Grilled PPB&J - Pear, Peanut Butter & Jelly

How did I pump up the power on a grilled pb&j? 

Well thanks for asking! 

...I added a pear! That's how :)

Two slices bread...

Cover with peanut butter and homemade strawberry jelly

Cover with a thinly sliced pear

Put bread together, spray both sides with nonstick cooking spray and grill

Slice and Enjoy!

PB&J Pudding

My two absolute favorite snacks at the moment are peanut butter and pudding. But yesterday, I just couldn't decide which to have... should it be peanut butter with its sticky goodness? Or, do I choose pudding, all cool and creamy? Hmm....

Then it hit me! BOTH! So I did it! I took the crazy step and decided to mix peanut butter into my pudding, and while I was at it-Jelly! I was left with an amazing, satisfying not to mention extremely healthy snack! Genius really...

Ingredients (makes 2 servings) :
-2 cups skim milk
-1 pkg. sugar free pudding mix (In my opinion, cheesecake and/or vanilla work the best)
-1/4 cup peanut butter (I always use PB2, wait-you've never heard of PB2? It's an amazing, dried peanut butter, so works extremely well when you want to mix peanut butter into different foods...and it barely has any fat and 1/4 the calories of regular peanut butter!)
-2 tsp. sugar free jelly (again, any kind works but you can never go wrong with a classic grape)

Directions:
1. Mix your milk and pudding (and PB2 if you are using that for your peanut butter) until it reaches a thick consistency (you may have to refrigerate a few hours to get it to the desired thickness)
2. If using regular peanut butter: fold in the peanut butter
3. Pour pudding mixture into two bowls
4. Dollop 1 tsp. of jelly on each serving
5. ENJOY!

     ~there are many different ways to go about eating this...
straight from the bowl with a spoon
using dipping agents: i.e. apple slices, baby carrots, crackers, pita chips
with granola/high fiber cereal sprinkled on top
spread atop a tortilla, or in a pita pocket
frozen in ice cube trays/Popsicle molds as a frozen treat!
the list goes on and on...

Let me know! What's your signature way to enjoy your PB&J pudding?!

Nutritional Info: (using PB2)

Larabar Copycat

According to larabar.com, Larabar produces healthy, gluten free energy bars made from minimal, pure ingredients. The reviews are pretty much all positive. Everyone loves Larabar's taste and nutritional stats...however...the price is there people begin to hate the Larabar. They make such a great product but it comes with a price-namely, your left arm and right leg, and in some cases-your first born male child!


So I set out to create my own...

There are many people that have posted their recipe for a 'Larabar Copycat' on the internet...I did my research! I know that an original Larabar has two things: dates, and nuts. There are many variations on this of course... I did a few trial and error recipes before finding the best combination for a homemade Larabar:


Standard Recipe:
-1/2 cup dates
-1/2 cup salted peanuts (this cuts out the step of adding salt in the end)
-1 tsp. water

Directions:


1. Blend dates in a food processor until finely chopped.


2. Remove from processor to a medium sized bowl.


3. Blend nuts in a food processor until finely chopped.


4. Add dates back to processor and add water.


5. Blend all together until sticky


6. Dump sticky mess out onto counter and squeeze together into a ball. 

7. Separate into desired sized bars (for this recipe I got three nicely sized Larabars)


8. Wrap each individually in Seran-Wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat-or, freeze if keeping more than 2 weeks. (though, I'm not really sure how you could keep your hands off these bad-boys for more than 2 weeks!)

Nutritional Info (1/3 of recipe)

Now, don't get me wrong...these are amazing in their pure standard form but I wanted to experiment a bit farther to get a more peanutty taste :) ...I succeeded! However, when I got done I got a little excited and wanted to get a PB&J version and ended up with this:


Ingredients: 
-1/2 cup dates
-1/2 cup salted peanuts
-3 TBSP. Peanut Butter
-1/4 cup raisins
...if you only want peanut butter flavored and not PB&J simply omit the raisins!


Directions:
1. Follow steps 1-5 of standard recipe (DO NOT add the raisins!)
2. Add the raisins in after all the rest have mixed and blend in processor until raisins are just slightly chopped


3. Finish with steps 6-8 of standard recipe 
NOTE: This recipe makes 4 bars


Nutritional Info (1/4 of recipe)