Brown-bag staples — turkey, nut butters, tuna — take on new twists for chefs’ kids

When it comes to lunch sandwiches, children are creatures of habit. But it’s the rare child who doesn’t crave a little variation now and then. The hidebound peanut-butter partisan might accept apple butter in place of grape jelly. The turkey devotee might appreciate a slice of avocado. The tuna exponent might go for a wrap instead of a traditional sandwich.

For the start of school 2010, we sought sandwich-shaking-up advice from three Long Island, N.Y., lunch-making parents who are also professional chefs.

Turkey is the go-to sandwich meat in Lauren Chattman’s Sag Harbor kitchen. A former pastry chef, Chattman is the author of many cookbooks including “Cake Keeper Cakes” (Taunton, $17.95), “Panini Express” (Taunton, $18.95) and the upcoming “Cookie Swap!” (Workman, $14.95). Chattman’s two daughters, Eve, 11 and Rose, 15, carry their lunch to school every day, and that means that their mother “is making sandwiches every morning.”

“What’s great about turkey,” Chattman said, “is that it’s so bland, it pairs well with other things,” particularly cheese or another, saltier meat.

While she usually does not cook her own turkey, Chattman insists that it be roasted in the store she buys it from. “Otherwise it has this slimy texture,” she said, “and doesn’t seem entirely like meat.”

It’s all about peanut butter when Mitch SuDock makes sandwiches for his 9-year-old daughter Jessica, a fourth-grader at Solomon Schechter in Jericho. “And let’s get one thing straight,” said the chef-owner of Bistro M in Glen Head, “it has to be crunchy peanut butter.”

Jessica isn’t a huge fan of whole-wheat bread, but SuDock has had great success with sandwiches made on white whole wheat bread. (“White” wheat has a lighter taste than conventional wheat and thus whole-wheat bread made from it tastes very similar to regular white bread. Trader Joe’s and Pepperidge Farm all make such a loaf.)

He also recently introduced Jessica to Nutella, the hazelnut-chocolate spread that is a lunchtime favorite in Europe, and Nutella-based sandwiches have become a special treat.

It’s not surprising that tuna is a popular sandwich filling at the home of Michael Meehan, chef at the Smithtown seafood restaurant H2O. Not only is dad a fish-o-phile, but it’s one protein that his food-allergy-prone wife and red-meat-avoiding daughter, Heather, 16, will eat. (Sons John Henry, 10, and Jesse, 6, eat pretty much everything.)

Meehan looks for tuna that is labeled “dolphin safe,” which means that a third party has ensured that the tuna producer followed established practices for avoiding harming dolphins while fishing for tuna. “Chunk light” is his tuna of choice.

Turkey Hero

Recipe Yield:Makes 1 sandwich.

In this sandwich, a little bit of salty cured meat raises the turkey to hero level. A hearty bread, like a focaccia roll, is crucial here so that the sandwich can stand up to the dressing.

Focaccia roll or panino roll

Lettuce or baby spinach

3 to 5 slices roast turkey

1 to 2 slices Genoa salami or 3 to 4 slices pepperoni

Vinaigrette or Italian dressing

Toss greens with dressing to thinly coat. Split the roll; top one half with greens. Add sliced turkey, a little salami or pepperoni and then drizzle with more dressing. Top with second half of roll.

Turkey, Avocado and Cheddar

Recipe Yield:Makes 1 sandwich.

Chattman likes avocado because it adds moisture to a turkey sandwich without making it soggy.

3 to 5 slices roast turkey

2 slices 7-grain bread

Half a small avocado, thinly sliced

1 or 2 slices cheddar cheese

Place turkey on a slice of 7-grain or whole-grain bread. Top with thinly sliced avocado, cheddar cheese and another slice of bread.

Turkey with Cranberry

Recipe Yield:Makes 1 sandwich.

Chattman’s kids love cranberry sauce and, not surprisingly, it is a natural for turkey sandwiches.

3 to 5 slices roast turkey

2 slices whole-wheat bread

1 to 2 tablespoons cranberry preserves (shelved with jams and jellies) or cranberry sauce

Place turkey on a slice of bread. Top with cranberry preserves and then another slice of bread.

Peanut Butter, Honey and Banana

Recipe Yield:Makes 1 sandwich.

2 to 3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 slices white whole wheat bread

1 to 2 tablespoons honey

1 banana, thinly sliced

Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread, honey on the other. Cover the honeyed slice with thinly sliced banana and then top with peanut-buttered slice.

Peanut Butter & Apple Butter

Recipe Yield:Makes 1 sandwich.

This sandwich is a favorite not only of Jessica’s, but of her father’s. “We eat this all the time at the restaurant. If we have some granola around, we’ll throw it into the sandwich for crunch.” SuDock likes a fruit- or nut-enriched bread for this sandwich. “In the winter I’ll do this sandwich with a cranberrry-pecan bread, or semolina-raisin-fennel bread, and throw it on the grill for a few minutes.”

2 slices raisin bread

2 to 3 tablespoons peanut butter

1 to 2 tablespoons apple butter

2 to 3 tablespoons granola (optional)

Spread one slice of raisin bread with peanut butter, another with apple butter. If desired, sprinkle some granola on the apple butter, then close the sandwich.

Nutella and Marshmallow

Recipe Yield:Makes 1 sandwich.

This is a special-occasion sandwich that works hot or cold.

2 to 3 tablespoons Nutella

2 slices whole-grain nut bread

Mini marshmallows

Spread Nutella on one slice of bread then cover with mini marshmallows. Place this and a second slice of bread in the toaster oven until the marshmallows begin to brown. Place second slice of bread on top of the first and eat immediately, or cool down and pack for lunch.