Almond Butter & Jelly Roll-ups

Welcome to Flawed yet Function! I am a Type 1, insulin-free, Diabetic managing my blood sugar through a Paleo diet and a healthy lifestyle. I love to cook, which is a good since Paleo requires a lot of cooking! But sometimes you just need a quick, easy lunch. Try Almond Butter & Jelly Roll-ups next time you need a kid-friendly, Paleo lunch!

---

As a kid, I hated peanut butter. Absolutely hated it. So much so, my mom actually allowed me to forgo it whenever we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This is saying something, my mom was an eat-what’s-put-in-front-of-you kind of mom (as I am…weird…). I did not like the texture:  so sticky! The feeling of my tongue getting stuck to the roof of my mouth, not being able to get it off my teeth. Ugh! I did not like the flavor either: nuts were not my thing.

And then, I grew up. Ha. I learned to love peanut butter after I graduated from college. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch was like dessert for the main course. Yum!

Funny story: my husband lived on PB&J while he saved for my engagement ring, so needless to say he wasn’t fond of this sandwich when we got married. I fell in love with this kid-friendly favorite right when he couldn’t stand it. I learned quickly as a new wife to not send PB&J in his lunch. Ha!

Pre-diabetes diagnosis, my kids and I would eat peanut butter and jelly on the regular for lunch. I thought I was giving my kids a healthy meal of whole grains from our homemade bread and protein from the peanut butter. I knew the jelly wasn’t healthy, but I figured that it was a small enough amount to not be TOO harmful. Right?

Fast-forward through the type 1 diabetes diagnosis, elimination of gluten, introduction of many veggies, and our lunches turn out to be primarily leftovers from dinner. Really, this isn’t a problem. My kids eat leftovers just fine. But every now and then, I want to give them a treat. I want them to know the sticky, sweet goodness of peanut butter and jelly.

In order to indulge in this treat, I had to make several adjustments:

1. Almond butter instead of peanut butter (peanuts are inflammatory)
2. Homemade jelly instead of store bought (cut down on unknown ingredients)
3. A Paleo, grain-free, dairy-free wrap to hold the goodness together.

Almond butter is now a staple in our home. I buy ours from Costco. I make strawberry freezer jam every June from strawberries we pick down the road. The wraps were the only tricky part. I found this recipe for soft tortilla shells, and after we ate them with chicken tacos, I thought they could be so much more versatile than just a tortilla. The flavor is mostly egg and quite mild egg flavor at that. I adjusted the ratios to make the wrap a little thicker to hold up to the almond butter and jelly, see my version below.

With a few leftover wraps from chicken tacos the night before, I decided to give them a whirl as a holder for almond butter and jelly. It looked like it might be a sticky mess so I rolled it up.

As with all new foods, presentation is everything. I enthusiastically presented them to my kids as Almond Butter & Jelly Roll-ups, and they were a hit! They loved picking up the roll and taking bits from the end or cutting it up into bite-size rolls.

I serve our lunches with fresh fruit and veggies to add nutrition to an otherwise fairly nutrition-less main course. Again, this is not a staple in our house anymore, just a treat which the kids and I love (Hubby is still on the fence!).

Note: When starting from a fresh batch of wraps, I let them sit on a plate or cutting board to cool a bit until just warm before topping with almond butter and jelly. If the wrap is too warm, the almond butter and jelly melts. The wrap is still pliable when cold, but a touch warm is much easier to roll.

---

Any one else used to hate peanut butter (or any nut butter!) as a kid? Am I alone in this aversion? So funny that now I can’t get enough of it. I love any type of nut butter. Yum!