Which ‘wich is Which?

10 Tea Sandwich Recipes We Love | Rivertea BlogRivertea Blog

On one of my recent urban nature walks, the reality of the “urban-ness” of my location hit me: signage for Baggin’s, a local sandwich shop. I was just smacked down with a brown bag craving. Ah! What was I to do? Go home and make a sandwich for lunch, I reckoned. Would it be as good as theirs? No, but I would make do. I had a whole wheat bread that was intended to be a braided challah. I ended up being lazy and stuck it in a loaf pan, though. It was not Kosher, as I decided to replace some of the oil with non-fat yogurt. I had pinched some of my mom’s chicken, so my brown bag was chipotle-ranch roast chicken (I used chipotle in adobo), a homemade garlic pickle, and home-pickled pepperoncini. I started to make potato chips, but went with the roasted chickpeas from the Caesar salad I just posted for the 4th.

How do you know God loves you? You keep craving a Baggin’s sandwich, and He sends someone to give you one. I was helping out a few folks, and like an angel, a Baggin’s delivery driver appeared.


Long story short, I was soon satisfied with turkey-avocado-bacon goodness. Baggin’s has several Tucson locations, so check the bag pic for their website, if you’re so inclined. Though I can’t have a ton, I love the cream cheese they put on many of their sandwiches. It makes them extra-yum. Even after my sand-stravaganza, I’m still on the lookout for a few good sandwich, spread, and toast recipes/ideas. So, I thought I would share this tea sand post I came across.

Hope you enjoy it, & I’ll see you soon!

Same Ingredients, Different Dish, # two

We had a very low-key Thanksgiving this year, and we actually celebrated on Friday. No big family production this year. Nothing went as I had planned a month ago, but it went well. I am still fasting from a number of things (like butter), so that gave me limited options as far as traditional foods go. It was very difficult not to eat dressing, as it’s one of my favorite Thanksgiving treats. It looked so yummy! I decided to break my cheese fast for the Holiday, though. I went back to my tradition of pasta instead of a turkey dinner. I didn’t prepare sweet potato gnocchi as I thought I might (it has a butter sauce). I just made a simple dish of spaghettini with an extra-virgin olive oil vinaigrette, kalamata, feta, tomatoes, asparagus, and red onion. Really simple, but after fasting from cheese for a while…it was heavenly!

I also made this Red Fruit and Feta Salad with Red Fruit-Red Onion Dressing:

Easy salad with feta, raspberries, pomegranate, apples, dried cranberries, and salted roasted almonds. I made the dressing ahead of time (so the flavors could meld) with the raspberries and pomegranate (juiced, then strained), dried cranberries, oil and fruit vinegar, herbs, garlic, honey, s&p, a little bit of grain mustard, and minced red onion. This was also a very simple prep, but again, having cheese made it delightful.

You know that I am La Cashionista, so of course I am going to find a way to use these ingredients again. The cheesecake in a jar from my local food co-op started me thinking about making something similar. At first, I was going to mix cream cheese with yogurt to lighten it up a bit. I made a batch of homemade cream cheese for my mom, so I was going to use that. Then I thought, I really didn’t need it. Just yogurt would be fine and would satisfy me. “Eggnog” Yogurt Parfait with Brandied Fruits:

I usually associate eggnog with Christmas, but this is what I felt like having. This pic isn’t the greatest, but hopefully you get the gist. I didn’t actually use eggs for this parfait. The flavors are reminiscent, though. I sweetened my homemade Greek-style yogurt with a little brown palm sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla. I let the fruits steep in simple syrup with brandy, then layered them in with the yogurt. I used the same fruits from the salad (dried cranberries, pom, apples), but also added a layer of dried figs and raisins. I reduced the syrup a bit and drizzled that over the raspberries and almonds. This was very filling, and I was challenged to finish it all. I had a couple of bites leftover.

I will be making detox smoothies and fruit waters to keep that fruit love going and use up my leftovers (see my previous post for recipes).

To Market to Market…

Farmers’ markets are one of my absolute favorite ways to spend my time. These were just some of fabulous finds at the St. Philip’s Plaza market located in Tucson, Arizona. Fresh baby carrots, heirloom tomatoes, greens, eggplant, and more have made their way into some of my meals. I will post more pics soon!