Whether you’re hosting a small summer gathering, or just looking for ways to keep summer lunches exciting, I’m sharing an easy and delicious idea for a sandwich buffet today. This is a sweet and spicy-themed sandwich meal board (essentially a “make your own sandwich” lunch board) with delicious Sara Lee® Premium Meats complemented by some sweet and spicy cheeses, sauces, and snacks. You can find Sara Lee® Premium Meats at your grocery store deli counter, and I recommend always keeping some on hand. Not just for DIY sandwich platters, Sara Lee® Premium Meats are a great easy solution for adding more protein to your breakfast, for summer snacking, and even dinner recipes. Be sure to check out your store’s selection the next time you shop, and pick up a few different kinds. If you’re looking for sandwich bar ideas, here are my tips for making this sweet and spicy meal board for lunch.
WHAT YOU NEED FOR THIS MAKE YOUR OWN SANDWICH BOARD
I’ve been a longtime fan of Sara Lee® for the quality, taste, and ingredients. This is why I love Sara Lee® Premium Meats, too. You can trust them to be of the high-quality Sara Lee® standard that will make you feel good about serving this sandwich meal board to your friends and family. In the theme of sweet and spicy (which is always a delicious combo), here’s what you will need to set up this make your own sandwich board:
- A stone, wood, or plastic board
- Sara Lee® Oven Roasted Turkey Breast or Sara Lee® Honey Roasted Turkey Breast
- Sara Lee® Honey Ham
- Two to three sweet and spicy cheeses (such as apple-smoked Cheddar, pepper Jack, or any cheeses with chilis)
- Sweet and spicy sauces and spreads (honey and jalapeno jam are ideal)
- Sweet and spicy nuts (honey roasted peanuts, spicy BBQ flavored almonds, etc.)
- Bread rolls
HOW TO SET UP A SANDWICH BUFFET LUNCH BOARD (AKA SANDWICH CHARCUTERIE):
Since the Sara Lee® Premium Meats are the star of the sandwich, start by adding your meat on the sandwich meal board so that you can arrange the other sandwich fixings and snacks around them. I decided to roll the Sara Lee® Oven Roasted Turkey Breast pieces for easy grabbing, then, I folded the Sara Lee® Honey Ham into quarters and fanned them out decoratively.
Next, add your cheeses to make your own sandwich tray. I sliced cheese from a wheel into semi-circles so that it matched the shape of the ham, then fanned it at the top so that the meat and cheese combination had a floral shape on the sandwich board. Other cheeses were sliced then separated in an alternating pattern for easy grabbing.
To dress the sandwiches, I included a few sweet and spicy sauces for my crew to choose from on the sandwich buffet. Honey compliments the sweetness of the ham and the kick from the pepper cheese, and a jalapeno jam tastes great with turkey and white Cheddar cheese, but guests can have fun mixing and matching their sandwich flavors.
Finally, to fill any gaps on the lunch board, add an assortment of sweet and spicy nuts to the tray for a great snacking side for the sandwiches. Serve some bread rolls alongside the board and make sure guests have utensils for grabbing their sandwich components.
The sweet and spicy pairings offer several different sandwich combinations that make this sandwich meal board an easy, but unforgettable lunch idea. It’s a great way to mix things up for lunch, as well as an easy solution for entertaining.
