Food Tuesday: Open-Faced Chicken Club Sandwich

I always enjoy the weekend that follows the delivery of my monthly Cooking Light magazine. Those lazy weekend mornings are spent flipping through lovely food photos with many delicious, healthy recipes. I have these nifty post-its that I keep by my cookbooks and magazines; they have labels like "Appetizers," "Meat," "Fish," "Vegetables," and "Dessert." Every time I find a recipe I want to try, I stick a post-it on the page for quick browsing later on when I'm menu planning. Simple as pie!

I browsed a recent issue just last weekend and settled on what seemed like a tasty, work lunch-friendly recipe: Open-Faced Chicken Club Sandwiches. The whole process of getting ingredients ready was simple and straightforward. Toast some bread; cook some chicken breasts with olive oil, salt, and pepper; cook up some bacon (I used turkey bacon); and mash some avocado, either alone (as I did) or with mayo, salt, and pepper (as per the recipe). The end result is a sandwich that combines all of the best textures and flavors--crunch from the toasted bread, creaminess from the avocado, salt from the bacon, savory tenderness from the chicken. The only thought I had about perhaps improving the still-warm, just-cooked version was to top it off with a poached egg. Assembling a cold sandwich from leftovers kept in the work fridge was just as tasty, too. I don't always do well making sandwiches, but I must say I'm pleased with this one.