Saturday, February 03, 2007

OAMC -- PBJ

I picked this tip up recently from another WFMW (Works for me Wednesday) participant.

Freezing Peanut Butter Sandwiches. This is valuable information if you or your family like peanut butter sandwiches and eat them at least once a month. I recently found out my children are willing to eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches every day or even twice a day. This is good news for me!

1 loaf of whole wheat bread (You could use white, but why sacrifice all those good nutrients?)
Peanut butter
Honey or Jelly or Jam

On a clean countertop, lay out the bread in sets of two pieces. On one slice spread a very, very thin layer of peanut butter. This will be the slice that the honey, jelly, or jam goes on. You don’t want to put the honey, jelly, or jam directly on the bread if it’s going into the freezer—it would crystallize all gross-like. So, this very, very thin layer of peanut butter protects the bread. Then you can spread the honey, jelly, or jam on top of it. When we do honey, we like to mix it in with the peanut butter. On the second slice of bread spread the peanut butter as thick as you like. Place two pieces together and voila! Place sandwich in a sandwich baggie and into the freezer. When all the sandwiches are frozen, I like to line them all back up in the bread bag.

Do all the peanut butter slices first then do all the honey, jelly, or jam slices next. That way you don’t get gooey stuff back in the peanut butter jar.

To thaw: Remove from freezer and thaw at room temperature for an hour.

There will be no sogginess. It’s like you just made it.

How is this valuable to you? Well, if your child likes to eat peanut butter for lunch every single day (and you’re okay with it), make a whole bunch at the start of the week or month. If you like to have emergency sandwiches for unexpected doctor or ER trips or long car rides (which we do if we’re going to the temple 2 hours away), grab your bag of sandwiches and go!

I haven’t tried it yet, but I heard you can also freeze lunchmeat and cheese sandwiches. I wouldn’t recommend putting mayonnaise on it though, because mayo does NOT freeze well. You could keep the extra packets from fast food places and throw it in your lunch so you could add the mayo or mustard later to your sandwich.

Your challenge this week: figure out how much time and money you would save if you sent your child or spouse with a pre-made lunch this week with sandwiches from the freezer.

I’m off to make two dozen bread kits now. Have you tried making bread kits yet?

7 comments:

feywriter said...

Ooh, I often make hubby PBJs for his lunch, and my son LOVES to eat PBJs. I will definitely have to try this one.

Anonymous said...

Oh ... great idea! My kids like PB&J for their lunch boxes. I never like to make their lunch in the morning because I'm not generally a "morning" person. I'm a night before lunch maker, but the boys complain their jelly soaks into the bread too much when I make it the night before.

Wonder if I could do this with PB and JELLY??? Do you know? If so, I will be making up some sandwiches! :) Woo Hoo. Thanks for sharing!

Nikki said...

To an iowa mom-

Yes you can do it with with jelly! Just make sure you have that thin layer of peanut butter on the jelly side to protect the bread.

I am so thrilled with the knowledge of this seemingly easy tip. Every time I make some, I'm giddy. Thanks for visiting my site!

Anonymous said...

Good idea about the PB sandwiches. One should NEVER put PB on white bread though--you only have a whole protein if you put it on whole wheat. Mom

Anonymous said...

What a sweet mom to comment, still making sure you are getting the nutrition you need. Nikki, you would be so proud of me! I cooked about a bajillion pounds of hamburger, and chicken and froze most of it! I was so excited to have it all done, and ready for me to just pull out to make dinner with. My next step is to actually put together the dinner. I'm taking baby steps, but they are steps!!

Nikki said...

Yaa Susan! When I first started cooking en masse, I would look in the freezer several times a day to see my great accomplishment. I am so proud of you!

Mercy said...

I thought I was the ONLY one in the world who knew about this one. Oh well, the secret is out!

I love it when I premake PB & J's. Although my son isn't as fond of them that way, it's a whole lot easier!!

And yes Mom, I agree with you. I'd also add that you need to use Real Peanut (or cashew or something similar) butter on those pb & J's.

:-D