Tag Archives: peanut butter

Pumpkin Peanut Butter

5 Sep

Pumpkin Peanut Butter

 

What do you do when you have a small mason jar full of pumpkin puree sitting in your refrigerator that really needs to be used up?

You consider making pumpkin creme brulee coffee creamer for about five minutes but get lazy and make pumpkin peanut butter instead, that’s what.

Then you spend the next few days smearing it on anything and everything because it’s just that good.

It’s also really easy to make. If you can add ingredients to a bowl and stir, you got this.

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

1/2 cup whipped peanut butter

2 tbsp real maple syrup

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of sea salt

 

Directions

Add all of the ingredients listed above to a bowl and stir well to combine.

See? Easy.

Smear on toast, bagels, cookies, graham crackers, biscuits, or use as a dip for fruit, carrots, and/or celery.

What else can you do with it?

If you really want to indulge, this stuff makes a crazy good fluffernutter sandwich. Seriously… do it.

And I would imagine that if you were to fold in some whipped cream, that mixture would make an obscenely good pie filling.

You could also cut the core out of some cupcakes, fill with pumpkin peanut butter, pop the tops back on and frost away. Yum!

Use as a substitute for plain old PB for ants on a log and in homemade peanut butter cups.

Really, if you like pumpkin and peanut butter, this combo shouldn’t disappoint. Just use it in place of regular peanut butter.

 

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Daily Bento

16 May

The lunches are back!

I haven’t posted in a while so I have quite a bit of catching up to do.

These particular lunches that I’m about to share with you were my husband’s lunches/snacks over the past week.

Camryn has been bringing a lot of leftovers that have been warmed in her thermos for lunch, and those just don’t photograph well.

So, grown up lunches it is!

 

For the lunch pictured above, I used a rolling pin to flatten two slices of wheat bread and filled each one with a little egg salad. Then I cut them into bite-sized pieces. I tucked some puffed wheat crackers in next to the egg salad rolls-ups, and added cucumber slices, raspberries, and celery sticks. The sauce containers hold peanut butter and blue cheese dressing for dipping.

 

This Easy Lunchbox holds a veggie-heavy sandwich (turkey, mashed avocado in place of mayo, sprouts, lettuce, tomato, homemade pickles on multi-grain bread) with a few cucumbers on the side, sweet potato and brown rice crackers, and strawberries filled with spicy vegan chocolate pudding (recipe to come).

 

On Wednesday afternoon, I whipped up some delicious avocado hummus. Unfortunately, it goes bad fairly quickly thanks to the avocado, so I used quite a bit of it to make the Mr.’s work lunch. I smeared a good helping of the hummus on a multi-grain wrap and topped it with lettuce, shredded carrot, sliced red onion, thinly sliced cucumber, and sprouts. Then I rolled it up tightly, sliced it in half, and it was good to go. I threw in some pita chips, a few of my quick and easy peanut butter bars, and extra hummus for dipping in the fish container.

 

Avocado Hummus

1 15 oz. can of canellini beans – rinsed and drained

1 avocado

juice of a lime

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

a couple pinches of cayenne pepper – optional, except in my house 😉

salt and pepper to taste

Blend until smooth.

Store in an air tight container in the fridge. Best eaten within a day or two.

 

Quick & Easy Peanut Butter Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter – I used Wild Friends Sesame Cranberry PB

1/2 cup maple syrup or honey – I used maple syrup

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1/4 tsp cinnamon

optional add-ins – about a handful of dried fruit, chocolate chips, nuts, and/or seeds

Add the peanut butter and maple syrup to a large microwave safe bowl and microwave until smooth enough to mix together. This took about 30 seconds in my microwave. You can also do this in a pot on the stove.

Mix well until combined and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix to incorporate everything together and dump into an 8×8 pan.

Press to form an even layer and let sit for a couple of hours at room temp before eating. This helps the oats to soften.

