Last fall, Leafy Green wrote about the environmental benefits of choosing a good old-fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch over traditional lunchtime meat products such as tuna or a hamburger. You can save the equivalent of two to three pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, as well as 280 gallons of water every time you choose a PB&J sandwich over a hamburger.

There's also the benefit of some mealtime nostalgia. Having a PB&J sandwich is sort of like visiting with an old friend and catching up. There's a good chance you'll reminisce about some good times you had together and find it a wholly satisfying experience when you're finished. If you make them for your child's lunch, you'll be giving them this gift of fond remembrance for the future.

Over the next couple of days, we'll offer some different takes and a few twists on this beloved favorite of adults and children everywhere. Today it made sense to start with the traditional classic PB&J. I could have searched for a recipe, but for a classic sandwich of which the most difficult component involves opening jars and possibly slicing bread, do you really need formal instructions?

Just take your favorite peanut butter, whether it be creamy, crunchy, light, all-natural or not-as-natural and spread as much or as little as you like on one slice of whole-grain bread. Spread your favorite (organic) jam on another slice of bread. It's important not to use too much jam and that it be an amount proportionate to the size of the bread, because unlike peanut butter, it will squish out the sides of your sandwich if you over-do it. Start with a tablespoon for average-sized bread slices and work your way up or down if you need to. Now place the slice of bread with peanut butter on top of the side with jam (again, because jam is more fluid, if you try to put the bread with jam face-down, it may drip and end up everywhere). Now eat it the way you like it: whole, sliced in half or quarters, crusts optional.

Voilà! Hopefully you didn't actually require that step-by-step tutorial, but there's probably an art to making the perfect PB&J sandwich. What's your favorite brand and type of peanut butter (and jelly for that matter)?

While you ponder that all-important question, watch the amusing video below of the devastating toll PB&J withdrawal can take on an average human being. Side note: we don't endorse smoking cigarettes as a coping mechanism.

» YouTube