I love that we have crazy national holidays like Peanut Butter and Jelly Day! What a fabulous thing to celebrate. I’m a big fan of the sandwich myself - I seriously cried the day they closed down PB Loco in our Mall of America. (Being 8 months pregnant at the time didn’t help.) I still have a PB&J sandwich at least once a week - it’s one of my favorites...always has been, always will be. (A 2002 Prepared Foods survey showed the average American will have eaten 1,500 of these sandwiches before graduating from high school!)
Sure I mix it up at times (I love adding banana “coins”, honey, butter spread, Nutella or use sunbutter or almond butter (my favorite is sunbutter - YUM!). What ever tickles your fancy, go for it. Indulge, and don’t feel guilty for it being a “go-to” for your kiddos - if you make healthy choices when it comes to your ingredients then you’ve got a healthy meal ready in seconds. (Just remember any tree-nut rules your child’s school has in place when packing lunches!)
In honor of National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day we are serving up our version of this American staple - the Peanut Butter and Jelly HopeFULL! Who says you can’t have PB&J in a frozen treat? It’s the yummy without the sticky! And just for fun we’ve added one of our favorite Shel Silverstein Poems for you to read to your kids over dinner this evening.
Now go nuts!
~ Jessie
Peanut Butter and Jelly
1/2 cup fresh strawberries
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk (or milk of your choice)
2 T natural creamy peanut butter (or butter of your choice)
2 T honey
1/4 cup infant oatmeal cereal
1/2 cup whole wheat graham cracker crumbs
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides if necessary. Pour into HopeFULL tray, add wooden spoon-sticks and freeze.
Peanut Butter Sandwich
by Shel Silverstein
I'll tell you a story of silly young king
Who played with the world at the end of a string
But he only loved one single thing and that was just a peanut butter sandwich
Now his scepter wand his royal gowns his regal throne and golden crowns
Were brown and sticky from the mounds
And drippings from each peanut butter sandwich
His subjects all were silly fools for he had passed a royal rule
That all that they could learn in school was how to make a peanut butter sandwich
He would not eat his sovereign steak he scorned his soup and his kingly cake
And told his courtly cook to bake
An extra-sticky peanut butter sandwich
And then one day he took a bite and started chewing with delight
But found his mouth was stuck quite tight
From that last bite of peanut butter sandwich
His brother pulled his sister pried the wizard pushed his mother cried
Oh my boy's committed suicide from eating his last peanut butter sandwich
The dentist came and the royal doc the royal plumber banged and knocked
But still those jaws stayed tightly locked oh darn that sticky peanut butter sandwich
The carpenter he tried with pliers the telephone man tried with wires
The firemen they tried with fire but couldn't melt that peanut butter sandwich
With ropes and pulleys drills and coil with steam and lubricating oil
For twenty years of tears and toil they fought that awful peanut butter sandwich
Then all his royal subjects came they hooked his jaws with grapplin' chains
And pulled both ways with might and main
Against against that peanut butter sandwich
Each man and woman girl and boy put down their ploughs and pots and toys
And pulled until kerack, oh joy! they broke right through the peanut butter sandwich
A puff of dust. a screech. a squeak. the king's jaws opened with a creak
And then in voice so faint and weak the first words that they heard him speak
Were...”how about a peanut butter sandwich?”
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