearly always end up splitting a big-loaf into two and freezing half. It does seem to toast a lot better in the toaster from frozen too (8-s)


My mum has ice-cubes in her tea, but uses liquid milk. She also drinks her coffee black and cold.

I've recently found this too.
It was a nice surprise for me.

Mark

This isn't normal. I consider her eccentric.

I just freeze the whole loaf immediately and snap off the requisite amount of slices as and when. You have to be careful when talking about snapping off a loaf with people though.

So long as you wash your hands afterwards.

SASPRO!? Bratty has hacked the Prof's account.....