Haha - I thought this was going to be about making homemade peanut butter - which I've done many, many times. I used to make it regularly with the kids in our playcamp program, and they always loved it.

Un-crustables. Many kids love 'em. Kids @ our playcamp get them once a week as part of the federal free summer lunch program & they gobble 'em up.

LOL! I thought it was about homemade PB to go with the homemade jam and bread. The peanutbutter is probably the hardest part, especially if you're starting with raw peanuts in the shell, but it's just labor well suited to machines, not objectively difficult. Even with a mortar and pestle, it just needs more labor.

the interesting part is roast or no or lightly or partly, salt or no, chunks if yes what size, etc.

A friend's stepkids would only eat Crustables when they were small. They actually refused to eat "homemade". Not sure if it was a power play, or the flavor of the jelly or what.

Linda, they're frozen PBJ on white, cut in a circle (or molded) with the edges crimped or sealed to keep the goop in.

I just cane from the grocery store....stood in front of the meat counter waiting my turn....and say amazing things....premarinated chicken breasts, prestrung and marinated skewers of chicken and beef....stew "kits".....and then went to the produce counter and saw the packages of precut veggies.

I was talking with my PT person and she said she didn't know what to have for dinner.....thought she would get some premariaated chicken breasts. I asked why don't you do it yourself....she said I don't have time! How long does it take to dump some salad dressing on a couple of chicken breasts and let them sit while you wash some veggies.....then pop them onto a grill and they are done in 15 minutes!!

Yep, sorry obviously I don't buy them to know the correct name!

Well, Smuckers probably had to figure out a way to qualify the nutritional product value to get into the game for federal food dollars ... never heard of it til I looked it up either. Certainly isn't advertised on the shows I watch ...

Matlock and Gunsmoke re-runs ...

j/k

I do not make PB & J in any form. I rarely eat peanut butter (I prefer almond or cashew butter), and I never put anything sweet with it, except maybe chocolate. I've hated PB&J since I was a child, but I would eat peanut butter sandwiches without the jam/jelly. I never put jam or jelly on biscuits either - just butter and perhaps cheese. As a child, tuna fish was my favorite sandwich.

I've been baking bread since I was eight, which is when I starting making cakes from scratch. I made the cakes so that I could get exactly the birthday cake that I wanted - we did not live close to a bakery.

PB & J

My standby breakfast

Making it from scratch means I can use the jam I like

I found that Triple Crown Jam can stand up to peanut butter much better than any other jam or jelly

My Grandson LOVES the Uncrustables, who knows why.

He doesn't get them here. Here I use homemade bread, home canned jam and sometimes I make my own peanut butter. I tried to grow peanuts once, but Michigan isn't the optimal climate, LOL. I do grind my own wheat sometimes...

So my version of "scratch" and others may differ. (grin)

Annie

Oh dear! Like plllog, I thought it was going to mean “bake your own bread, grind your own PB, make your own jam”. Seriously, how hard is it to make your own sandwich- and how little time does using the frozen product save? How much more expensive are Uncrustables?

Just recently a major grocery chain has started marketing pre-seasoned ground beef, one with Asian herbs and spices, one Italian and the other two I forget. I would _never_ purchase these as it’s not difficult to do your own seasoning, and it locks you in once purchased- you can’t buy the Asian version and then decide you really want spaghetti instead.

When DD was first moved out of home and not a keen cook, even she turned her nose up at the roasted vegetables in the grocery freezer section, saying, “Making those isn’t rocket science!”

Jeez, next they will have pre-chewed food...good grief! How lazy have people become? *smh*

You're reminding me of something I shared over on the Home Decorating Conversations forum: you know those TV commercials for gadgets, showing people failing miserably at simple(usually food related) tasks and the "miracle" product that saves them?

Hubby and used to get a big kick out of one that advertised an iced tea maker and the tagline was "Iced tea?!?! At Home?!?!". We would say that to each other as a joke when we saw something we thought was really inane.

I also remember seeing frozen Texas toast at the supermarket = D

Yeah, those infomercials make me shake my head at how ridiculously incompetent they must think people are.

One on at the moment for what is essentially an oval shaped sandwich press you can allegedly cook all kinds of things in has a retirement-aged man being amazed that he can make his own lunch now that he has this product, since his wife works and isn’t home to cook for him. Why he can’t cook like a normal person or eat a sandwich is beyond me.

