The Sanity Sandwich

How a simple grilled cheese prompted me to rethink my routines.

I have this friend who I met on a Facebook group about homeschooling. We first caught up at a park by the bay and quickly hit it off.

Before long we were meeting weekly for playdates that turned into potlucks: marinated olives, avocado wraps, fragrant moroccan lamb sausage rolls, black bean brownies, cassava pancakes, ripe fruit and frothy babycinos.

(I’ll tell you when we open a pop-up stall alongside the swing set :))

We also share recipes and ideas for getting ahead of the production line otherwise known as Our Children’s Eating Habits…My eldest son once ate 11 well-balanced meals in one day. He’s six.

My friend and I are both in the workhorse years of motherhood, past infant “bliss” but still required at almost every waking moment and often the recipient of unprompted feedback – That’s boring. This doesn’t taste good. You’re not playing with meee.

This Wednesday, when the kids were gleefully distracted with baking soda and vinegar, we decided that we were hungry.

Toasted sandwich? I asked.

I reached into the pantry and pulled out a loaf of fresh bread, buttering the outside and layering aged cheddar cheese with the farmers market tomatoes, sliced thinly with the serrated knife I had recently sharpened.

We passed hot triangles to small hands, as mothers do with any food that’s their own, and kept the toaster hot for another round, swiftly devoured.

You forget how good a simple toastie tastes. My friend told me.

This sparked a conversation around healthy eating and how overcomplicated it’s all become.

Of course there’s room for Green Goddess Bowls, fresh sushi and last night’s leftovers, but the simplicity and adaptability of a good sandwich really does sit high on the bell curve of lunchtime happiness.

Not so long ago, I had a similar conversation with another friend and neighbour where we talked about the joy of sticking great tasting things between bread. We called it the Sanity Sandwich: fast to make, quick to clean, and a potential vehicle for anything you’d reasonably stick in a salad.

The fact that I regularly find myself discussing the pros of sandwiches with my friends makes me wonder why we’ve been so quick to shun such a simple solution to the everyday problem of lunch?

(Also, read: exhausted parents approaching in their late 30s who need to get out to more galleries and concerts.)

Some of you may be reading this and feel like I’ve lost my marbles. A sandwich is a dietary staple — what’s she on about?

But in my experience as a health coach I’ve worked with more women who assemble bowls of raw, grated, pseudograin wonder than stick avocado, chicken and cheese between wholemeal.

Somewhere between Instagram and TikTok the sandwich fell out of fashion.

May I argue that we bring it back?

And while we’re at it, how about we chew over some other areas of life that could be saved by simplicity.

Here are three that pop to mind, please share your own suggestions below:

Laundry: is it really dirty?

We’re coming out of a very messy stage of parenting where our kids would change clothes a couple of times a day depending on how much lunch dropped on their lap or how many times they would drive trucks in the mud before (or after) bath time. So I became accustomed to tossing the day’s clothes into the hamper automatically. Last week I asked myself if this was still necessary — prompted by my water bill, no less — and it turns out that I’ve been washing things that could have had a spot clean and an over-the-door-airing.

Cutting back on the quantity of items to wash, line dry, and put away has saved a lot of time and mess.

Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers.

My Nan was a calm lady who only ever raised her voice if you served more food that you could eat, a common gripe amongst Depression-era kids. I’ve adopted her low-food-waste mentality and often combine two nights dinner for day #3, play pantry roulette, and see how far we can stretch things until a supermarket run is essential. Less cooking, less money spent, more time for living.

Drip irrigation system.

My garden beds are blooming and fill me with delight, until I realise I haven’t watered them two days in a row. Keeping up with a vegetable patch in subtropical summers is a fools errand that I was glad to take on, but I’ve come to realise that a drip irrigation system will save water, time, and my vegetables from baking in the sun. This is next month’s project, so wish me luck!

Over to you!

What are some habits or daily routines that you have simplified or would consider trying to?

I’d love for you to share below :)

Until next time,
Jenn xx

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