Creamy Jif peanut butter, Smucker’s Concord Grape Jelly, and Wonder Bread—the sandwich loved by littles. PB&J is a popular kids’ lunch, for sure. (I’ve probably made thousands!) There’s nothing wrong with the original, but a few tweaks can reinvigorate the old stand-by. Here are 5 easy ways to improve PB&J sandwiches:
1. Switch up the bread
Plain white loaf is the standard, but it’s not the only option. Challah, raisin bread, English muffins, bagels, croissants, pita, and wraps are all tasty. Cut into fun shapes with cookie cutters.
2. Fruit
Try adding thinly sliced bananas, strawberries, or apples. Prefer dried? Try raisins, apricots, or cranberries.
3. Crunchy
Add some texture with crushed pretzels, flaked coconut, sunflower seeds, or granola. Like sweet and salty combos? Try crushed potato chips. Use saltine crackers and skip the bread entirely.
4. Sweet treat
Feed your sugar cravings with honey, Nutella, mini chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, or sprinkles.
5. Chewy
Try toasting the bread before adding the filling or make PB&J French Toast (dip prepared sandwich in egg with cinnamon sugar and vanilla extract, then fry).
While PB&J isn’t the healthiest food available, it is something that kids will eat without complaint that’s affordable, and takes almost no effort to prepare, making it a decent choice. (If you’re truly lacking time, they can even be frozen ahead.) I serve mine with carrot, celery, and cucumber sticks for extra nutrients.
I needed to read this five minutes ago. I just ate a plain old PB&J, lol.
I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I could go for one on toasted raisin bread right about now.
we will be trying some of these out. I really like the idea to use honey
Good ideas! PB&Js are my sons favorite!
These are great ideas and sound yummy
It is easy (for some folks) to call someone racist, and you see it on social media all the time, which seems to fuel it the more. It is too easy to accuse someone who has a general (and/or genuine) gripe about something to attribute it to some deep grudge/dislike. I’m not aware of simmering tensions between any groups in my town, except maybe between the lower-middle and the higher middle, which might seem strange, but they get into a lot of arguments that turn into mud-slinging on FB groups. There’s a current fight over a guy who posted about not being able to charge his Tesla, that the cars stay parked in the parking spot where the charger is. The “lowers” don’t feel sorry for someone who owns a Tesla, don’t care if he can’t charge it to get to work, etc. It is amazing how quickly the underlying resentments spontaneously combust into a “fire.”
We talk a lot about race in this country, but there is very little attention paid to class. I have also noticed a lot of tension between rich and poor, particularly with housing. In my area, affordable apartments are sorely needed, but no developer can get approval from the local boards. They only want expensive homes that will pay high property taxes. Very troubling when only a certain type of person, based on income, is welcome in town.
I enjoy mixing up PB with almond, sunflower seed, and cashew butter. Especially the the cashew butter.
I’ve had almond butter, not cashew. I like the alternative spreads, but the kids didn’t like anything but regular peanut butter so that’s what I normally buy.
These are all great ideas. I like to put PB&J on Ritz crackers for a snack.
Ritz crackers….oh, I could eat an entire box plain!
I ALWAYS ADD FRUIT WITH PB SAMMIES ITS BETTER FOR THE KIDS THAN SUGARY “JAMS & JELLIES ” THE WHOLE FAMILY LOVES EM !!!!!!!!!!!!!
That sounds really good and healthier.
Fluff is the best thing to add to a PBJ sandwich!!
I used to love those as a little kid. Very high in sugar, but a nice treat on occasion.