Bacon and Egg Salad Hero

I also share recipes. Here's my favorite sandwich...

1 whole wheat sourdough baguette

3 hard cooked eggs, peeled and chopped

4 slices Trader Joe's uncured turkey bacon, cooked until crisp, chopped

2 stalks celery, finely diced

1/4 cup pepperoncinis, minced

1 heaping tablespoon Trader Joe's Real Mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Coleman's mustard

sea salt and freshly cracked pepper

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

extra-virgin, cold-pressed Spanish or Greek olive oil

fresh spinach leaves, washed, dried and trimmed

So, a few comments on my personal tastes regarding food...you can make the filling on your own while I'm chatting here. Trust me, plenty of time.

I love good food. I was raised on good food, high-quality stuff. That doesn't mean I'm a food snob (even though I am, sort of). I merely like putting healthy ingredients in my body, I have some health issues I have to manage, I'm 48 and not getting any younger, yada, yada, yada. I'll be making some ingredient suggestions. If you want to go out and get whatever the local Piggly Wiggly store brand provides and use that instead, go right ahead. It's just a choice.

So now we talk ingredients...

I'm from California, the home of sourdough bread. (Maybe that's an overstatement.)  You can't get real San Francisco Sourdough anywhere other than San Francisco. It is not the technique. It is the local spore that gives it that tang. San Luis Sourdough, while just as delicious, is not the same. Different spores in that air, just four hours south of the Golden Gate. I know! Pretty amazing!

You're wondering about the whole wheat sourdough.  It isn't available everywhere. I just use it because I have type 2 diabetes and I'm concerned about the glycemic effect that bread will have on me.

If you need to know how to hard-cook eggs, I strongly suggest going to the source - The American Egg Board. I also highly recommend using cage-free eggs. They just taste better! I use them because they are less likely to have come from chickens fed on soy grain. I have a newly-discovered intolerance to soy and yes, it affects me when I eat things that ate soy too.  If you don't want to cook the eggs, they sell them already cooked and peeled at Trader Joe's.

I love shopping at Trader Joe's, and their bacon is the best! Their uncured turkey bacon is much lower in fat, it's all meat, and great for a good BLT. It even microwaves really nicely. (I use uncured meats because they are free from nitrates and nitrites. Trader Joe's All-Beef Hotdogs are also skinless and uncured, really delicious and totally soy-free!)

I know, I'm rambling now...I don't care. Did you split the bread and hollow it out yet? Well?  Do I have to tell you how to do everything?

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients but the bread, olive oil, red onion and spinach. At that point, I like to let that mixture sit in the fridge for about half an hour to let the flavors really meld. Then I taste it to see if it needs salt, because the bacon is salty. I'm trying to cut back on salt too, but sometimes, some foods need it. I like the freshly ground black pepper because the flavor is just so obvious. And I do like it a little more coarsely ground, for a stronger burst of pepper. But that's just me.

Sprinkle a bit of the olive oil over the inside of the bread. It'll help it not be so dry. If you're worried about fat content, why are you making this sandwich? It's all healthy fats!

Line one side of the bread with spinach. On top of that I spread the bacon and egg salad mixture, top it with the sliced red onions, and then I put the other half of the baguette on top. It'll feed two people at lunch, or four if you add a small bowl of Greek lentil soup on the side. Maybe some nice, fresh tomatoes, sliced, with a little olive oil and salt. And a glass of iced passion flower tea.

I wish I had a picture of it.  As soon as I make the sandwich, I'll snap a digital and upload it.