Toasted bread. Crunchy bacon. Crisp lettuce. Juicy tomato.
Swiss cheese.
Spicy sriracha mayo. What could go wrong? Absolutely nothing, which
is
why this sandwich is perfect for days when you’re not at your best.
A struggle meal, as you might guess, is a meal one eats when one is struggling. Stressed, sad, angry, sick, tired, or even just lazy. Struggle meals are low-effort but still delicious, because a bad meal after a bad day won’t help anything.
I don’t know about you, but I have exactly two modes when I am stressed or upset: a) I want to make my jaw unhinge like Tom in Tom & Jerry so I can eat everything in the world in one bite, or b) my stomach feels like it shrinks to the size of a pin and I’m lucky if I have the appetite to eat a single grape. This BLT has protein, veggies, and cheese, so it’s pretty well-rounded in terms of nutrients. It’s substantial enough that it’ll give you what you need, but not super heavy if option b sounds familiar to you.
BLTs are one of my favorite struggle meals (or regular meals). They’re just so easy and so dependable. I mean, honestly, have you ever had a bad BLT? Toasted bread, crunchy bacon, crisp lettuce, juicy tomato—what could go wrong? And, because you deserve it even (especially) on bad days, we’re dressing this up just a little with cheese (always a good idea) and a little bit of spicy sriracha mayonnaise.
The hardest part is cooking the bacon, and even that’s almost totally hands off. I never cook mine on the stovetop anymore to begin with, and who wants to babysit all that spitting grease when you’re in Struggle Mode? I call for 4 slices here because that’s the absolute minimum, but if you’re hungry or you’re just craving bacon, add another one or two.
So you bake the bacon for 15-20 minutes at 400F. While the bacon is cooling, you put the bread in the toaster. You can toast bread in the oven or on the stovetop, if you want, but we’re keeping things easy here. While the bread is toasting, you’ll cut a nice big slice of tomato (salt and pepper it, if you feel so inclined) and rip off a big lettuce leaf (washed), and fold it in half. Then you just butter the bread, layer everything on, slap on some mayo and sriracha and mix it right on the bread, and then you’re done.
Sometimes it feels good to focus on taking care of yourself for a minute, and I can’t think of better ingredients for self-care than bacon, bread, and cheese.
blt with swiss & sriracha mayo
makes 1 sandwich
time: ~25 minutes (~20 minutes cooking, 5 minutes active)
ingredients
4-6 slices bacon (or vegetarian bacon)
2 slices bread
1 tbsp butter
2 slices swiss (or provolone)
1 large slice tomato
1 large leaf romaine or green leaf lettuce
½ tbsp mayo*
1 tsp sriracha*
*You don’t have to be precise. You can just eyeball this.
directions
- Bake the bacon. Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with foil. Lay the bacon flat on the sheet, leaving some space between them. Bake bacon for 15-20 minutes, or until desired doneness.
- While the bacon is cooling, toast the bread in the toasted and butter one side of each while it’s still warm.
- Lay one piece of bread on a plate, butter side up. Layer cheese, bacon, tomato, and lettuce on the bread. On the other slice of bread, put the mayo and sriracha on the butter side and use the knife to mix. Put that slice on top of the rest of the sandwich. Bam. You’re done.
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