~ These PB&J Pinwheel Sandwich Kabobs are such a cute kids’ lunch idea! Classic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are reinvented as easy roll-ups, then skewered together with gorgeous fresh fruit. A creative school lunch box recipe they’ll love (with allergy-friendly, nut-free suggestions, too)! ~

This Recipe Is:   •  Ready in 30 Minutes or Less  •  Make Ahead  •  Vegetarian  •

* (Our little disclaimer …) We partnered with Flatout for this sponsored post, as part of their Share the Love campaign, but all opinions are entirely our own. Thanks for supporting brands that support Two Healthy Kitchens and our mission of healthy eating! *

 Click here to check out the super-fun video we worked on with them!

Wanna share a little bit of love with your kiddos at lunchtime, even when you can’t be right there with them?

Well … I guess you could be right there with them. You could go dashing through the school cafeteria to swoop in amongst all their chattering friends, and grab them up in a giant bear hug. You could. But maybe don’t. Just trust me on that one.

You also could write sweet notes to tuck in their lunch boxes, and draw little hearts on their napkins. Full disclosure? I still draw those hearts … and I truly want to believe that Amy and Ty still secretly like them. But now that they’re in high school, I’ve gotten the patient request to please confine my hearts to a realllllly teeny tiny place in the napkin’s corner where no one else will notice them. Ahem. Teenagers.

So, I’ve found a whole new way to share a little love.

It’s easy, it’s nutritious, and it’s really yummy, too. Total lunchtime victory!

Why Your Kids (and You!) Will LOOOOVE These PB&J Pinwheels

These PB&J Kabobs have it all goin’ on.

• PB&J! – At their very most basic, these are still just good old, tried-and-true, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches … but a whole lot cuter and more fun! (Because pinwheel recipes make any sandwich cuter and more fun!) No doubt about it, PB&J is simply a winner. You can change it up with nut-free butters, different jellies … so many options. But no matter its form or variety, PB&J has solid staying power, and a five-star rating from practically every kid, everywhere, ever. When you’re looking for lunchtime inspiration, it’s always a good place to start!

• Wow Factor! – But … no matter how much kids adore PB&J, it does tend to get a bit boring after awhile, doesn’t it? These kabobs take it from ho-hum to wow! Lucky for lunch boxes everywhere, here at THK, we have some solid experience with the PB&J wow factor. Hint … for more inspiration, peek at our Hungry Hippos Sandwiches or our Peanut Butter and Granola Crunch Wrap (which is quickly becoming one of the all-time most popular recipes we’ve ever posted) or our Peanut Butter Tortilla Sandwiches. No lunchtime is ho-hum with one of these around!
• Healthy! – And you already know what I’m going to say next, right? These are also … wait for it … nutritious! Swap out your typical bread for a Flatout, and you’ve upped you nutrition game already. Loaded with fiber, whole grains and protein, Flatouts are an automatic health boost. Plus, these kabobs have pretty, healthy fruit threaded right on the skewers. And we always recommend 100% pure fruit jelly and natural peanut butters (read those labels, friends – it makes a difference)!
• Easy! – These yummy kabobs are also simple to make. I promise!

A thin slather of peanut butter (1), then jelly (2). Roll it all up (3), then cut little pinwheel circles and thread ’em on your skewers with some fruit (4). Done! (Oh – unless you still have to draw a heart on the napkin. Don’t forget that part!) See … so simple!

Just a few tips I’ve figured out, through all the times I’ve made these:

Tips for Perfect PB&J Sandwich Kabobs

1) Measuring – Our measurements for the peanut butter and jelly are just suggestions, and you honestly can probably get away without really measuring them precisely at all. But here’s the thing. You do want to be careful not to schmear on too much. That’ll lead to goopy pinwheels that are messy to roll, messy to cut. It doesn’t seem like much peanut butter or jelly, I know. But we’ve tested the amounts for both maximum flavor and maximum workability, and you’ll truly be happiest with just a thin layer of each.

2) Cutting – Use a very, very sharp knife (carefully!) for cutting these. You want to be sure you don’t mash the roll-ups as you cut them into pinwheels. If you don’t have a super-sharp knife, you could also try sawing gently back and forth with a serrated knife to give you a nice, clean cut without smooshing your pinwheels.

3) Skewering – Instead of jabbing your skewer right through, I find it works best (again … to avoid smooshing) if you gently rotate the skewer a bit as you ease each pinwheel onto it. For tiny kiddos, you can snap off the sharp, pointy ends of the skewers for safety after you’ve threaded everything onto each skewer.

4) Allergy-Friendly – Feel free to swap out different nut butters like almond butter or cashew butter to keep things interesting. Or, to make these sandwich kabobs more allergy-friendly for nut-free school lunchrooms, you can substitute a soy-based product like WowButter or a nut-free sun butter (made from sunflower seeds).

5) Mix and Match – As you can see in the photos, I sometimes like to match the jelly to the fruit I’m using. If I’ve got gorgeous strawberries, for example, I might use a strawberry jelly. But don’t feel like you have to be so matchy-matchy all the time. You don’t even have to use all one kind of fruit on each sandwich skewer – get creative!

6) Choosing the Right Fruit – Grapes and all sorts of berries are a sure bet – whatever your kiddos like. I will say, though, that bananas aren’t my favorite here, unless you’re serving the pinwheels immediately, simply because skewered bananas will tend to be a bit mushy and brown if packed for several hours in a lunch box. In the dead of winter, when produce is sad and flavorless, you could even go for dried fruits like plump apricots, sweet-tart cherries, or luscious plums.

7) Making hearts – To truly share the love, it’s tough to beat adorable, heart-shaped fruit! Some strawberries and raspberries are naturally heart-shaped and darling.

You can also easily cut strawberries into hearts as you core them. With a paring knife, carefully slope down off the shoulders of the berry on each side, as you cut down toward the middle, under the stem, to remove it. Instant heart!

See, it’s not so hard to share a little lunchtime love! Bear hugs totally optional.

And Hey … Even More to Love!–

Guys, I’m so, so ridiculously excited to share this with you today.

It’s the brand-new Flatout national video campaign, and we’re in it! Well … to be exact, two of my hands are in it … and one of Scott’s. But I’m gonna say that definitely counts!

Also, our recipe is in it, too!

Flatout asked us if they could include one of our recipes in their national campaign. How cool is that?!? And you know which of our recipes it had to be, don’t you? But of course … that uber-popular Granola Crunch Wrap!

The whole video turned out to be just amazing – absolutely filled with clever ideas, and so much fun to watch. I get inspired every time I play it!

Oh my goodness – that birthday cake idea! And those chocolate-dipped hearts! (Yes, yes … even more hearts today, friends!)

So many more recipes to try, so many ways to Share the #FlatoutLove!

Take a peek …

… and then go buy more Flatouts, because you’re going to need them! Oh – and for those of you who have asked where you can find Flatouts, you can just use flatoutfinder.com. Easy (just how we like it around here)!