South of the Border Sandwiches

Just your typical turkey sandwich, right? Crazy-wrong, I say.

The spread has a little kick to it. The manchild realized it before I did - before taking pictures of the sandwich, I cut up a couple for my little guy. As I was in the other room, I hear him clearing his throat over and over again. I thought "eh, maybe he's just thirsty" and gave him his sippy-cup. A few minutes later, I took my first bite of the sandwich... mmm.. creamy... lovely... SPICY! That chili powder sure went a long way pretty fast! I thirsted immediately for a tall glass of milk. Poor little man - no wonder he was having a little trouble there...

Now these are probably not that spicy, but my palate tends to favor the more mild end of the spectrum. So for normal humans, these are probably just the right taste of spice to a sandwich. For me, and the manchild, probably not.

In the oven, the bread becomes so crunchy. This contrasted perfectly with the creamy warm avocado and juicy tomatoes. Also, I'm a huge fan of olives. I can down those little lovers like none other.  So instead of buying pre-chopped olives, I just purchased a can of whole olives (less expensive) and sliced them up. This recipe only calls for 1/2 cup olives, so you can probably guess where the rest of the can ended up.

I also really love the idea of an open-face sandwich. Less bread to deal with. Plus it gave the components of the sandwich the chance to get all toasty. That's a win for everyone, man. 

I originally found this recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything via Pinterest, but the original recipe is from a place a few of you might find familiar: The Lion House.

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South of the Border Sandwiches
recipe adapted from Lion House Entertaining

1 loaf French bread, cut into 3/4" thick slices (I bought a wheat loaf)

½ cup black olives, chopped
½ teaspoon chili powder (not too much if you're a wussy like me)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup lite mayonnaise
1/3 cup nonfat sour cream
1/3 cup green onions, chopped
1 pound sliced turkey (we used Tyson)
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced (on the vine is best)
2 ripe avocados, sliced
¾ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
¾ cup pepper jack or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (I used more of this than the cheddar)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine olives, chili powder, cumin, and salt; set aside 2 Tablespoons of this mixture. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, and green onions to the remaining olive mixture.

Place bread on an ungreased baking sheet and spread 1 Tablespoon of the mayonnaise mixture on each slice. Top with slices of turkey and tomatoes. Spread with another Tablespoon of mayonnaise mixture (I didn't add this because I didn't think it needed it). Top with avocados and cheeses. Sprinkle with the reserved 2 Tablespoons of olive mixture. Bake @ 350 for 15 min. Makes 8-10 servings.

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