Tuesday, March 02, 2010

HouseParty.com: Sandwich Thins

As I mentioned the other day, I won another party pack from HouseParty.com, this time to host a tasting of Arnold "Sandwich Thins." I decided to combine this "party" with my weekly "book club" meeting, held every Monday at another member's house, which meant that I didn't even have to clean! (Thanks Char!)

So Sunday night I ran out to Cub to gather up my party supplies. I'd never tried these "Sandwich Thins" before...but apparently they're popular. Cub was all sold out. Of all flavors. Hmmmm.... I waffled on where to go next, and decided to try Target. "Our Target" is the original Target store, and they're grocery side is often DESSIMATED. No joke, it's annoying to try and shop for food there. They carry just a few brands of each item, and often the shelves are bare. I guess good for them for being so busy, but we rarely go there exclusively for groceries anymore.

BUT, despite my bad attitude, Target had several varieties! Yay! So I relaxed and started thinking of what kinds of sandwich I would like to build. Here's what I ended up getting:


Sandwich Thins (white, wheat, and multi grain)

Cheese - Colby jack, pepper jack, and white American (this is what Subway uses, in case you were curious)

Meat - maple brown sugar ham, "medium rare" roast beef, "natural" turkey (I didn't assign the names, that's what they were called in deli case), and pre-cooked bacon

Veggies - this is not my strong suit. I am constantly harassed at Subway when I order sandwiches with meat, cheese and salt only (the "sandwich artists" get very put out - apparently it's like hiring a muralist to paint your room white. Or else they're just surly). I knew at least one person was a vegetarian, so I made an attempt: I grabbed baby spinach, some pre-cut assortment of peppers, onions, and cucumbers, and pickles.

Spreads - white & brown mustard, mayo (I'll be honest, I just grabbed a few things out of our fridge here).

The Sandwich Thins were free with my coupons from HouseParty, and I only spent about $30-40 on the rest of it. And it's enough to feed about 2 small armies :) Oh well, I've never run out of food at an event yet!

I threw all of that in an insulated bag and brought it & the goodie bags to work with me, and though I had planned to leave it all in the car, the 40+ degree temps made me nervous so I hauled it all in to my office to refrigerate. And then I bowed to temptation and started sampling.



Round one: Lunch! I started with a white sandwich thin, lightly toasted, with classic PB&J.



These things look sort of like a pita bread circle, sliced in half. They are very thin, so they toast quickly - and one of my pieces folded a little under its own weight while toasting, but it still went together okay.



When I say I tried the "white" flavor, that's misleading. It looks white, but it's actually called "whole grain." And there is no high fructose corn syrup. So it's a far cry from what I usually make sandwiches on:



Mmm, preservatives :)

Round II: Mid-afternoon snack. I was crashing, and needed a pick-me-up before I left work. I decided to top a whole wheat sandwich thin with white American cheese and roast beef. I tried to "lightly toast" the bread again...but was foiled by my $6 Target (fire hazard) toaster. With bread this thin, you really need to adjust the toasting time. Lesson learned. It was so ugly I didn't take any photos. But it was still good. :)

Fast forward to the "MAIN EVENT!"



I just dumped all the ingredients on Char's counter and let people slap whatever they wanted together. It was low key and comfortable, just a simple "make your own sandwich" bar.




I thought I was full, but crammed in one more sandwich - turkey and bacon on...I forget. But it was good. These things are fun. I'm interested to see how quickly they mold, since that is our big problem with bread (other than the Wonderbread, which is impervious to destruction).

Overall verdict: good product! I'd try them again. They were a good balance for both the PB&J and lunchmeat, and I got a lot of ideas from other party hosts that could be interesting; i.e. breakfast sandwiches, grilled cheese, and mini pizzas.

And remember, if you'd like a $1 off coupon (they're only about $2.69 to begin with, in my area at least) a reusable shopping bag, a grocery list pad, and some sandwich thins recipes, I still have a few goodie bags to give away! Send an email w/ your name and address (US Only) to HeatherEveBlog @ gmail . com. Deadline is tonight!

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