Peanut Butter & Oat {Recovery} Bites and Pacific Beach Peanut Butter Review

Well, I made it through another tax season and now I am all wrapped up in my wedding planning, so I apologize for the scarcity.  Plus, we are in the process of selling our house and searching for a new one, so cooking time has been a bit lacking.  Race season is (well, has already been) upon us, as well as trying to get back into shape for summer/honeymoon/just in general.  So I love coming up with little recipes to help your body recover after lots of exertion, whether from racing your motorcycle, cycling at the gym or even just running after your little ones.

Not only is this a recipe, but also a review of this wonderful little organic peanut butter company named Pacific Beach Peanut Butter. 

You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, and of courseeee Pinterest

https://www.facebook.com/PBPeanutButter?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/PBPeanutButters

http://pinterest.com/pbpeanutbutter/ 

And not only is this a review of these wonderful (and did i mention, cute and unique) jars full of peanut butter but all my wonderful loyal readers get:

One FREE jar with any purchase from their website!

*Limit 1 FREE jar per customer.*

Just use this code: blogger4 

(Reader Code valid through May 16, 2013)

They have so many amazing flavor combos- but I will review three: 

Organic Unsalted, Chocolate, and Chocolate Raspberry

I'll start with my least fav, the Chocolate.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I guess not what I expected.  Really didn't do anything for me just straight out of the jar.  But I did think it would be a great addition to recipes (which I did use in my bites).

Chocolate Raspberry was very decadent, it was almost like a fruity nutella- um, yea, delicious! Eat with fruit or crackers or anything. 

I am a real basic type of person, so when it came to the unsalted regular peanut butter- I could have eaten the whole jar with just a spoon.  My fiance said it was different because the texture was in between chunky and smooth peanut butter.  Personally, I am a chunky fan, but this was definitely a nice switch up.  The taste was fresh and clean.  You really taste the amazingness of these peanuts (which by the way was the ONLY ingredient! Another amazing perk)  

Wanna Spoon? haha I LOVE IT!

I recently switched from those "less fat" peanut butters to all organic natural peanut butters, because even though it is full fat, you are eating natural ingredients you can pronounce- the only thing in your peanut butter should be peanuts! (and salt)  So when PB PB (haha cute right?) contacted me about their peanuts butters, I was definitely in! And I am so glad I was because now I can pass along this amazing find to all you guys! AND you can get a free jar with a purchase! Score!

Now, here is a recipe using their great peanut butter, if you don't eat it all right out of the jar first ;)

Ingredients

• 1/3 c. or peanut butter (I used half organic unsalted and half chocolate)
• 1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
• 2-3 tbsp of honey
• 2-3 tbsp of canola oil
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 3/4 c. oats (I used rolled organic)
• 1 c. flour (I used AP flour, but you can use whole wheat if you want)
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 4 tsp of flax seeds
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tbsp of cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line baking sheet with tinfoil or parchment paper and spray with non stick cooking spray
3. Mix peanut butter, sugar, honey, oil and applesauce in one bowl.
4. Mix oats, flour, baking soda, flax seeds, salt and cinnamon in another bowl.
5. Mix the dry into the wet in two or three batches
6. Drop about tbsp (or big tsp) sized balls onto the sheet.
7. These are not going to spread out, they will cook exactly the shape and size you drop them onto the sheet as.
8. Bake about 10 minutes until brown slightly on the edges and bottom.
9. Let cool, then enjoy!

This makes about 28 bites (tbsp sized)

I take them in a little baggie for a snack right after the gym.

Thai Chicken Burger w/ Spicy Peanut Sauce

I got the big thumbs up for the sauce from my #1 critic.

Inspiration: While watching Food Network (I think it was Unique Eats or Eat Street) they were covering the amazing looking Thai/French fusion sandwich shop Num Pang. The pickled toppings just called to me "make this we love pickled things!" 

Everything is so easy to make and a you probably have most of these ingredients already.

Spicy, tangy, fresh.

Oh yea, and healthy ;)

Happy new year everyone, and here's to getting skinny and back into shape (again).

PS: Wedding countdown: 235 days- Bring it :)

***
Thai Chicken Burger 

• 1 package of ground chicken*
• 1 lime, zest and juice
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced or grated
• handful of chopped cilantro
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 1 tsp of honey
• 1 tsp of dried basil
• 2 tbsp of grated ginger
• 1/2 tbs of kosher salt

*I don't purchase ground chicken, because I always have boneless skinless breasts on hand, so I grind my own. I largely diced 3 chicken breasts and put into my food processor until all ground up. This made for about 5 burgers (or 4 really big ones). You can always just use the prepacked stuff at the store, or ask your butcher to grind for you.

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix to combine. Form your patties.
3. Bake about 20 minutes until internal temp reaches about 160-165 degrees F. At the very end I put under the broiler to brown up the exterior. (I was originally going to grill these, which would have been awesome, but it was easier for me to just bake at the time. You could also fry in a pan)
4. Top your burger with whatever you like- plus the peanut sauce of course.

Toppings

• Pickled cucumbers, carrots and onions*
• Baby spinach
• Spicy Peanut Sauce

*Quick pickles are amazing things- slice any veggies you want (red cabbage would be good here too) and add into a bowl.  Cover almost completely with vinegar (I used standard white vinegar- rice vinegar would be nice here too), add a small pinch of salt and just let hang out in the fridge while your burgers are cooking.  You can even do this before hand but they will become softer over time.

 

Spicy Peanut Sauce

• 3 tbsp of peanut butter
• 2 tbsp of rice vinegar 
• a small drizzle of sesame oil
• 1 small shallot
• 2 tbsp of lower sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of grated ginger
• 3 tbsp of water
• 1 tsp of chili flakes (if you're not sure what heat level you're comfortable with, add a little at a time and then just add according to taste)

1. Combine all ingredients into a food processor or blender and puree until combined. Taste before serving and your good to go!

{Healthy} Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Last time we went to the track I made the fruit and nut muffins, which were great, but I wanted to change it up- so I browsed the Internet for healthy PB banana muffins.  But I didn't think any of them were really on the healthy side.  Either too much oil or all AP flour or ::gasp:: loads of added sugar! So after browsing numerous recipes- I just came up with my own.

This makes 12 muffins.  I was glad to see these rose a bit- the last muffin I made didn't rise as much as I thought- these were less dense.  They weren't heavy but still filling, perfect for breakfast before a big track day or even a workout.  The flavor wasn't like "pow in your face" but the subtle flavor of the banana and then the crunchy peanuts was really nice in this light and fluffy muffin. Really easy too- they aren't fussy at all- I just mix the wet, then the dry then all together, then bake!

Ingredients

Dry Stuff:

• 1/4 cup of flax seeds
• 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup of bread flour
• 1/2 cup of oats
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cinnamon

Wet Stuff:

• 2 bananas
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 1/3 cup of super chunky peanut butter (you can use creamy if you want, just make sure you use all natural peanut butter i.e only 2 ingredients of peanuts and salt)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp of canola oil
• 2/3 cup of fat free plain yogurt
• 2 tbsp of water (add this if the mixture is too dry)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In one bowl add all the wet ingredients. Mix
3. In another bowl add all the dry ingredients. Mix
4. Add the dry into the wet and mix just until incorporated. 
5. Fill cupcake tins.
6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. When you take out of the oven remove the muffins from the tin and let cool on a cooling rack (otherwise the bottoms get soggy)