It’s inevitable.  You buy a bunch of bananas and though you use many, one or two start to turn brown.  Not just normal brown, though.  Those are still good to eat, but threatening-to-go-mushy-any-day brown.  Time to toss out the bananas and buy a new bunch, right?  Wrong.  Well, maybe buy a new bunch, but don’t toss those old ones.  Any baker will tell you that many a great banana-based recipe can use ripe bananas.  Banana bread.  Banana pancakes.  Banana pudding.  Banana muffins.  Ice cream.

Yes, you read that last one right.  Using only bananas and one other ingredient, you can make ice cream!  That other ingredient isn’t even milk.

First, let’s start with the bananas.

Peel and slice the bananas.  Stick them into ziploc bags and put them into the freezer.  I usually put about 1 to 2 bananas per bag.  Allow them to freeze for awhile.  This might take a couple of hours, but you could also just put bananas in as you have them until you’ve collected enough.

Once you have quite a few bananas, you can make the ice cream.  Take out your bananas and a jar of Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.

First, put the bananas in your blender.

I usually work in batches of 2 bananas.  I made a 4 banana batch once and it overwhelmed my poor blender.  With the bananas in, turn the blender on.  After awhile, the bananas will turn crumbly.  You might have to stop a few times to move bananas off the blender’s sides and towards the middle.

Finally, the whole thing will take on a creamy, almost soft-serve texture.

At this point, toss in the dark chocolate peanut butter.  One tablespoon per banana.

Turn the blender back on and puree the mixture together.

You now have soft serve dark chocolate peanut butter banana ice cream!  If you want your ice cream more like hard ice cream, just put it in a container in the freezer for about 3 hours.

There you go.  Hard dark chocolate peanut butter ice cream!

Given that this is only bananas and peanut butter, it’s probably healthy, right?  Well, I came up with this little nutritional chart to the right.  As you can see,

1 banana’s worth of the ice cream is under 200 calories, has only 7 grams of fat, and has 4 grams of fiber.  Plus, it has 35% of your daily requirement of B6 and 20% of your daily requirement of Vitamin C.  Let’s see plain ice cream do this!

Of course, it could be the healthiest ice cream in the world, but it wouldn’t matter if it tasted horrible.  Luckily, it tastes great.  I gave it to my boys and they loved it.  I toyed with hiding the secret, non-dairy aspect of the ice cream from them, but decided to let them in on the secret.  They still begged for bowls of it every night.  They even tried asking for it for breakfast.

“After all”, NHL reasoned, "it’s peanut butter and bananas.  It’s healthy!”

I’ve got to admit that I seriously entertained the notion of breakfast ice cream.  Sadly, for the kids, I eventually turned them down.  Still, I don’t mind giving them a bowl or two for dessert and they don’t mind gobbling it up.

For quite awhile, I held off trying Nutella.  I loved chocolate but wasn’t sure if I would like a chocolate hazelnut spread.  Eventually, I gave in and bought a jar.  I was instantly in love as were my boys.  Around the same time, I also found Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.  I guess, it was inevitable that I would decide to put them up to head-to-head competition.  After much thought (meaning a quick brainstorm), I decided to award points on Price, Taste and Nutrition.

Price:

First, we need to buy the spreads, of course.  Taste and Nutrition won’t matter if the product is so expensive that you shy away from buying it.  I purchased a jar of Nutella for about $7.60 and a jar of Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter for $3.  Win for Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, right?  Well, not so fast.  The Nutella was 26.5oz while the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter was only 16oz.  This might seem like a per-ounce victory for Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter except for the fact that I purchased it in the Christmas Tree Shops where it seems to be heavily discounted.  Other places, it seems to retail for at least dollar more.  Meanwhile, the Nutella was purchased in a store I happened to be in, not the one with the best price.  This narrows down the price difference to be negligible.  Verdict: Draw.

Taste:

I put some Nutella and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter on some bread and gave it to the boys to try.  In the past, they’ve tried (and loved) both spreads.  This time they waffled back and forth between liking one or the other.  Finally, they settled on the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.  Later, I decided to try it myself.  For me, the taste tied.  Then, I made my patented (not really) Quick S’mores.  I spread Nutella onto one graham cracker, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter onto another one, and marshmallow fluff on two more.  Smooshing them together (a technical term), I had two S’mores, ready to eat.

So how’d they taste?  Great.  Both of them.  I had trouble deciding which one I liked more.  I guess it all boils down to whether you prefer the creamier consistency and milk chocolate flavor of Nutella or the peanut-buttery consistency and dark chocolate flavor of the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.  Another draw.

