Put Jif on it!

We're hitting back to school time, so I'm getting a little nostalgic for the lunches I used to pack when I was a kid. They always starred peanut butter (and butter-- I preferred savory to sweet so I liked peanut butter and salted [dairy] butter instead of the usual peanut butter and jelly!) sandwiches. That meant it was time to dig out my trusty Jif Choosy Mothers' Peanut Butter Cookbook (1979) to see what kinds of peanut butter sandwiches it suggested for the kiddos.

Of course there are plenty of sweet variations: peanut butter paired with mashed bananas, crushed pineapple, flaked coconut, marshmallow creme, etc. But the savory variations certainly wouldn't have gotten me too excited. How about this:

Maybe the layer of cat puke on Swiss cheese doesn't look too scary to those of you whose brains register canned deviled ham as edible, but then you notice the whole thing is floating on a sea of peanut butter. Does anybody other than Jif executives think deviled ham with Swiss on rye really needs peanut butter too?

And that's not all that peanut butter can go with for no apparent reason. Like tuna salad?

Have it with peanut butter on a hot dog bun for a good, old-fashioned "Tuna-Peanut Boat."

Feel left out because you prefer turkey or chicken salad?

You can make any salad sandwich "P-Nutty"!

And perhaps my personal favorite...

Feel like pizza is missing a little something?

Yep-- Pizza Spinners are for when an English muffin pizza just won't feel complete without the addition of peanut butter and bologna.

Happy weekend! And maybe these recipes can help students whose classes ban peanut products feel as if they're not missing out on anything....