Organising Lunches - Frozen Toasted Sandwiches

My latest organising addiction is lunches.  There is nothing worse than having to get up in the morning and scrounge together a hearty lunch - so today I have this fabulous solution to share!

I know that lots of people freeze sandwiches.  It is just not something that I have ever done.  We like nice fresh bread for sandwiches, and a frozen sandwich is not something that appeals to neither me, nor my husband.  If the bread for our sandwiches is not light and fluffy, we generally turn it into a toasted sandwich, oozing with melted cheese, instead of a dry, crusty sandwich.  So, a few weeks ago I decided to try something new - pre-make toasted sandwiches, then freeze them and use them during the week for lunches.  It has been a huge success!

So, first of all, I get out the cold meats (ham/salami) or a barbecue chicken (shredded) and my sliced cheese.  Then I simply assemble the sandwiches, ready to be wrapped and frozen.  I only add the meat and cheese to the freezing step, and then add the additional veggies in the morning, so that they are nice and fresh.  It is easy to take out a few slices of tomato or mushroom, when you have all of the veggies pre-sliced in your fridge (which you can read more about here).  It only takes a minute, and there is no cleaning up to worry about, as it is all pre-cut so there is no washing up of the cutting board and knife either!

Before freezing, I wrap the sandwiches first in glad wrap.

Then I pop them into a labelled snap-lock bag and into the freezer.  The double-wrapping helps to eliminate freezer-burn, and I have been keeping the labelled snap locks to re-use.  When I unwrap the sandwich in the morning to add the fresh veggies, I just wrap it back in the glad wrap, and keep the snap locks for future use.  No waste here :)

So, it's as easy as that!  And by toasting the sandwich in the sandwich press, you have a tasty lunch, with soft melted cheese flowing over the rest of the flavoursome toppings :)

Here are some flavours to try:

- Ham & Cheese

- Ham, Cheese & Tomato

- Ham, Cheese & Pineapple

- Pizza (ham, cheese, salami, tomato paste, mushrooms, capsicum, pineapple, tomato, etc)

- Chicken & Cheese

- Chicken, Cheese & Pineapple

- Chicken, Cheese & Sundried Tomato 

The Pizza one is soooo yummy! I tell you, it is such a treat and so quick and simple to make!

And by making a few different variations of flavoured sandwiches, it feels like you have a selection to choose from, and it is not 'just another toasted sanga'!  You can also alter the bread flavour (white, wholemeal, multigrain) too - to add to the variety.

My prepared toasted sandwiches lined up in the freezer.

Even my toughest critic, who skeptically asked me 'if I could really do that?' the first time I made them, admitted that he didn't even notice that the bread, meat and cheese had been frozen - yippee!  Another happy customer :)

A cheap, healthy and easy lunch solution!

PS - It is great to make them with any meats that you have in your fridge that are about to go off...  Don't throw out the unused meat, pop onto a sandwich and freeze it!  Don't throw away your money - freeze it instead ;)