ref=”https://thinktasty1.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/cracker-sandwich.jpg”>
All of my children are teens, there are no little ones in this house. I don’t make many family lunches; it’s pretty much every person for him or herself, so I don’t often make sandwiches for my kids anymore.
As I was thinking about sandwiches and debating my next recipe, I was thinking about all of the different “breads” I have used thus far: tortillas, wraps, and buns. I was wondering what non-bread ingredient I would use to hold the sandwiches when I remembered the sandwiches from my children’s preschool years. They didn’t eat a lot of typical kid sandwiches. Peanut butter and jelly was never a go-to lunch. However, what they did love were tiny hand-size sandwiches.
With tiny three year old hands, a piece of bread is not really hand-size. What is hand-size is a cracker. So, while many sandwiches made on bread looked daunting and way too big for a preschool appetite, the same thing made on crackers looked perfect. Not only did the single cracker sandwich look just right, they usually wanted three or four of those sandwiches.
Now, you may be thinking that this isn’t much a recipe. Put sandwich ingredients between crackers and call this a Think Tasty recipe? Ha! As a mom, I know that this is a recipe. Tired, slightly whiny three year old needs a little lunch and a nap. This “recipe” got lunch done quite nicely for my kids. If I help just one parent get through lunch, I have validated this as a recipe.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that if my 16 year old had a cold and a fever and needed to stay home from school, making cracker sandwiches for her lunch would brighten her day. Sometimes the best recipes don’t need fancy ingredients or multiple steps. They just need some love.
- 8 butter crackers or saltines
- Filling options
- peanut butter & jelly
- tuna salad
- 1-2 slices deli turkey or ham, cut into 2″ squares and 4 slices cheddar cheese, desired condiment (if any)
- Place 4 crackers on a plate.
- Filling option 1. Spread peanut butter on 4 crackers. Spread jelly on remaining 4 crackers. Top peanut butter cracker with jelly cracker.
- Filling option 2. Spread tuna salad on 4 crackers. Top each with one plain cracker.
- Filling option 3. Spread condiment (mustard, mayo, etc.) on cracker. Top with 2 or 3 2-inch squares of deli meat and 1 slice of cheese. Top each with one plain cracker.
You may recall that Mum used to pack PB&J cracker sandwiches for us as kids when we went to school in the winter along with soup in a thermos.
Yes, cracker sandwiches made by Mom are a great memory from childhood.