Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews and food chatter

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE Jimmy Johns!!!  My favorites are: Beach Club on wheat, Italian Night Club, Club Tuna, Vito AND even the JJ Gargantuan.  On a side note… one of my brother’s names is Vito so it’s just fun for me to order that in addition to it being yummy.  I get a nice little chuckle every time.  Yeah, I know, dork.  Anyway, many times, I have Jimmy Johnsed myself out.  Can’t help it, you crave it for weeks and eat them all the time and then you need a few months off.  The sandwiches are so big, that typically I eat only half and then I snack on whatever else or have a small dessert- their oatmeal raisin cookies are pretty good:)  Now, I knew that I shouldn’t have done it, but I looked online at their nutritional information and my worst fears were confirmed.  The Italian Night has 974 calories!  Now, by only eating half, that isn’t so bad, but still…  you can eat a lot more food for way less calories and be more nutritious.  

So, my most favorite sandwich there, the Beach Club on Wheat, has 839 calories.  Whoah.  So, I knew they had a lettuce version, Unwich, without the bread, but I’m just used to the fake wrap versions at other places that aren’t good, so I was nervous to try it.  Checking it out online, if you get rid of the bread and the mayo and make it into a lettuce wrap, it is now 233 calories.  Oh my goodness!  What a change and now I won’t feel so bad for snacking all day long and eating my multiple desserts during the day…  yes, I’m guilty of that.  This sandwich is made up of lettuce, turkey, avocado spread, sprouts, tomato, cucumber, and provolone - it’s basically a salad wrap and so the ingredients go together really well and it’s delicious!  One time, my freakishly fast sandwich maker messed up and added mayo when I said “no mayo,” and it wasn’t very good.  With no bread to soak up all that mayo, it was like a mayo lettuce wrap.  Ech. 

I then tried the Totally Tuna (the non-club version -without the bread, you don’t need so much of the tuna filling to taste it because this amount of tuna is not overwhelmed by bread, it’s also cheaper), with the lettuce wrap and it was also delicious!  The way I figure it, the Club Tuna is 719 calories (because you need the extra filling to taste it over the bread) - but when you get the Totally Tuna, which is the same thing but less inside stuff - which starts out at 503 calories - and make that into a lettuce wrap, it’s 252 calories!  It’s delicious, just like a tuna salad salad.  You can eat the whole sandwich without getting full mid-way and you’re eating healthier as well!

I still order my other favorites as well with the bread but only eat half.  I can’t imagine what some of those other sandwiches would taste like as a lettuce wrap- more like a major chef salad hold most of the lettuce.  Not quite the same translation to the Unwich as the tuna and turkey, but I could be wrong.  So, if you’re trying to lighten up your menu for any reason, or just save room in your belly for the big dinner you have planned for later in the day, why don’t you try one of these Unwich sandwiches and see how you like it?  I definitely recommend them!  Warning:  do not attempt to eat these Unwich lettuce wraps in your car.  It’ll get all over you and the car seat and then you’ll have to clean it up and it just takes less effort to eat it at a table.

ps…  On my dad’s side of the family, we are half-Italian/ half-German.  Our family has a house in Italy where my Dad grew up and so I’ve been fortunate enough to visit many times and have developed a love affair with true Italian food.  I can tell you that I’ve never had anything with pepperoni in it in Italy.  I’m sure it’s there somewhere, but it isn’t popular.  Jimmy John’s does not have pepperoni in their Italian sandwiches and I’d like to say,  finally!!!  I think pepperonis are pretty nasty and why would you want to eat them if you’ve ever tasted real salami?  Thanks JJ for keeping those nasty things off your sandwiches.  Respect.