The Sensible Fluffer-Nutter

Back in the day, the fluffer-nutter was made with white bread, peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. It was sweet, salty and gooey. My Mom would pack these in my lunch, alternating the menu with a bologna and cheese sandwich. There would be an apple or an orange for “desert,” never the Hostess Twinkies or Ding Dongs that everyone else had in their lunch. “That’s just junk,” Mom would say.

I find myself craving a fluffer-nutter. So I buy a jar of marshmallow fluff and some peanut butter and make myself a sandwich. The Tween-let saunters up, “Whatcha makin’?”

“A fluffer-nutter, what my Mom used to put in my lunch when I was your age.”

The Tween-let has recently started to complain about the lunches I make for her, brown rice and veggie sushi, organic almond butter and banana sandwiches, her complaints are not about the content as much as ‘wanting to be like everyone else.’ She tells me she wants to buy her lunch from the cafeteria. I cut the fluffer-nutter sandwich and push one half towards her. She does a little dance after the first bite.

“Can I have one of these in my lunch?”

My first impulse is to say no. I struggled with my weight as an adolescent and have made a conscious effort to instill good eating habits in her. Diabetes and hypertension run rampant on both sides of my family. We never talk about good and bad food only good and better choices and moderation. I remember wanting to be like ‘everyone else’ too.

“Yes, you can have one in your lunch, and you can buy lunch once a week too.”

I think about how she will remember the fluffer-nutter, on brown bread with organic peanut butter. Her feet go all James Brown on the linoleum after my answer. I have to trust she’ll make good choices.

- Aunt B