“Jeez, next they will have pre-chewed food...good grief! How lazy have people become? *smh*”

There is a company in California selling a beverage; Soylent, a “food” replacement

Oh yeah, Soylent has been popular for years with gamers--so much easier than nuking a frozen corn dog. There are some very amusing blogs from regular people who have tried it.

Like many others, I also thought this was going to be about making the ingredients from scratch. The marketing machine has done a splendid job of making people believe that cooking is too onerous for normal folks.

I'm not here to defend the weird carp (to use old timey lingo), but I can see how such things could be used.

One of the guys I know doesn't have any interest or intention in cooking. He knows how to make chicken, pasta, cookies. Basic stuff. He doesn't have any interest in doing more and buys individually wrapped portions of cake (which he also knows how to make), and eats out or brings in most nights. He does deign to make toast--with a high degree of attention to perfection. He will zap a hotdog if he's hungry. And he has frozen pancakes in the freezer. I've seen him make perfectly good pancakes, but he just can't be bothered.

Hence such items as frozen Texas Toast.

As for the Uncrustables, that's more of a head shaker. Even the guy above could make PBJ for visiting children. But he's organized enough to know that he should have some bread, PB and J when said kids came. For the more out of touch weekend dad who maybe even keeps the kids fed at mealtimes while they're in his care, something like a frozen PBJ could be a backstop against not planning well for school lunches, or forgetting to buy after school snacks. Still...if he remembers to buy the Uncrustables, couldn't he remember to keep a loaf of sliced bread in the freezer and PB and J in the fridge? (This paragraph can also be read as "mom" and "she", but trying to make it gender neutral was too much.)

Oh. Or maybe they're supposed to be grab and goes that go in your pocket and thaw on your way? Keeping it from being gnawed on before lunch time? But if that worked, you could also freeze your own.

Rats. I thought I'd figured it out, but in the end I can't find an excuse for them that plays out to a logic end intact.

Just an aside, in our part of the world you wouldn’t be allowed to send that to our kids for lunch in case of somebody’s allergy’s.

I think that with prepackaged food, the ingredients are listed so there’s no danger of contamination. I think it’s a very sad world.

But it's still peanuts, and that's the most banned school food, isn't it?

Crustables.... battered and fried, sprinkle on some powdered sugar, add shaved chocolate, serve with a small dollop of whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on the side, and you have a dessert that was served at a local restaurant (it’s since closed).

One of my friends had this concoction and I got a taste of it and thought it was just nasty. It was not to my taste at all but he loved it so go figure about taste buds!

And then there are "lunchables"...pretty much salty crackers and squirt cheese in a plastic thing...and some come with salty "meat".

When I volunteered at a grade school, some kids actually brought those for lunch instead of the hot lunch.....and they cost more than the hot lunch...

Oh Lunchables are so gross! I'm always sad to see kids eating those for their lunch. I'd rather they were eating the Federal Summer Lunches, which at least have some fresh fruit and milk.

And these are often the same kids who have behavior issues and won't eat anything that's not highly processed and full of sugar and salt.

I'm not surprised. If vending machines, fast food, processed snack packages were not purchased and supported by who-knows-who, they would not be manufactured at all.

Remember the protests at McDonalds in France? The stores weren't all where tourists roam. French people had to be eating there or they would have just gone out of business.

But Lunchables? I wouldn't favor such a thing for a kid's lunch, but they're more nutritious than what they served in the cafeteria at my primary school. My father used to sometimes make me a salami on white bread sandwich (probably when he was in a rush). I'd guess that a Lunchable has more salt in the crackers (bread) and less fat in the meat than my salami sandwich, and just as many chemicals. I survived. :) Putting the little bits together is probably fun for a kid. I don't think it's a good idea for a daily lunch, but neither is PBJ, homemade or frozen. There should be lots of fresh things and a good protein source. But now and then, toy food can be fun. :)

Wow I had never heard of Uncrustables. My grandson is 2.5 and we make him Sun Butter and jelly sandwiches due to allergies. The one "convenience" food he gets are homemade min muffins for breakfast. I call it convenience because it is a make ahead item, we can grab to feed him in the morning. He eats his breakfast fruit usually cut up bananas, strawberries, pineapple, etc. on the ride to school.