Tag Archives: peanut butter

Grilled PBF

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This is basically a ‘grilled cheese’ of peanut butter and fruit and it is just awesome.

Grilled PBF
Grilled PBF

4 servings
301 calories per serving

8 slices whole wheat bread
¼ c creamy peanut butter
1 apple, rinsed, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 bananas, peeled and cut into about 12 thin slices
Pam
ICBINB Spray

Assemble sandwich with ½ tablespoon of pea¬nut butter on each slice of bread then add two apple slices and six banana slices in the middle of each sandwich.

Spray both sides of the sandwich with a bit if I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter Spray and then fry it up in a skillet sprayed with Pam – – just like a grilled cheese sandwich. You can add some cinnamon to the sandwich when it comes out of the pan for some extra flavor.

No matter how you put it together, this is a great nutritious breakfast that the kids will LOVE.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Decadent, Delicious, Moist, and just the right amount of peanut butter. These just could not have been any better !!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Peanut Butter Cupcakes

30 cupcakes
235 calories per serving

1 package super moist yellow cake mix
1 ½ c water
¼ c vegetable oil
3 eggs
¾ c creamy peanut butter
1 tub ready to spread chocolate frosting
¼ c creamy peanut butter
1/3 c chopped peanuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees . Line muffin cups with paper liners. Beat cake mix, water, oil, eggs and ¾ c peanut butter on low 30 seconds and then on medium 2 minutes. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter and bake 20-25 minutes. Cool completely. Stir together frosting and ¼ c peanut butter and frost cupcakes. Sprinkle with peanuts.

PB and Chocolate Chex

Yup – my friend poured these in a bowl, added milk, and had them like cereal – they’re just that good. They are so crunchy, so sweet, so awesomely good !

PB and Chocolate Chex
PB and Chocolate Chex

36 servings
90 calories

9 cups crispy rice and corn cereal squares
1/2 c peanut butter
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 c confectioners’ sugar

Melt chocolate in a saucepan then add peanut butter and stir until smooth. Pour over cereal and mix well being careful to not crush the cereal. Work in batches adding sugar to a large zip loc bag then adding the cereal and shaking to coat. Store in an airtight container.

PB and Chocolate Smores

Smores – sweet, delicious and they bring out the kid in you – here we do it all without the camp fire !

PB and Chocolate Smores
PB and Chocolate Smores

9 servings
170 calories per serving

3 T creamy peanut butter
9 reduced fat Honey Grahams, broken in half to make 18 squares
3 T hot fudge sauce
1/2 c mini marshmallows

Take 9 squares and spread each with 1 t peanut butter, then 1 t fudge then place 3-4 marshmallows on top. Cover with another cracker to make a sandwich.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place Smores on a baking sheet and cook 9-11 minutes or until chocolate is melted and marshmallow are puffed.

My Favorite Pudding Pie

There are lots of pudding pie recipes out there, but this one is my favorite because it has a bit of everything – bananas, chocolate, shipped topping, peanut butter, nuts – this is decadence at its best 🙂 High on the calories, but still under 400 and if it’s your only snack of the day along with other 400 calories meals, then definitely allowed !

My Favorite Pudding Pie
My Favorite Pudding Pie

10 servings
357 calories per serving

1 Nilla Pie Crust (pre-prepared pie crust made with Nilla wafers – much like a graham crust)
1 1/2 squares Bakers semi sweet chocolate
1/2 c peanut butter
2 bananas, cut lengthwise in half, then make long thin slices
1 3.4 oz. pack of sugar free vanilla instant pudding
1 1/2 c skim milk
2 c Lite Cool Whip
2 T salted peanuts, chopped

Take half of one chocolate square and grate it with a coarse cheese grater to make chocolate flakes for the top of the pie. Take the rest of the chocolate and microwave 1 minute then add the peanut butter and microwave for another minute, until completely melted. Put banana pieces in the crust and add the chocolate mix. Whisk pudding and milk for 2 minutes and then fold in 1 c of the Cool Whip and spread over the bananas. Spread the rest of the Cool Whip on top and then garnish with peanuts and chocolate flakes.

Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

These are just scrumptious ! Another one of those snacks then when left unattended, they just seem to disappear 🙂 A nice healthy alternative for snacking.

Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls
Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

9 servings
98 calories per serving

5 c popped popcorn
¼ c honey
¼ c creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Put popcorn in a large pan (like a roaster pan) and warm in the oven. In a small pan on medium heat, boil honey 1-2 minutes and then reduce heat and add peanut butter, mixing well. Drizzle the mixture over the popcorn and stir well. Tear off 9 ten inch pieces of wax paper and place a bit more than ½ c of the mix on each sheet then fold the corners up and form the popcorn mix into a ball. Store with the wax paper on the balls at room temperature.

Rice Krispie Treat with Chocolate and Peanut Butter

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One would think you could not improve on the perfectly edible Rice Krispie Treat. But when you introduce peanut butter and chocolate you end up with a divine dessert that satisfies with richness, just the right amount of sweetness, and good old ‘snap, krackle and pop’. This is Rice Krispie treats for the adult crowd !

Rice Krispie Treat with Chocolate and Peanut Butter
Rice Krispie Treat with Chocolate and Peanut Butter

16 servings
247 calories per serving

3 T plus 1 t unsalted butter
4 c mini marshmallows
1/3 c creamy peanut butter
½ t kosher salt
6 c Rice Krispies
Pam
12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips, melted
¼ c chopped roasted, salted peanuts

Butter an 8×8 baking dish with 1 t of the butter (insert your hand into a baggy and use that as a glove to get good coverage). Mix marshmallows, peanut butter, butter and salt and cook on medium heat until all is melted then add cereal. Spray a spoon with Pam so the contents don’t stick to it and use it to press HALF of the mix into the buttered pan. Spread half the chocolate over the mix and then repeat the 2 layers. Finally sprinkle with peanuts.

Chicken Satay

Satay is a Thai preparation of skewered meat served with a peanut sauce – here I’ve taken away the skewers to make things a bit easier and it doesn’t change the taste of the dish one bit 😉

Chicken Satay
Chicken Satay

8 servings
132 calories per serving

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 8 oz. each, sliced lengthwise into 6 strips each.
1 t toasted sesame oil
1 t low sodium soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 t red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c creamy peanut butter
2 T rice vinegar
2 t lime juice
1 t brown sugar
Vegetable oil

Toss chicken with sesame oil, soy, garlic and 1/4 t pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Heat grill pan or skillet on high heat. Work in batches brushing pan with vegetable oil and then cooking chicken until done, 3-4 minutes per side. Serve with dipping sauce.

Create dipping sauce by mixing peanut butter, vinegar, lime juice, brown sugar, the rest of the pepper flakes and 2-3 T water.

MUFAs in Your Diet

MUFAS are monounsaturated fatty acids. They are the ‘healthy’ fats that we find in food such as avocados, olives, olive oil, dark chocolate, peanut butter, and nuts and seeds of all types. Many times people following low cal meal plans leave this out of their diets because the food items containing MUFAs are high in calories. DON’T DO IT !

For weeks I have been ‘stuck’. After dropping 30+ pounds consistently losing a pound a week, week after week, all of the sudden for a month or more I am stuck. Many dieters call this a plateau and they scream about it. I see why – here I am eating right, even lowering my daily caloric intake, my activity level is the same or higher – and I cannot continue dropping the pounds. What’s going on?

Well, I looked back and realized that I had been foregoing the MUFAs to increase other caloric intake. It was not even junk that I was adding – it was more veggies and fruits. Alas !

So last week I go back to peanut butter or yummy Barney Butter almond butter on my toast in the mornings. I add back semi-sweet chocolate chips as a nice little after lunch or dinner snack. I add back guacamole / avocado. And I add back a bit more olive oil and olives. Guess what? I’m down 2 pounds in a week !

It can only be the MUFAs ! Be sure to add them to your meal plans. As well as helping you feel satisfied (don’t all high fat items make you happy? hehehe) they supposedly also help your body flush out other not so healthy fats. Whatever the case, I am a believer – I have seen it for myself now and I’ll be making more room in my diet for the MUFAs I need to keep losing weight and reaching my goals 🙂

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