Lunch on Friday, May 13 - Pressed for ideas, I made a sandwich

Friday's lunch included a sandwich.  You may remember that I don't do sandwiches largely because Juju still can't figure out what to do when one is handed to her. 

Then, I had the idea to make her a sandwich "pocket," kind of like those disgusting (though oddly appealing) Smucker's Crustable things.  I found a really cool contraption at the Japanese Tokyo Outlet to help me and I am really excited about it.  Well, as excited as one can be about a lunch accessory.  By the way, I know it sounds like I spend my days shopping and lunching at the Japanese Village Plaza downtown but sadly I don't.  One of my vendors for my business is right there so whenever I am in the area for a meeting I take a quick walk over to see what's new.  I don't think I've ever spent more than $2.49 on an item there so it's a great place to go for cheap lunch inspiration.  

 If only I read Japanese I could tell you the name of this sandwich press or where to get it (other than in downtown LA) but I am sure they exist anywhere.  In the case of this one, you place a piece of bread on the press, add your "filling" (in this case I used hummus), place another piece of bread on top, and press down.  You are left with a sealed rounded square sandwich with no crust and no place for your "filling" to spill out.  (See photo below for the resulting sandwich).

I was concerned that my whole grain sandwich bread would be too stiff for the press but it worked fine.   You can see what remains behind after removing the sandwich from the press in the photo at left.  I am not quite sure why there is a heart on the top of the sandwich press since it does not make any indentation on the sandwich.  I can only surmise it's there because the Japanese needed to find some way to make even something like this look cute.

Yes I am aware that the press is plastic and we don't tend to like a lot of plastic around here.  All I can say is that the food is in the press for less than 30 seconds and I hand wash it.

Along with the hummus sandwich today's lunch included cottage cheese and cantaloupe with grapes.

Unfortunately, despite my efforts, much of this lunch went uneaten due to far more exciting things than a sandwich, I'm sure.  She has however eaten other pressed sandwiches since then and the result has been great and mess-free!