Proud moment

I am so proud of myself… I actually had a great idea of my own! (Or so I think! Haha). I’m always looking for new ways to be healthy & feed my family nutritious meals. So I started using almond butter and fruit spread instead of plain ole’ peanut butter and jelly. Now peanut butter and almond butter are pretty similar when you look at the labels (protein, fat, blah blah blah). BUT the big difference is that almond butter is packed with micronutrients (and that’s a great thing!). Fruit spread has less calories as well as less carbs and sugar as regular jelly or jam. The downside is that there’s a small difference in the taste. It’s not super noticeable, but it’s noticeable enough. To someone like me who prefers health over taste it doesn’t bother me, but to kids who just want a yummy pb&j it might pose a problem. SO that’s when I got the great idea!! I decided to make them healthy AND kid friendly! I rummaged through my baking drawers & pulled out cookie cutters. They worked great on the sandwiches and my girls thought they were so cool that they never said a word about the taste! Here are a few:

And because I hate letting anything go to waste I cut up the leftover pieces in little bite sized chunks. I actually used the entire loaf of bread to make sandwiches. I used the high heel, crown, a castle, stars, hearts and a large gingerbread man cookie cutter. I put 2 or 3 sandwiches each in individual ziplock bags and threw them in the freezer. They thaw in about 30 minutes. Once again EASY MEALS!!! Pair this with a sliced apple and a cup of low-fat milk and BAM! You have a great lunch in no time for your little ones (or yourself! haha;) I'm sure someone somewhere has done something similar (if not the same) but I've never seen it, so it's an original idea for me! haha.