What’s Doing?
Jif® is hosting a contest to find the most creative, tasty, nutritionally balanced, yummy-looking, and easy to prepare peanut butter sandwich you and your child can make! (Note: children must be between 6 and 12 years of age to be eligible to submit their recipe to the contest, but no matter what your child’s age, you can enjoy tackling this food challenge together.)

Have A Blast Cooking With Your Kid!
Finding this contest got me to thinking … what better way to enjoy spending time with your child in the kitchen than creating and tasting new and different twists on the classic peanut butter sandwich? This has the potential to be the perfect rainy day, stay-at-home activity!

Brainstorm sandwich fillings, make a shopping list for any items you don’t already have in the house, and head out to the grocery. Make shopping more fun with older kids by tearing up the list and seeing who can find all their items and meet back at a designated location first. And be sure to check out the new and improved MyPlate version of the Food Pyramid together to be sure your recipe is nutritionally balanced.

Then the fun starts — making and tasting all your yummy combinations until you find the perfect peanut butter sandwich combination!

Enter Your Sandwich in the Contest:
The original sandwich recipe you create with your child using Jif® Peanut Butter could just win them a $25,000 college fund! Recipes will be judged on the following criteria:
— Creativity
— Taste
— Nutritional Balance
— Visual Appeal
— Ease of Preparation

What You Can Win:
— One Grand Prize Winner will receive a $25,000 college fund, plus $10,000 for educational products and a Jif® Peanut Butter gift basket.
— Four Runners-Up will each receive a $2,500 college fund and a Jif® Peanut Butter gift basket.
— Five remaining online finalists will each receive a Jif® Peanut Butter gift basket ($50 value).

How to Enter the Contest:
Entries can be submitted online in three short steps:
1. Enter your contact information (Note: There is a limit of one entry per child.)
2. Submit your recipe and a photo of your sandwich (You will also need to have an original name for the sandwich!)
3. Confirm you entry

The contest ends on October 12, 2011 at 11:59 a.m. EST. If you choose to mail your entry rather that submit it online, your entry must be postmarked by October 12, 2011 and received by October 19, 2011. Be sure to read the official contest rules BEFORE you begin!

Make it a Play Date!
Even if you aren’t serious enough to enter a recipe in the contest (or if your child/ren are too young), this would still make for a tasty and interactive group play date. Have each Mom bring a variety of food items to the play date — anything goes! Then at the play date, have each kid make their own peanut butter sandwich creation. Write on a plate what’s in each sandwich and cut them into pieces for everyone to sample. You can print MyPlate placemats for each child, and have the kids name foods they enjoy in each food group. This can be a fun way to get young children thinking about — and interested in — nutrition and the foods they eat.