Peanut Butter, Powdered Peanut Butter, and that other Inspired-By-Peanut-Butter stuff

 

I have so many recipes I want to share and often times, there are ingredients that appear more often than others. Powdered peanut butter is one such ingredient, especially in my kale shakes. Chocolate peanut butter, banana peanut butter, strawberry peanut butter, peanut butter mocha... If you can't tell, I love peanut butter.

During the year I was losing weight, I had peanut butter at my desk, and if I was in the mood to nosh, I'd grab a spoonful of natural crunchy peanut butter. I could have eaten the entire container really, but at 190 - 200 calories for two tablespoons, that wasn't gonna happen.

Back then, I didn't know a thing about powdered peanut butter. Now, you'll see many recipes I post contain PB2 or JustGreatStuff as an ingredient, and I realized that YOU may not know what it is. So to that point, I'm going to spend this entire post on the three peanut butters you may or may not be familiar with.

The first is your standard Jif, Planters or Skippy peanut butter. For this particular post, I will reference Planters Natural Peanut Butter, because that's what I had on hand. You can see the serving size for the Planters is 2 TBS. There are 190 calories; 150 of which are from fat. The ingredients aren't bad, as there's nothing I can't pronounce. But there is sugar added. The overall taste is great of course. Did I mention I'm a peanut butter fiend? Fiend I tell you, FIEND!

When I started losing weight, I realized I couldn't be gobbling down vast amounts of peanut butter, and when I found what I call the "inspired by peanut butter" stuff, I bought it to give it a try. The "stuff" I'm talking about is Walden Farms Whipped Peanut Spread, and I bought the jar because it says it's sugar free, calorie free and fat free. This was back before I paid too much attention to the ingredients of things, and instead focused on those glamorous words "calorie free" and "fat free." You can see from the photo I took of the nutrition label on the back of the jar how UN-nutritious it really was. The ingredients list has Yellow #5, sodium benzoate, FD & C (????). So in other words, ingredients that I can barely pronounce and have no idea about. There's also that keen little line below the ingredients that says "*Contains Trace Calories" so it's not as calorie free as I thought it was. I am wondering how it's calorie free at all! What sort of black magic is this that with so many ingredients, this has no fat, no calories and no sugar? Most importantly though, the taste was horrendous. I imagine sometimes, when my dog has that really runny, goopy, what-the-hell-did-you-eat?!, yellow-brownish diarrhea, it would taste similar to this peanut spread. I'm sorry to tell you that. Really truly, I hope you weren't eating or drinking something when you read that last bit. But if I can save anyone from this revulsion, then it was worth it.

 

Moving on. I had googled tons of recipes online and diet tips and tricks. I read about PB2 and found out that it supposedly tastes just like peanut butter, but it's a peanut powder, and it has 85% less fat than regular peanut butter because the oil has been removed. I was skeptical, because this is my  post-traumatic-stress-from-inspired-by-peanut-butter-self. But, I kept reading more and more about it, and the reviews I read were pretty much the same. Most people loved the stuff in their shakes, or mixed with water and eaten in more traditional ways (PB&J, or PB and celery sticks.)

I happened to see a health food store near our house on a trip to the grocery store, so we stopped by. They didn't have PB2, but the lady told me they did have Betty Lou's JustGreatStuff Organic Powdered Peanut Butter. So I brought it home, fell in love, and we lived happily ever after. The end.

Well, I'm still in ever after actually. And you deserve to know about it! I did end up buying PB2 later on, and I have both at home now. They taste almost identical to me but there are differences on the nutrition label. PB2 has 2 grams of fiber, whereas JustGreatStuff has 1 gram. PB2 also has 5 grams of protein as opposed to JustGreatStuff's 4 grams. What I like though is that JustGreatStuff is sweetened with organic coconut sugar, while PB2 only mentions sugar. Either way, they're both great and taste amazing and make me sing with happiness that in 2 TBS, there's only 45 calories compared to regular peanut butter's 190. And only about 10 - 13 calories are from fat, compared to regular peanut butter's 150.

I feel like powdered peanut butter is just another reason to believe in humanity. Somebody somewhere loved peanut butter as much as I do, and decided that poor shmucks like me who are trying desperately to shed some poundage deserve low fat and low calorie peanut butter. And then, they made it!

Anyway, I use PB2 or JustGreatStuff for any recipes that call for peanut butter. Sometimes, I'll admit, it's better to just use the regular peanut butter. For instance, I made peanut butter cookies that use garbanzo beans instead of flour, eggs, etc. The first time I made them, I used natural peanut butter because I wasn't home and I didn't have PB2 on hand. They were amazing, but with so much peanut butter in them, I knew I couldn't indulge quite as much as I would have wanted to. A few days later, when I was home, I tried the recipe again with PB2 instead of peanut butter. The cookies came out terrible. They essentially tasted like garbanzo bean cookies with a hint of peanut butter. Yuck. I will try them with half and half next time. Half fully oiled up peanut butter, half PB2.

They sure do look yummy, but I assure you, they weren't...

Mostly though, the PB2 is a wonderful substitute for the good stuff. I made a phad thai with zucchini noodles and veggies. The peanut sauce was perfect and the entire meal felt light, but was filling. I also add PB2 to shakes, and have created some yummy flavor combinations: PB & Banana. PB & J (just add strawberries, powdered peanut butter, and a quarter of a frozen banana to your regular greens and blend!) And now, PB2 and JustGreatStuff offer a CHOCOLATE powdered peanut butter, so think of all the shake possibilities there! You could have a healthy vegan Reese's flavored kale shake!!!!

Chocolate PB2!!!

As I mentioned, I found JustGreatStuff at a health food store, and I hate to say that it's not available everywhere. I know our GNC has PB2. I've never found PB2 or JustGreatStuff at any regular grocery store, even though they've gotten on the health bandwagon and have cashew butter, almond butter, coconut butter, etc. Isn't that weird? I'd recommend you purchase PB2 or JustGreatStuff online, because it's cheaper and you don't have to drive around town looking for a place that carries them. 

I'd love to hear from you if you use PB2 or JustGreatStuff. What are your favorite recipes?