Peanut Butter Rant

I love peanut butter. I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch every day from kindergarten until 12th grade. Even after all those years of PB&J's, my passion for peanut butter has not diminished in the least.

We've been in the habit of eating Jif peanut butter for the past few years at the Hammond house. I've never been too picky about brands - my only distinction is: the crunchier the better!

Recently, several of my coworkers have mentioned that Skippy Natural is the BEST peanut butter (interestingly enough, the topic of peanut butter has come up on several occasions in the workplace).

Andie and I tried it and completely agreed! Skippy Natural is really good - nutty and delicious!! So, we made the switch. Hello Skippy, goodbye Jif.

Then, several weeks ago, Andie came upon an article in Consumer Reports rating the best peanut butters. Of course, we had to read up and do a taste test on their number one. According to the magazine, the best peanut butter is... (drumroll, please...) Smucker's Organic.

So, I bought it (and I had a coupon - score!).

And I tried it.

It was good.

I don't know if it was great, though. I still had Skippy on my mind. The Smuckers was, for lack of a better way to describe it, kind-of dry tasting. I don't even know if that makes sense, but with Skippy I just wanted to grab the biggest spoon I could find and dive right in. With Smuckers, it just tasted like spreadable dry roasted nuts. It lacked pizzaz. It lacked personality.

Clearly though, other "consumers" do not share my opinion.

Now, this is where my real problem starts. So, after the initial tasting is complete, I look on the side of the label for instructions about storage. We don't typically buy the peanut butter that requires stirring, so I wanted to make sure that I followed the directions.

I see at the top right it says "Oil Separation is Natural. Just Stir & Refrigerate".

So, that's what I did.

When it was time for my next PB&J (days later), I opened up the jar to find a crumbly mess!

This was not spreadable!

The cold peanut butter could not be stirred - it was just hard and crumbly! Was I supposed to microwave it for a few seconds? Surely heating and cooling the jar every time you wanted a sandwich was not the answer. Was I supposed to let it sit out on the counter for an hour before I made my sandwich? I don't have that kind of time when I'm trying to make lunch in the morning and get out the door as fast as I can!

So, Smuckers Organic, our short-lived relationship must end here. You just don't fit my lifestyle. I'm welcoming back my dear friend, Skippy Natural. He has been greatly missed.

Deceptively Delicious

For Christmas, I got the greatest gift from my dear friend, Kristen! She gave me a cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld (yep, Jerry's wife). I had heard about this cookbook from my co-workers, but sort of forgot about it. Well, I was soooooo excited when Kristen brought this book into my life!

The idea behind the cookbook is using vegetable purees in the dishes that you cook to bump up the nutrition factor (or shall I say, hiding veggies in kid-friendly food) - an idea that I'm more than happy to get behind! Basically, you just buy, cook, and puree several veggies then freeze the purees so that you have them on hand when you are cooking (rather than having to do all that work every time that you make dinner).

As many of you know, when I first started feeding Luke solid food, I would make my own baby food. It was something that I really enjoyed doing! It was really easy to do, plus, it is awesome to feed your child wholesome, fresh, organic food!

I'm not really sure why, but I'm a little bit obsessed with the nutrition of my child. When I would send my homemade baby food to school with Luke, the teachers asked Andie if we were big health nuts. The answer is no - absolutely not! I'm pretty sure that I've shoved oreos into my mouth while steaming and pureeing a bowl full of carrots for the little guy. But for some strange reason, I really stress out when Luke doesn't eat his peas. Actually, let me rephrase that... I USED to stress out about it, but I've gotten waaaaaaay better!

Lately, Luke has been really picky about his food (especially since he's been sick) and only wants applesauce and crackers. Ugh - so annoying! It is really frustrating when you work hard to create a nice, balanced dinner and your child just looks at his plate and shakes his head "no". Without even trying anything! AND it is food that you KNOW he likes! At least, he liked it last week...

I digress...

So, I've tried several deceptively delicious meals now! We've had chicken tenders that were breaded with hidden broccoli puree, cauliflower in mashed potatoes, butternut squash in mac-n-cheese, spaghetti pie (with carrot in the tomato sauce and broccoli in the meatballs), applesauce muffins with carrot, and peanut butter banana muffins with cauliflower! Everything has tasted really, really good! I know that some of the combinations probably don't sound very appetizing, but it is a small enough portion of the puree that you can't really taste it.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also made the turkey meatloaf (with carrot puree) but we were not too impressed with that one. It was ground turkey with turkey bacon on top... I don't know... it just wasn't right. Andie and I both really like regular meatloaf - so next time I'll just make sure I use really lean ground beef and add the carrot to my old recipe.

I'm trying to be really good about planning out meals for the week in advance, going to the grocery store and using my coupons, and cooking a lot! We'll see how it goes for 2010! :)

Sounds like I'm becoming a real MOM!