How to Make a Healthier Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

I remember regularly eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a kid. I don’t eat them all that often as an adult, but quick and easy meals are usually the way to go when you don’t live in a house with regular access to a kitchen.

The good news is you don’t have to give up nutritional value for the sake of convenience. It’s easy to make a healthier version of this classic sandwich by avoiding the traditional commercial brands of bread, peanut butter, and jellies that come with added sugars, highly processed hydrogenated oils, and excess salt.

I use either Ezekiel sprouted bread or Dave’s Powerseed bread. Powerseed has only one gram of sugar, and that comes from fruit juice. For peanut butter, I buy the brands that list just one ingredient: peanuts. Instead of regular jelly, I buy the 100% all-fruit versions with no high fructose corn syrup.

The healthier version has about the same calories but only half the saturated fat, about 25% less sodium, and more than double the amount of fiber. It even has more protein (18 grams vs. 13). It has zero added sugars, compared to as much as 20 grams of added sugar using regular commercial brands like Smucker's and Skippy’s.

Almost all commercial breads contain added sugar; some have more sodium per 100 calories than potato chips. Many commercial brands of peanut butter contain added sugars in the form of high fructose corn syrup. They also contain hydrogenated oils. Just one tablespoon of Smucker’s Grape Jelly has nine grams of added sugar.

You can avoid all that highly processed garbage with just a little effort. A healthy diet is not incompatible with living out of your car.

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I have lived in my car since August 2023. You can follow my adventures on Facebook and Instagram