You can also roll the mixture into balls if you prefer.

Store covered at room temperature.

 

This super simple lunch contains fresh zucchini, carrot, and celery slices, more peanut butter bars, dates filled with Wild Friends Cinnamon Raisin PB, and a little chocolate.

 

The lunch pictured above contains one of my new favorite sandwiches: A flaky croissant filled with ham, thinly sliced Bosc pear, and Muenster cheese. If you haven’t tried that combo you’re missing out. It’s delicious!

If you do try it, slice the croissant, add the cheese and pop it in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted, then add the ham and pear. That’s the best way, it just is.

To go with the sandwich, I added some strawberries, raspberries, and sweet peppers that I sliced in half and filled with tzatziki.

 

This lunch is packed in one of my favorite cheapo containers that I found at Marshall’s a while back. I think I paid less than $5 for this one and I use it all the time so it was worth every penny.

Not wanting to make another sandwich or wrap, I added chopped chives to softened cream cheese and then spread a little onto a few slices of turkey. Then I wrapped the turkey around a few of my homemade pickle spears and called it done.

Also included in this lunch are carrot sticks, broccoli, blueberry Belvita biscuits, sweet potato and brown rice crackers, and a couple of pieces of chocolate in this sweet little food cup. The sauce container holds ranch dressing for dipping.

 

I hope these lunches will inspire your own lunch packing next week. Seriously, try that ham, pear, and cheese on croissant. It’s so good!

Have a great weekend! ♥

 

 

 

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24 Jun

super greens smoothie

On any given day, if you search the internet for a “green smoothie”, you will undoubtedly find endless variations of just that, green smoothies.

However, I want to let you in on a little secret…

Ready?

You can add spinach to pretty much any smoothie that contains berries and/or pineapple and as long as you blend it long enough, you will not taste it.

Promise.

There are no recipes to follow and you don’t need to get any measuring cups out.

Just get a handful of fresh or frozen spinach and throw it in.

For realsies.

Spinach in smoothies is all well and good but what I really want to tell you about is how to take it a step further and add kale.

Yes, I’m serious.

Kale is good for you. Super good.

Here’s a helpful graphic:

Isn’t it large and informative?

Here’s another graphic just in case you weren’t swayed by the last one:

I drink this smoothie several times per week. I just feel better when I do and I can also see a noticeable improvement in my skin and energy level.

It’s also husband and super picky teenager approved because it tastes like peanut butter and banana – not greens. If that means anything to you.

I used to use fresh kale and just cut the leaves off of the stem. But I recently discovered bagged organic kale at my grocery store for less than $4, so that goes into my cart every week and then right into the freezer when I get home. For this smoothie you can use fresh or frozen greens.

You’ll notice that there are no measurements when it comes to the greens so it’s customizable to your taste. Add as much or as little as you like.

I put two good handfuls of kale and about half a bag of spinach in my smoothie. If it’s too thick, I add a little more almond milk.

It’s a smoothie. It should be simple.

Ingredients:

1 frozen banana – peel and slice a few and store in a resealable freezer bag

1 Tbsp natural peanut butter

1/4 – 1/2 cup yogurt

1 – 1 1/2 cup milk (I use almond milk)

spinach

kale

Just toss all that goodness into your blender and let it whirl for at least a couple of minutes. That gives everything enough time to get thoroughly chopped and blended. Makes for a much tastier smoothie.

If you want more peanut butter flavor, add more peanut butter.

Want a thicker smoothie? Add more banana or yogurt.

Too thick? Add a little more milk.

Now that you’re putting kale in your smoothies, why not take it a step further and put it in rice, couscous, pasta, meatballs, sauces, soups, and mashed potatoes!

Chop it up, saute it in extra virgin olive oil with garlic and a little sea salt until tender and mix it into mashed potatoes. Then top a shepard’s pie with it! I’ve done it – you should too!


* Makes 1 large or two regular sized smoothies.

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