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Peanut butter and nutella sandwich cakes with title

So, school starts next week. {Yay!}

I love so many things about the start of a new school year.

I love that twinge in my belly…the newness. Everyone says Spring is the rebirth…but for me I feel like I start anew every September. And, even though I have not personally attended classes or taught for seven years now, I still get that renewed feeling.

I love the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. Actually, I love the school supply section in general. Pens, pencils, erasers, folders, notebooks, oh my! And everything is on sale for practically $1!

{Unless you buy 30 things. Then you’ve just spent $30. With $30 I could have gotten a pedicure.}

I love the early mornings. We don’t have to re-train Jordan to get up early. I’m lucky if she stays in bed until 6:00 am on a Saturday, let alone on a school day. The early out of the house means I can run outdoors (no childcare needed) in cooler weather.

I love the thought that, because school is here that means that eventually it will be Fall and it won’t be 108 degrees anymore.

What I don’t love about the school year? Making lunch.

Is anyone with me on this? I mean, it’s hard enough to get variety in my kids’ diet without having to pack it in a box with an ice pack that will inevitably melt before recess, rendering the contents luke-warm and melty by lunch.

If I left it to Jordan she would eat salami every single day. But only because I won’t let her have fried chicken.

I’m constantly trying to come up with new lunchbox ideas. But when your kid won’t eat anything but salami, that gets difficult.

However, I think she’d eat this sandwich, no problem.

Overhead shot of peanut butter an nutella sandwich cakes next to a glass of milk

I saw the idea for this sandwich in Food Network Magazine. That “bread” is actually cake.

Kinda genius, actually.

It’s a cupcake without the icing mess.

Because the icing is the sandwich filling.

The Food Network version was a big cake. I wanted to make actual sandwich size mini cakes. So I baked half a box of white cake mix and baked it in a 9″ square pan. I cut the square into four pieces and cut off the edges and the top and bottom (because no crust is allowed in my house). Do you all have that problem? I stuff a sandwich with crust in the lunch box and it comes home looking like a deformed rainbow.

Slices of bread covered with peanut butter

Then you tort the four small cakes, so they look like bread. I know, my torting skills need work. But that crooked piece doesn’t matter. Just turn it upside down, no one will ever know.

You could use jelly for the rest of your sandwich. That’s not how we roll in this house.