Ahhh, it’s the final recipe from the Tessie O’Shea Slimming Cookbook!

In January 2019, I pledged to make one recipe a month from Tessie’s book and what with one thing and another, it has taken me until now to do all 12, but it’s been loads of fun. Her recipes are generally a little bit bonkers so there are links at the end of this post to all the recipes I tried including Egg Juice, Butt-Chive Cheese Shrimps and Just Discovered Tinned Soup.  Delightful!

The idea of a lettuce sandwich tickled me because a few years ago work colleagues mercilessly took the mickey out of me for taking a peanut butter and lettuce sandwich in for lunch. Everyone seemed to think it was really weird to have lettuce in a sandwich with peanut butter.

Is it? It seems perfectly normal to me. If they could only see some of the mental things I am eating during lockdown they would think peanut butter and lettuce very tame!

It’s not just me – found this on the net!

But these aren’t sandwiches with lettuce inside them, they are sandwiches with lettuce replacing the bread. Sounds mad, tastes good!

I had egg mayo mixture left over from some Tessie O’Shea Diet Scotch Eggs which seemed eminently appropriate for my first ever lettuce sandwiches.

I rolled ’em up as directed…

and scoffed them as per Tessie’s suggestion, “in the hand.”

I guess in modern parlance these would be called “Lettuce Wraps”.  THEY WERE DELICIOUS!

There’s a little bit in Tessie’s recipe that makes me feel kind of sad. She says of the lettuce sandwiches, “they’re so easy to take on picnics, on long train journeys or to the office.” Ah, remember those days dear readers?  Before every single day was just spent like this…

Good news is, when I saw Tessie’s list of things that would be good in a lettuce sandwich I spotted LIVER SAUSAGE. This is something I loved as a kid, and I haven’t had for a couple of years. There used to be a little Polish cafe opposite Mr Rathbone’s flat and I often picked up a liver sausage and gherkin sandwich to take to work on a Monday after spending the weekend at his place. The cafe is long gone alas, but I now am the proud owner of a tube of liver sausage. It’s just hanging around in my fridge for when the weather is good enough for a lettuce sandwich picnic.

Gotta have things to look forward to in these crazy times right?

Here are the other 11 of Tessie’s recipes I rustled up, one chosen from each of the 12 foregoing chapters in her brilliant cookbook.  Click on the name of the dish to go to the post that includes each recipe.

Tessie O’Shea’s Slimming Breakfast

Butt-Chive Cheese Shrimps

Tessie O’Shea’s Egg Juice

Diet Scotch Eggs

Chez Tuna Fish

Just Discovered Tinned Soup

Fishcakes

Fun With Leftover Chicken or Turkey

Hamburger

Brussels Sprouts (Creamed Cheese Style)

Brandy Ice Cream Coffee

It was really fun to have been set this task.  I have so many movie star cookbooks that I’ve never dipped into, so to make 12 recipes from the same book was a great challenge.  It’s taken me over two years to do this and get the posts up but I feel WELL CHUFFED with myself to have completed this.

Right now feels like a time for getting things finished and celebrating small victories.

 

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