I L-O-V-E pb & j sandwiches any day of the week. Crunchy peanutty strawberry stickiness between two thick homemade bread slices is mid-day heaven! But everybody knows how to make one and it's not very appealing. I stood in my kitchen naming off boring sandwich fillings for my VLC challenge- something that everyone has in the house. Got peanut butter? Yeah. Got jelly? Sure. And lots of leftover chocolate chips? Gimme! And what about... hot dog buns? What am I supposed to do with those? *Little annoying dancing banana starts singing "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" in my head*
Why not just wedge a banana between the buns and use the other three ingredients like relish, mustard, and ketchup? The last two bananas on our fruit shelf are starting to get lots of brown speckles all over the peel (my mom won't eat them if they're any yellower than green; I'm COMPLETELY the opposite) so they're super sweet but not mushy. No crazy meat substitutes and soy cheeses necessary here, just fruit and toppings! It's perfect after the morning band workout; 8+ grams of protein, potassium & electrolytes for muscle cramp relief, chocolate- just because, and starch + fructose for plenty of energy!
My town just opened up a Super Target so my mom and I did some 'Made in USA' school shopping (later post) and found Simply Balanced organic strawberry fruit snacks. They come in cute little star and heart shapes colored with fruit and vegetable juices. Might as well get an early boost in vitamin C now that school has started and germs are spreading like tribbles!
And what's a good hotdog, excuse me, banana dog without chips- Sea salt pita chips, that is! Just a little salty crunch added to it all. You can even bake your won at home!
My town just opened up a Super Target so my mom and I did some 'Made in USA' school shopping (later post) and found Simply Balanced organic strawberry fruit snacks. They come in cute little star and heart shapes colored with fruit and vegetable juices. Might as well get an early boost in vitamin C now that school has started and germs are spreading like tribbles!
And what's a good hotdog, excuse me, banana dog without chips- Sea salt pita chips, that is! Just a little salty crunch added to it all. You can even bake your won at home!
My kitty decided to taste-test and approve tomorrow's lunch for me in the middle of photo shooting. It's so good, a cat will eat it!
Tips:
- if you slice the banana the night before, quickly dink it twice in a little lemon or fruit juice before wrapping it in plastic wrap to keep it from turning brown and squishy.
- toppings to use: brown sugar, Hershey's syrup, crushed Oreo, sprinkles, jelly, peanut butter, honey/agave nectar, crushed teddy grahams (that's animal abuse Ashlie!), chocolate chips, PopRocks, blueberries, almonds, coconut flakes, peaches, etc.
- put any toppings into little baggies so you can cut a corner open and pipe it out onto the top of the banana dog, kind of like icing a cake.