Friday’s Lunch

The ultimate comfort food combo! Peanut butter and honey on a soft wheat bread. This sandwich was so good with just the right touch of sweetness. Peanut butter is always fabulous but what made the sandwich was the bread from Rudi’s Bakery and the smooth honey by Honey Ridge Farms. Rudi’s Organic Honey Wheat Sweet (say that ten times fast) is a regular on my shopping list as well as some of their other products like flax wraps and English muffins (the have tons of bread varieties to suit anyone). This was my first time having honey by Honey Ridge Farms. I love their honey because it is very sweet yet they add no sweeteners, honey does not need it! In addition to their gourmet honey they have – Honey Crèmes, Honey Balsamic Vinegars, Glazes, Grilling Sauces and gifts galore. They have an Asian inspired salad on their recipe page that will be making its way to my page in the next few days. It looks delicious.

Move Over!

Other peanut butters. CB’s is in the house! Hands down this is the thickest, creamiest peanut butter I have ever tasted. It is my new favorite. I previously had a peanut butter loyalty but would choose CB’s over it any time. It is very hard to try and find a peanut butter that is JUST peanuts but that is exactly what CB’s is! Just peanuts! I can tell the peanuts used to make this spread are extremely high quality and handled just right by these guys. They make a variety of nuts too (excellent jumbo pistachios) that come in these cool brown bags and taste delicious. Its no wonder the peanut butter tasted so good after I sampled the in-shell peanuts (unsalted or salted) that they make in Washington roasting in small batches to bring us the best nuts possible. They have a variety of products but I just can not get off the peanut butter! MAN it is GOOD. Peanut butter is a very hard thing to resist so I advise strongly to buy these jars one at a time. If they don’t have it in your local grocer you can buy online or you can print a form right on their website to hand to your store manager and demand that they carry this peanut butter. Usually, they listen! They are there to please you and this peanut butter will—trust me.

Killer Sandwich

“Killer Taste, Killer Texture and Killer Nutrition”
Just lunch but the combo turned out to be great—Dave’s Killer Bread (very grainy and hearty) with Smart Balance Peanut Butter and here is the REAL kicker—Raspberry Pepper Jelly by Aloha From Oregon! Jelly with a little heat to it. It was a superb combo with the peanut butter and bread, surprised me! There is a restaurant that I frequent that has various pepper jams on the menu and I always pass them up but on the right bread they are fantastic.

PS—A while back I reviewed Dave’s Killer Sin Bread “Cinnamon” bread. It is more like a nutty, seedy, cinnamon roll more than anything and it is AWESOME. Warmed up it is like an ooey gooey treat. Better than those mall buns and better for your buns!

Old School Snack!

Bring back the celery and peanut butter! This was my AM snack at work today. It drew a lot of attention because my celery was so crunchy-- people were reminding me that they used to eat ants on logs back in grade school, I was just missing the ants. So for mine I mixed up a packet of FitNutz peanut butter (powdered peanut butter) with a bit of water. If you have never had powdered peanut butter you really should try it. It is great because I can just stash it in my drawer at work and reconstitute it at anytime, use it in protein brownies, as a topping for protein brownies, in protein sludge, on toast, in shakes...

More Toufayan creations!

Check out my lunch! A take on the classic PB&J with milk. An EAS Carb Control Vanilla protein drink rounds out this lunch. Is it noon yet?!

This lovely creation is made using Toufayan wheat pitas.

Good stuff! Check out the nutritionals as well:

Toufayan Pitettes!

The Experts over at Toufayan knocked my socks off AGAIN with their Pitettes! You can have two-- YES TWO-- pita breads for the following nutritionals:
2 LOAVES
140 calories
6 grams of protein

No added salt and wheat based. But what about the taste you say? Fantastic.

Now I am ready to share my insanely awesome snack with you!

2 loaves, 1 sliced banana and a big tablespoon of peanut butter.

Peanut -Thai Inspired Noodles!

Yum! Anything with a hint of peanut butter is good! For this dish you will only need a few products then add away with just about any veggies. First off, prepare your noodles. I generally use Shiraki noodles but some people use a high fiber noodle, wheat noodle or miracle noodles. Just about anything will work for this dish! Then make your peanuty sauce:

4 tablespoons Bragg's Liquid Aminos or Low-Sodium soy sauce of choice
1 tablespoon melted peanut butter or PB2 reconsituted in a dab of water
1 packet sweetner of choice

MIX! I added some broccoli and scallions but whatever you want to add would work great. If I had some spouts I would have tossed those in. Next time I will be adding tofu to my peanuty goodness.

Oatmeal Cookie Bars

2 cups Quaker Old Fashioned Style Oatmeal
1/2 cup oat flour (take 1 cup of oats and blend in blender until flour is made or buy oat flour)
1/2 cup PB2
1/2 cup Vanilla Protein Powder**
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce**
1/2 cup egg beaters
1/2 cup carb countdown milk
1/4 cup granulated sweetner
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix oatmeal, PB2, protein powder and sweetner well. Then add wet ingredients stirring until thick batter is formed. Place into sprayed glass pan and bake at 350 until knife comes out clean.

**You can substitute the applesauce with 2 mashed bananas and use chocolate protein powder for a chocolate banana peanut butter bar as well!

Peanut Butter Maple "Instant" Cookies

1 packet of Quaker Weight Control Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal (7 grams of protein per packet)
1 heaping tablespoon of natural peanut butter
Splash of milk or water
One strong arm

Dump the packet of oats into a bowl and add a splash of water or milk. Set a little bit of the oatmeal aside to roll finished product in. Grab a tablespoon of your favorite natural peanut butter. Get to mixing! Use your fingers to roll into balls, then roll into the oatmeal you set aside to avoid a sticky mess. Let sit in fridge overnight and eat the next day.

Hay Cookies!

Remember Haystacks?

10 100% Dark Chocolate Cocoa Nibs
1 Tablespoon natural peanut butter
Sweetner of choice
Chopped Peanuts (optional)
1/2-3/4 cup Fiber one cereal (if I use the peanuts I cut down on the cereal)

Melt the Nibs and peanut butter in the microwave and stir well. Slowly add in cereal and optional peanuts making sure all are covered. Grab bunches out of the bowl with your fingers and put on a cookie sheet or parchment paper in the refrigerator until cool and formed. Peel off and store. These must be kept cold to maintain shape.