With the help of local food authorities who also happen to be parents, we are unveiling a menu of novel, appealing sandwiches well suited to playing the lead role in a brown-bag lunch. We asked our culinary advisers to choose among four classic kids' sandwich fillings as a base to create a sandwich that parent and child might consume with equal gusto. The four venerable sandwich fillings were turkey, tuna fish, cheese and peanut butter. Pamela Durkin, who puts considerable emphasis on health and nutrition in teaching cooking to children, prefers to work with peanut butter or processed cheese if the sandwich will not be made and consumed within a five-hour window. She recommends reserving meat for the evening meal.
Cheese offers lots of variety.
She also fills a French roll with smoked cheese and a berry preserve of almost any flavor. Variety appears to be a core concern of many parents. They would eat it every day. But I use it as a special treat. The combo at Whole Foods comes with 4 pieces each of three different fillings.