peanut butter

Tonight, be inspired by Tom Colicchio's philosophy to "craft a sandwich into a meal and a meal into a sandwich" and make this complex vegetarian dish. It combines char-broiled vegetables with crisp, golden brown tofu.

A peanut butter sesame oil sauce ensures that the sandwich is moist and delicious. Even if you don't put it together for dinner, it's an awesome portable lunch, so get the recipe and read more

"Bake something for a friend. Next time you need to buy a friend a present, don't. Make them one instead."

That's one of the actions listed in the book Change the World For Ten Bucks. My sister is on the cover and she's spearheading a day of volunteerism. To help, I've offered to make a delicious portable lunch. For dessert, I thought a scrumptious baked good would be appropriate.

Chocolate and peanut butter are no-fail crowd-pleasers and these milk chocolate-peanut butter sandwich cookies look to die for. Placing 2-3 cookies in small baggies tied with ribbon turns them into nicely packaged individual portions. Check out the recipe, read more

One of my favorite go-to snacks is apples and peanut butter, or ants on a log, but a serving of peanut butter (two tablespoons) contains 180 calories. So if you're watching your calorie intake, here's a way to enjoy that creamy, nutty taste without all the calories. It's made with nonfat Greek yogurt so it's creamy, low in fat, full of protein, and I swear it tastes like peanut butter ice cream!

• Take one 5.3-ounce container of nonfat Oikos Greek Vanilla yogurt.
• Mix in two tbsp. peanut butter (I prefer crunchy), 1/2 tbsp. honey, and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon.
• Serve with slices of apple, banana, and pear. Store unused portion in the fridge.

Makes four, two-tbsp. servings. Each serving contains 66 calories, 3.75 grams of fat, .5 grams of saturated fat, .75 grams of fiber, and 5.5 grams of protein.

Although Samson isn't Irish (obvs), that didn't stop LilPeaPod from making her little guy some special St. Patrick's Day treats to enjoy so he wasn't left out of the celebration fun. She sent in a few photos, and describes how she made the Irish bars with one of my household's favorite ingredients: peanut butter! She writes:

After attending the St. Patrick's Day parade this weekend in San Francisco, I had enough Irish treats and Guinness to last me a week! Since this was Samson's first St. Patty's Day, I didn't want to leave the little guy out of the fun, and decided to make a green-themed treat for him. I took the Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookie recipe you posted last year, and cut them into small, bite sized bars. As you can see, I added to the recipe by topping the cookies with a cream cheese and honey frosting. With just a few drops of organic food coloring that I found at my local Whole Foods, I got the nice green tint. It was super easy to make, and my little guy gobbled them up!

Those cookies definitely look good enough to eat! Check out the full cookie and frosting recipe when you read more

While the company behind the peanut salmonella scare has been shut down, many people are still wondering who's really to blame for the ordeal. Was it the president of the Peanut Corporation of America, who knowingly sent contaminated goods to the stores? Or was it the government, who failed to detect that the production plants were in disgusting conditions?

According to a recent article by The New York Times, the guilty party could actually be the private inspectors who check and rate a plant's food safety level. An audit conducted by an inspector last March declared that the gross facility in Georgia had a food safety level of "superior." According to the FDA, however, the same plant had been plagued by salmonella for at least the past nine months. This isn't the first known case where a private inspector failed to properly monitor a food plant, the Times reports:

An examination of the largest food poisoning outbreaks in recent years — in products as varied as spinach, pet food, and a children’s snack, Veggie Booty — show that auditors failed to detect problems at plants whose contaminated products later sickened consumers.

Although I understand that food safety is an incredibly hard thing to oversee, I can't help but feel a little queasy about this news. I hope that after such a widespread contamination, changes are made to correct the system. How do you feel about the ordeal? Who do you blame for the outbreak?

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This whole peanut butter recall has really put a damper on my peanut-butter-loving life. I know not all peanut butter has been recalled, but truthfully, I've used avoiding peanut butter as an excuse to branch out. One positive outcome from this salmonella scare is that I rediscovered my love for crunchy almond butter, and recently tried walnut butter for the first time.

So don't fret about losing peanut butter. To see the nutritional breakdown of some interestingly tasty peanut-free alternatives read more

The peanut butter salmonella issue grows bigger and bigger daily. Products connected with Peanut Corporation of America are being recalled left and right, and it's not over yet. The Texas Department of State Health Services ordered a recall of all products ever shipped from Peanut Corporation's now-closed plant in Plainview, TX. This plant was inspected after health code violations were found at its Georgia plant. Officials were disgusted to find dead rodents, rodent droppings, and bird feathers in a crawl space above a production area in the Texas plant, which had been operating unlicensed and without an inspection in nearly four years. This is more disturbing news tacked on to a long chain of events that has led to nearly 600 sickened people and nine deaths.

Over 2,000 peanut products have been recalled, making this one of the largest product recalls ever. It sickens me to think that Peanut Corp. owner Stewart Parnell allowed contaminated products to be shipped anyway, saying in an email that "tests discovering the contaminated food were 'costing us huge $$$$$.'" How sad is it that so many people have suffered because of this man's greed? This salmonella incident has also affected people's general opinions of peanut butter, and many are avoiding all peanut butter products for fear of getting sick. Are you?

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Not surprisingly, the Virginia based Peanut Corp. of America filed for bankruptcy last Friday. The company, which has been accused of producing the salmonella tainted peanut products, filed Chapter 7 to liquidate their assets. Plants in Georgia and Texas were closed after the positive results for possible salmonella contamination were found. Inspectors discovered the Georgia plant in gross conditions: infested with roaches, mold, and leaks.

The president of the corporation, Stewart Parnell, has turned his back on the problem, and last week authorized the shipping of knowingly tainted products. Although he refuses to speak with investigators, food safety lawyers believe that the victims of the salmonella outbreak will be compensated.

It makes me sick to think that the president of a company could willingly send contaminated goods, but I'm glad to know the government has tracked down the source of the problem. What do you think of the news?

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