12 Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes That Go Way Beyond a Sandwich (2024)

FAQs

What can I add to my peanut butter and jelly sandwich? ›

Yes, you can enjoy peanut butter and jelly without carbs by using lettuce wraps instead of bread or by simply spreading the peanut butter and jelly on celery sticks or apple slices for a low-carb snack.

When it comes to the classic peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwich, there's no doubt that grape jelly reigns supreme.

Instead of jelly, add fresh banana slices to your peanut butter sandwich. If you want to be like Elvis, grill both sides of your sandwich on a skillet in a bit of butter. You can also even add a few slices of bacon!

You can also add crunch elements like coconut flakes, granola, or chia seeds. If you're feeling adventurous, try the popular bacon-peanut butter combo, or try Elvis's famous peanut butter, bacon, and banana combination. Love Peanut Butter and want to look beyond the peanut butter and jelly sandwich??

Using the knife, scoop a large dollop of peanut butter and spread it onto the top of each slice of bread. Use as much peanut butter as desired. Putting peanut butter on each side will prevent the bread from getting soggy from the jelly- this is especially important if preparing the sandwich ahead of time.

"Put peanut butter on both slices of the bread with the jelly in the middle," they offer up. "This will keep your bread from soaking up the jelly and getting soggy." Similar with the first tip, the key is minimizing the amount of bread exposed to the jelly for hours on end.

A coupe of tablespoons of each on each piece of bread is plenty. Cover with plastic if making further ahead of time. These are great to make the night before, but if you want to make your sandwiches further ahead, once cut, wrap them in plastic wrap and keep the refrigerated, then you can just pop them into lunchboxes.

"No nutrition professional will recommend eating any food — PB&J or otherwise — for every meal, every day. Don't take it to extremes, but know that if it's a food you enjoy, can afford, and want to have, you can safely include it multiple times per week with no major concerns."

Look for whole-grain or sprouted grain bread, 100% natural peanut butter, and jelly with no added sugar. Any combination of the above is a great way to boost the nutritional value, as well.

What is a healthy alternative to jelly with peanut butter? ›

Another option is to substitute the jelly with fresh fruit slices or chopped dried fruit. Sliced banana is delicious with peanut butter, as are raisins, chopped prunes or dried apricots, or thinly sliced apples. Have fun experimenting with different ingredients as you build your very own masterpiece.

In the health arena, deciding between jelly, jam, or preserves boils down to ingredients, processing, and nutritional content. Jelly is primarily made from fruit juice with added sugar, making it smoother but sweeter. It lacks the wholesome fruit pieces found in the other two, which means less fiber content.

Although most of us might say that we're making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, we may not be actually using jelly at all. The difference between jam vs. jelly is all about the texture and intensity of flavor. You will most likely have a strong preference for one over the other.

Let's start with the choice of bread. Rye or pumpernickel are not good delivery vehicles for PBJ. We stuck to Pepperidge Farm plain white bread for our taste test, although some people might argue that it's too soft to stand up to the heaviness of the peanut butter and the goopiness of the jam.

Bananas, pickles, honey, or marshmallows — they're all ingredients that go with peanut butter, if you ask enough people.

Banana shake sounds perfect. Especially good when the grilled pb&j is on a multi-grain bread with chunky pb and apple butter. :) Nutella on a pb&j is pretty awesome too. Thin apple slices, adds some crunch and a bit of sweetness.