This Doctor Who food idea is a kid-friendly option for any small tikes you know. Throw a peanut butter & Jelly Baby sandwich into their TARDIS lunch box.
One of the things that appeals to me about Doctor Who is that it's a time travel tale.
Sure, there are aliens, and monsters, and wibbly wobbly, timey wimey rules. But it's all predicated on this idea of what it would be like to travel through time and space.
And while it would be fascinating to see the future… (How small will the phones be then? Will they find a way of making driver's license pictures more flattering? Will Goldie Wilson really become mayor?) What I find more interesting is to think about visiting the past.
What if you could go back in time to see the childhoods of your own parents? What if you could give a hug to an eight-year-old version of your favorite aunt on a bad day? What if you could see your grandparents get married or watch as your ancestors traveled across country in a covered wagon?
Or what if you could go back in time to when your someday-to-be husband was tiptoeing down the stairs to watch Doctor Who on television, while his parents were asleep in bed, and he was hoping he wouldn't get caught?
Tom Baker & Doctor Who
Last night David and I watched an old episode of Doctor Who from the years when Tom Baker played the Doctor.
This was the story, The Robots of Death, in which Baker casually offered Jelly Babies, his favorite candy, to the very unamused Borg while there were renegade robots killing people onboard. Jelly Babies are like gummy bears but people-shaped.
(We still haven't finished watching the four-part story yet. So I don't know if the Doctor is going to make it out of this one… I'm trying to stay optimistic about the whole thing.)
When we started the show, David said, "This was the second episode that I snuck downstairs to watch after my parents forbade me to do it."
See, David had fallen in love with the show during the summer, when it wasn't such a terrible thing for a ten-year-old to stay up until after 11:00 watching TV. But once the school year was going, heading to bed at almost midnight was out of the question to his parents.
So I love to think of him, creeping down the stairs, hoping he wouldn't get caught (again), but knowing it was worth it to find out what will happen next with his friends from England and other outer reaches.
If I had access to the TARDIS (that's the Doctor's spacecraft), I would make these Peanut Butter & Jelly Baby sandwiches and travel back in time to share with the ten-year-old version of David.
For a side, we'd have peanut butter slathered on celery. I wouldn't tell him that the celery represented the well-known accessory of another Doctor, Peter Davison.
(David still wouldn't know Davison at that point. If I dared to tell David about him, there'd be the danger that it would throw off the whole time continuum, create some sort of virtual paradox, and we might never get married. Reapers could get involved. Much too risky.)
With a time machine at my disposal, I could see David's reaction while he's watching it all for the first time, and I could give him some hope that he'd work the late night television situation out with his parents.
(Spoilers: He was one of the first kids on his block to get a VCR. Doctor Who is why. Sweet parents.)
Doctor Who food idea
If you have a Whovian in your life, make him or her a lunch fitting for a time traveler with this Doctor Who food idea.
Slather peanut butter and jelly onto bread.
Use a gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut it into a Jelly Baby shape.
Then serve it with peanut butter slathered celery.
After that, reflect for a spell on what you'd do with access to the TARDIS for a day…
Getting an extra hour or two with someone you love? That could make facing the Robots worth it.
If you try this recipe and love it, let me know! Leave a comment and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the comment section below. It truly makes my day and is such a help!
📖 Recipe
Peanut butter & Jelly Baby sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon peanut butter
- 2 slices bread
- 2 teaspoons grape jelly
Instructions
- Spread peanut butter onto one piece of spread. Spread jelly onto the other. Smash the two pieces of bread together with the peanut butter & jelly facing each other.
- Use a to cut the sandwich.
Kristy
I love this: “Will Goldie Wilson really become mayor?” Being a huge BTTF fan, I have often wondered this. 🙂 I’ve also spent much time thinking about being able to see Chris as a kid. There is one occasion, in particular, where the young, Ironman-obsessed Chris tried to light his shoes on fire in the school’s bathroom in order to fly away like Ironman. Part of me wants to just see how this all went down and see him explain to his mother why his shoes were burnt. Part of me wants to take away the matches.
I didn’t like jelly as a kid (and I’m still pretty particular about what kinds I’ll eat) so I only ate PB sandwiches as a kid. My mom used to cut sandwiches into shapes with cookie cutters all the time, though, and I absolutely loved it. I can imagine that your jelly babies would absolutely delight children. 🙂
Cadry
Yay! I was hoping that someone would get the Goldie Wilson reference! BTTF is one of the few movies that I’m happy to watch again and again.
What a funny story about Chris! I wonder if the school officials completely believed him that he was just trying to fly like Ironman and not attempting to burn the school down!
Somer
Aw, Jelly Babies, my kids would love this (heck, I love this!)
Cadry
Fun shapes always make a lunch more inviting! 😉
Somer
True dat! 🙂
Richa
love the phone booth and those cute celery Pb sticks. you come up with such fun theme and pictures for them. i have never ever had a pb and j sandwich. i just dont like pb. just a J sandwich for me!
Cadry
Thank you, Richa! Actually a Jelly Baby sandwich works even better theme-wise. Lucky you! 😉
Andrea
Another super fun post to read. I like the idea of time travel a lot, and like reading about it so I’m surprised I never watched Dr. Who. I never ate p-nut butter sandwiches as a child until the summer I went to day camp, and a giant bowl of pb&j-wiches would appear on the lunch table before the hot dish came out, and all the kids except me would gobble them up. I soon learned that if I didn’t eat them, I’d leave the table hungry because there wasn’t enough hot food to fill me up after exerting myself all morning!
The police call box is fantastic. I used to work for a public television station, and I remember creating an ad for Dr. Who that contained a red version of the box.
Cadry
Wow, Gigi didn’t eat PB&J growing up either! I’m surprised that it took you until day camp to try it.
That’s fun that you made a Dr. Who ad for your public television station! There’s a restaurant in town that has a red British phone booth in front of their establishment, and it always tickles me when I drive by.
Maggie Muggins
Ha, ha, that’s an awesome post! I’ve never wanted to start watching Dr. Who so bad. There were a few people on Halloween I saw who said they were dressed as Tardis, and the whole time I was wondering, what in the hell is a Tardis? Now it all makes sense!
I would love a pb and j jelly baby 🙂
Cadry
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it when we were at the mall a few weeks ago, and I saw through the window of Hot Topic that they were selling Doctor Who costumes, including TARDIS dresses! It really has branched out into the mainstream in America.
gigiveganville
Thank you for a lovely post, Cadry! I never had pb and jelly as a kid. Do you believe it? But now it’s one of my faves. Great pic of you and great coat. Where is that taken. The call box like everything else is reminding me of my dad today 🙁
Cadry
Wow, you never had PB&J as a kid? You should be in some kind of Guinness World Record-type book.
I’m glad you like the pic & coat! It was taken in London about four years ago. I believe it’s the last police box left in London, and so of course, we had to go see it. I’m sorry you’re feeling blue about your dad. Wish I could hop in the TARDIS and give you a hug! 🙂