Nutrition:

So far, this contest was turning out to be quite boring.  So I turned the jars around and compared nutrition labels.

Nutella comes out ahead in fat, sodium and calcium.  However, as far as calories, saturated fat, carbs, fiber, sugar and protein are concerned, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter wins.  Once you examine the ingredients, the reason for this becomes apparent:

Nutella: SUGAR, PALM OIL, HAZELNUTS, COCOA, SKIM MILK, REDUCED MINERALS WHEY (MILK), LECITHIN AS EMULSIFIER (SOY), VANILLIN: AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter: PEANUTS, EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, COCOA, COCOA BUTTER, PALM FRUIT OIL, VANILLA, LECITHIN (FROM SUNFLOWERS), SALT.

The first ingredient in Nutella is sugar while the first in Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter is peanuts.  This leads to increased carbs and sugar in the Nutella and slightly increased fat in the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.  Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter wins this round.

Final Verdict:

I’m not going to lie.  Nutella will still have a place in our cabinet.  However, when my boys are being picky and I want them to eat something healthy, I’ll definitely offer them a Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter sandwich.

Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by anyone.  I wasn’t paid or encouraged to write this.  This was my own idea, I used my own money to purchase the products above and the opinions above are my own.

I’m a big fan of mousse, but I don’t often get the chance to make it. When I saw this recipe, I knew I’d have to make it. First, we gather our ingredients, all three of them.

That’s heavy cream, milk and Mighty Maple Peanut Butter. If you don’t have maple peanut butter, you could always add some maple syrup to the mix. First, put the milk and maple syrup peanut butter into a blender and blend them together.

Next, pour the egg whites into a bowl and beat them with an electric mixer until they form stiff peaks.

Now, fold in peanut butter-milk mixture.

Refrigerate the mixture for a few hours (or overnight), scoop into a bowl and enjoy.

The Verdict:

NHL and B didn’t like this one. I think they might be used to chocolate mousses and so were thrown by the maple flavor. I definitely think that the taste was improved by adding some mini-chocolate chips. Perhaps next time I’ll try making this with the Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter.

Disclaimer: Peanut Butter & Co sent me the jars of peanut butter to try. The opinions about the peanut butter and the dishes I make with them are my own, though, and have in no way been influenced by Peanut Butter & Co.

I’ll admit right off the bat that I’m not a big white chocolate fan. I’m more of a dark chocolate person, myself. Still, how can you resist a peanut butter called White Chocolate Wonderful?

I found a recipe online for Flourless White Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies and then went to work gathering my ingredients.

That’s brown sugar, white chocolate peanut butter, baking soda, vanilla, white chocolate peanut butter chips and egg whites. First, we combine the peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda and vanilla.

Now, in a second bowl, lightly beat the egg whites. (Bad, egg whites!)

Pour the beaten egg whites into the first bowl and mix it all together.

Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Now, scoop onto a baking sheet and cook at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes.

When they come out, do NOT try to move them. The cookies will be way too soft. Instead, let them cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling rack. Or do like I did and let them cool for 5 minutes on the tray and then remove the aluminum foil – cookies and all – to let them cool for another 5 minutes. You’ll be rewarded with delicious white chocolate peanut butter cookies.

The verdict? Well, these were good, but to be honest, I have another peanut butter cookie recipe that I like more. I guess I like that one more due to the greater peanut butter taste. Still, this white chocolate peanut butter’s good stuff!

Disclaimer: Peanut Butter & Co sent me the jars of peanut butter to try. The opinions about the peanut butter and the dishes I make with them are my own, though, and have in no way been influenced by Peanut Butter & Co.

As you might have guessed, I like peanut butter. I also like chocolate. Especially, Dark Chocolate. So how couldn’t I love this?

DARK CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER!!!!

Excuse me while I clean up this drool puddle. Ok, much better. I keep thinking I should find a proper recipe to make this into but then I think that’d be a waste of Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter. (Cleans up more drool.) Especially when there’s a quick and easy recipe that I love making this into.

First, let’s gather our ingredients. All three of them.

For the record, that’s dark chocolate peanut butter, marshmallow fluff and graham crackers. Now place two halves of a graham cracker down

Open up your dark chocolate peanut butter.

(Oh dear, more drool to clean up.)

Now spread some dark chocolate peanut butter on one half. Spread some marshmallow fluff on the other half.

