Better’n Peanut Butter?

~ by Nikki

I will admit…I was skeptical about this stuff. But when my friend Nessa’s hubby, Brian, picked up a jar of the stuff at Trader Joe’s, I gladly joined (read: forced myself upon) him in giving it a try.

The stats on it are pretty good. Lookit:

Yes, yes…I know…PB2 has lower stats. BUT…PB2 isn’t peanut butter, no matter WHAT you add to it. And peanut butter is SO much more than peanut flavor. It is stickiness, gooeyness, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth-ness. And you just can’t replicate that in powdered form. Sorry. You can’t convince me!

So back to the task at hand. Since becoming a devotee of a certain mama who is melting, I have learned there is a method to doing these things. Because if you don’t follow the method, and blindly stick something in your mouth…disaster could ensue (and yes that pun WAS intended).

First, we sniff. Communally. (‘scuse my decidedly un-glamorous look…you just can’t Paris Hilton all the time, y’know?)

Smells like peanut butter. Looks like natural peanut butter and regular commercial peanut butter got together and had a baby. There was a teeeeenie bit of oil on the top but not much.

Next we taste. Our weapons of choice. Brian being the consummate portion control expert, chose tiny spoons. Which is good on the whole. Because your girl can put away some peanut butter and I’d already had about 10 lbs. of cheese on the way home from the Cincinnati OH Conference. I didn’t need no more fat in my life! So we toast!

The verdict? Well…it’s interesting. First off, it’s sweet. To me, really sweet. But not in a bad way. It sort of tastes like one of those Tastykake Peanut Butter Kandy Kake things. Which made me yearn for two squares of chocolate to sandwich this stuff between (still deciding if that’s a good or a bad thing). Brian agreed with the Kandy Kake comparison. But we both like it. Nessa even took a nibble and liked it too.

So then we abandoned the spoons and went full force with one of these babies:

Pumpernickel pretzel stick! Woo doggie! Now newbies…don’t fret. Cuz I know you’re hyperventilating right now. I understand. I personally cannot keep pretzels in my house (except for the divas lunches which are bagged pretzels and come with the shame of eating food from your baby’s mouth…). But Nessa and Brian…wow…they seem to hold onto some food so I don’t worry for them. And I don’t worry for me when I am at their house and a pumpernickel pretzel rod covered in Better’n Peanut Butter HAPPENS to find its way into my mouth.

Cuz it happens sometimes…

OH! And for those PB2 purists, I should note TJ’s also has a product called peanut flour, that is the exact same thing as PB2. Even has the same stats (once you de-code the fact that the portion size is different). And it’s like $3 with no shipping charges. So…I’m just sayin’…a revolution might be in order here.