Healthy "Reuben" with Coleslaw

The other day we were having coffee at our coffee shop and I picked up one of the magazines and actually found a good idea.  I try pretty hard to plan out my week’s meals so that I can go to the grocery store just once a week, but I’m not always good about it and I’m not always good about pairing the right meals together during the day to make sure we get the total calories and nutrients we need.  So in this magazine, Clean Eating, they have 14 day plans of meals that include breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks with the total the calories, fats, etc for each day.  I thought this was a good idea to give us a specific plan on what we should eat throughout the day every day to help stay on track.  We’ve made it through the first 4 days and so far it has worked really well for us.

They have a website,  www.cleaneatingmag.com , where you can download all of their meal plans, it even comes with a shopping list.

I went through one of the Winter meal plans and picked out the meals and snacks that I thought looked good and then substituted in some of my own low fat/low cal recipes as well.  The biggest problem with this is it is a meal plan for one person, and they have you make one serving of everything just about, so there is a lot more cooking involved than even I normally do.

The first recipe I tried, and modified for my needs, was the clean Reuben.  I don’t think I can say this is anything like a Reuben but it was still good and surprisingly filling.  J loves Reuben’s so he was on board with trying this, but once he saw it he was a little scared he would still be starving after dinner, but we were both stuffed and satisfied.

Sandwich
½ lb pastrami seasoned turkey
2 oz Jarlesberg light, sliced
4 slices rye bread

Coleslaw
2 cups shredded red cabbage
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1/2 cup shredded carrots
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¾ cup plain Greek yogurt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt

Dressing
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
5 grape tomatoes, diced
Dash of salt to taste



Prepare the coleslaw: In a medium bowl combine cabbages and carrots, stir in vinegar, yogurt, salt and pepper.  Let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing: In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, tomatoes and salt until well mixed.  While stirring, mash the tomatoes to release their juices.  Set aside.

Assemble the sandwiches by dividing the dressing among the slices of bread.  Place 1 oz slice of cheese on each sandwich.  Top with the turkey then pile about ¼ cup coleslaw on top of the meat.  Finish with the second slice of bread and press firmly.  Broil the sandwiches either in toaster oven or oven for 2 minutes, flip and broil for 2 more minutes.  Serve with ¾ cup coleslaw on the side.

Serves 2, 525 calories, 12 g fat

You pretty much have to get it out of your head that this is a Reuben, because it’s not, but it is a pretty good turkey sandwich.