Grilled PB&J Sticks

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ShopRite is having a great deal received at check-out from 8/27 to 9/2 for Buy 4, Save $4 on the following products: Smucker’s® Fruit Spreads (17.5 – 18oz), Jif® Peanut Butter (16 oz), Pepperidge Farm Harvest Classics Bread and Slider Rolls, Ziploc® Sandwich Bags (40 ct). Thank you for supporting the brands that keep me creative in my tiny kitchen!

Grilled cheese sandwiches don’t get to have all the fun – take your everyday peanut butter and jelly sandwich to the next level by grilling + dipping!

It recently came to my attention that my husband had never had a grilled PB&J.

Like… ever.

I thought that was something that everyone grew up with, but apparently I was sorely mistaken.

As a parent, I feel it’s my duty to make sure my kiddo has lots of fun, comfort food memories. And a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich is just one of the many that I’m sharing with him!

Back to school season is upon us, and now that my son is going to be in full day kindergarten (!!!), I’m going to be packing a lot more lunches.

He absolutely looooooves PB&J. He would eat it every single day if I’d let him. And while I won’t go quite that far, I do like to mix up the way I offer his PB&J from time to time.

Grape jelly, raspberry jam, or strawberry preserves? Creamy or chunky peanut butter? On bread, toast, or crackers? I’ve even rolled it up in tortillas to make PB&J “sushi”. He loves it any which way I serve it up.

So when I asked him if he wanted to try a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he was beyond thrilled.

I headed over to my local ShopRite to pick up the necessities for my Grilled PB&J Sticks.

Jif® Peanut butter, Smucker’s® Fruit Spreads and Ziploc® Sandwich Bags are the perfect pairings for Back to School lunches. Ziploc® Sandwich Bags are great for portability easy for taking lunch to school.

I found everything I needed in the last aisle – right across from the beginning of the frozen food section. The sandwich bags were right next to the peanut butter & jelly, and the bread was at the end of that aisle as well. Easy peasy.

I was really intrigued by the Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter with Omega-3 DHA & EPA. It actually contains fish oil, but you’d never know it based on the taste. It was just deliciously smooth, rich peanut butter. Not fishy at all, but with the added benefit of the fish oil.

My son loves any flavor of jam/jelly/preserves that I give him, so I tend to keep a few different ones in the fridge at home. For this recipe, I picked up some Smucker’s® Strawberry Preserves. A quick stir in the jar and it was the perfect texture for both spreading and dipping.

Dipping? Yup.

I wanted to make this sandwich into sticks so we could dunk them into a little extra peanut butter and/or jelly. Alternatively, you could put just peanut butter OR jelly in the sandwich and use the other for dunking.

And if you want to go truly over the top, do one flavor of jelly in the sandwich and another for dipping. So. Much. Fun.

I may have been packing it up for my son’s lunch, but you better believe I ate some, too.

What can I say? It’s hard to beat a classic.

When you’re grilling a PB&J, you need to be aware that things might get messy if you put the peanut butter or jelly on very thick and let it sit in the pan for too long. The heat melts the filling and things get deliciously warm and gooey.

It’s great eaten fresh and warm (and I highly encourage you to try that out if you haven’t!), but if you’re going to cut it into sticks, you’ll need to chill it first to prevent a mountain of stickiness.

I like to butter one side of each slice of bread while my pan (preferably cast iron!) heats up. A layer of peanut butter gets slathered on the opposite side, and then I top one of the peanut buttered slices with jelly/jam/preserves.

The peanut butter acts as a moisture barrier, which will keep the inside of your sandwich from getting soggy if you aren’t eating it right away.

Close up your sandwich, pop it into the pan to crisp up on both sides, and you’re good to go!

Grilling the sandwiches makes them much more sturdy for dunking, and that was the most fun part of this meal for my kiddo.

For my 5-year-old, half of one of these sandwiches (2 sticks) and half a hard boiled egg was a perfect portion, along with some of his favorite fresh fruits and veggies.

It’s nice because I can make one of these sandwiches, and split it up into two separate baggies, split the egg as well, and have 2 days worth of lunches made at once. And having things prepped ahead of time will be especially nice when we’re rushing out the door to catch the school bus.

We had this for dinner at home one night last week, and I have to say – the combination with these sides works really well together. It was a very satisfying meal, even for an adult!

And the votes are in – we unanimously enjoyed dipping into the strawberry preserves more than the peanut butter. But it was a fun experiment!

What are your favorite lunch packing tips? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!

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Check out the so many ways to PB&J this Back To School on ShopRite.com.