Next, comes a highly technical procedure which I call “squishing them together.”

Doesn’t that look good? Don’t you want to try a bite?

Sorry, this one’s mine. Get your own!!! (Insert Cookie Monster sounds as I devour my creation.)

Disclaimer: Peanut Butter & Co sent me the jars of peanut butter to try. The opinions about the peanut butter and the dishes I make with them are my own, though, and have in no way been influenced by Peanut Butter & Co.

There are some things that just seem to go together and things that don’t go together at all. Once in awhile, you might be lucky to discover two things which, by all rights, shouldn’t go together, but do. It was in this hope that I opened the Peanut Butter and Company cookbook to the Peanut Butter Grilled Cheese (aka the PBGC) recipe. I’m always game for food experimentation, though, especially when using my family as dinner-guinea-pigs, so I plunged ahead.

The first step was to gather the ingredients: Bread, cheese, and butter.

Of course, I needed the star ingredient: Crunch Time, chunky peanut butter.

This sandwich is a cousin of the Veggie Elvis and so shares some similarities. First, you spread the butter on one side of the bread.

Then, you spread the peanut butter on the other side.

At this point, the Veggie Elvis and PBGC part company. Where the Veggie Elvis added banana and veggie bacon, the PBGC adds sliced American cheese.

Now, just close the sandwich and cook on each side for a few minutes so the cheese can melt.

Finally, put the sandwich on a plate, cut in half (to see the melty PB-Cheesy goodness inside) and enjoy.

This was better than I thought it would be, but perhaps not as good as it could be. The peanut butter flavor overpowered the cheese flavor a tad too much for my taste. Perhaps next time, I’ll try a cheese with a stronger flavor. Maybe a sharp chedder would give the peanut butter a run for its money.

As I stated last week, I’m trying to make at least one dish with each of Peanut Butter & Co‘s peanut butters. Last week was Bee’s Knees and this week it’s The Heat Is On.

Now, I like spicy food, but this peanut butter just seemed too spicy for my taste. Straight up, that is. When mixed into a dish, it gives just the right level of spiciness and PB-flavor. What makes it spicy, you ask? Well, look at the ingredients (from the Peanut Butter & Co website):

Yes, that combination of ingredients will certainly light a fire on your tastebuds… a delicious fire!

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A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Peanut Butter & Co. They wanted me to try some of their peanut butter flavors. When the box arrived at the door, I was amazed to see these inside.

That’s eight different types of peanut butter! Now, I’m already familiar with Peanut Butter & Co. I’ve had a few of their peanut butters and love them. I own their cookbook. And while I’ve never been to their store in New York City, I hope to go during BlogHer. (Anyone up for a PB-lunch break/meetup during BlogHer?) I decided that I was going to use each of their peanut butters in its own dish and write a Cooking With TechyDad segment on my creations.

Read more of this article »

Yesterday, I introduced Sneaky Weeky and showed you how to make two purees. Today, we’re going to put one of them to good use. First, let’s gather our ingredients.

That’s peanut butter, the orange puree, rolled oats (not instant), wheat germ, chocolate chips and sprinkles. Quite an ecclectic mix there, isn’t it. First, let’s put the puree and peanut butter into a bowl and mix them together.

Next, we’ll add in the wheat germ, rolled oats and chocolate chips and mix it all together.

Next, put some sprinkles on a plate. Scoop up teaspoon sized portions, roll them into balls and roll them in the sprinkles. You could also dust them with powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar instead of using sprinkles. After rolling, wrap them in plastic wrap and stick them in the freezer.

Now snacking is as simple as taking them out and letting them thaw. You could pack a couple of these for a child’s lunch and they should be fine by snacktime. The kids will think they’re delicious because of the chocolate chips and sprinkles. They won’t realize that they’re getting fiber from the wheat germ or vitamins from the orange puree. In fact, they won’t even know that the wheat germ or puree are there.

Today on Cooking With TechyDad, we’re going to make a dessert pizza. First, let’s get our ingredients out.

Next, we place our pizza crust on a baking sheet and spread half a cup of peanut butter on top of it.

Now, pour a tablespoon of honey over it.

Follow that up with a half cup each of chocolate chips and marshmallows. (Yes, I used a bit more than a half of a cup.)

Now, pop it in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes are up, take the pizza out.

It’s already looking good, isn’t it?

Now, thinly slice a banana and place it over the top of the pizza.

Let the pizza cool for two minutes, then slice and eat.