Healthy Budget Minded Sandwiches Crystal Miller

Healthy Budget Sandwiches
Crystal Miller

My husband takes two sandwiches to work every day. Typically I was using lunch meat. He liked lunch meat and it was easy and convenient for me. But it was not great for the budget or a healthy choice either. Lunch meat is processed and full of non healthy ingredients and loaded with sodium.

So here is what I have been doing to cut the cost of purchasing lunch meat and improving health while I am at it!

When I started I took a whole chicken and cooked it in the crockpot. When it was done I deboned the meat and chopped it up into small pieces. I divided the meat into 3 containers. One I used the week I made it and the other two went in the freezer. To make a sandwich I took the chopped chicken meat and added a little salt, pepper and mayonnaise to it. I used this chicken spread for the week. My hubby loved it and I loved the savings.

Sandwich meat can run anywhere from $3.00 to $6.00 per pound (and up, but that is the range I have paid). I buy about a pound or so a week. My chicken cost me about $5.00 and I had enough meat from it for 3 weeks.

The second type of sandwich meat I made was beef. I will have a harder time giving you an accurate cost calculation on this because we buy our beef from a local farmer and buy a whole cow each year. But I can tell you what I did. I put a small beef roast into the crockpot (I will guess maybe 4lbs) and let this cook for a good long time… until the meat was falling apart. I then removed bone and fat and chopped this up and was able to divide it into 4 containers (I figure about 2 cups of meat is what I need per week). I used it the same way I used the chicken. I added salt, pepper and mayonnaise to the chopped meat and used this to make sandwiches. I also added a little Dijon mustard as well and that gave it a really nice flavor.

The cost of this meat would be determined by how much you paid for the roast. You can use an inexpensive cut of roast like a rump roast or a chuck roast to do this.

Putting the meat into the freezer also means that I have the added bonus of this being very convenient (one of the reasons I liked lunch meat). After cooking just one chicken and the roast I ended up with enough lunch meat for 7 weeks of lunches.

Another sandwich meat that is easy to have on hand is ham. Buy a boneless ham and use some of the meat for sandwiches. I make it the same way I do the beef and chicken sandwiches, only it does not need to be cooked first. Chop up your desired amount of ham. I like to use my food processor for this to get the ham meat finely chopped. Divide the meat into containers or zip type baggies and put in the freezer. I make the sandwiches the same way, adding mayo and a little pepper.

Back to:
The Homestead Kitchen
HOME