These choose-your-own style Homemade Sub Sandwiches are a great way to let your kids have autonomy when making their own sandwiches. Prep the toppings the night before making lunch packing a breeze on school mornings!
The fun thing about restaurant dining is everyone in your family can get something different! The very thing we avoid when we are cooking for our family at home. If you’ve ever said before “I’m only making one meal tonight, you eat it or you don’t”, you know what I’m talking about!
But this is also the reason we love a good old home style buffet- The potato bar, the oatmeal bar, the salad bar, pasta bar, taco bar, etc. Enter, our version of a sandwich bar. These Homemade Sub Sandwiches are perfect for helping your kids learn to pack their own lunches and have much lest wasted food!
How to Make Homemade Sub Sandwiches
To make our sandwich bar just like Subway’s, we had two things in mind. One, to make our hoagie rolls. And second, to find as many veggie toppings as we could come up with.
Our bread, we adapted this recipe from Copycat Recipe Guide (and replaced the regular flour with whole wheat flour and the soybean oil with Grape Seed Oil)- Our full recipe is below.
We then baked our bread in a mini loaf pan– because we like small things! You don’t need a loaf pan. You can also divide your bread into 8 logs and bake it on a cookie sheet.
Sandwich Toppings
After baking, we took out our veggies for the sandwiches and put them in a muffin tin. These are some ideas to use for sandwich toppings:
- Green peppers, chopped
- Shredded carrots
- Avocado
- Jalapenos
- Spinach
- Roasted Red peppers
- Pickles
- Banana Peppers
- Lettuce, shredded
- Tomatoes, chopped
- Cucumbers, thinly sliced
- and Olives, chopped (sliced would work too)
Prepping your veggies the night before and putting them in a muffin tin makes your sub sandwich assembly SO easy. I just cover it with plastic wrap or tin foil and pull in out when we are ready to assemble our sandwiches. And there you have it! The kids can assemble their sandwiches to their liking!
More Healthy Sandwich Recipes
- Tuna Salad Sandwich
- Pulled Pork Sandwich
- 25 Pita Sandwiches for Kids
- Grilled Apple and Peanut Butter Sandwich
Homemade Hoagie Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 cup water
- 3-4 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 large egg for egg wash
Instructions
- Combine yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Pour warm water over the top and let proof for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast looks foamy and bubbling.
- In a stand mixer with your dough hook, add melted butter, 1 cup water, 3 cups of flour, and salt. When your yeast is foamy, pour it into the bowl. Mix until combined, 1-2 minutes.
- The dough should be soft, but not sticky. It should pull away from the edges of the bowl when mixing. If it is too sticky, add in flour 1/4 cup at a time. When the dough is soft, let the mixer knead the dough for 5-6 minutes to help create gluten which gives you a softer, chewier end result.
- Place dough in a lightly-greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about one hour.
- Punch dough down and place on a clean, floured surface. Divide into eight pieces. This will make eight large full-size hoagie rolls. You can divide into 16 pieces for half-size rolls.
- Shape each piece of dough into a rectangle by placing your hands on each side of the dough and moving your hands together in a vertical motion, and then in a horizontal motion to get the dough tucked underneath itself. When you have the shape you want, place the roll onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can use a bread lame to make slashes across the top if you want.
- Cover the rolls with clean towel, and let them rise for another 30 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and 1 tablespoon cold water together. Using a pastry brush, carefully brush the egg wash on the top of each roll. This will give you a nice golden brown shiny top.
- Preheat oven to 375℉. Bake for 15-20 minutes for small rolls, and 20-25 for larger rolls or until the top of the loaves are golden brown.
- Remove from oven to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before cutting them. I recommend using a quality bread knife to slice them.
- Add your favorite sandwich toppings and enjoy!