Earth Balance Peanut Butter
Now that I can't eat sugar, my food choices are pretty limited. I'm still trying to adjust and figure out how to change my lifestyle, so right now my diet is about 60% hummus. Seriously, I eat veggies and hummus, Larabars, and apples with peanut butter. And that's pretty much it. Apples with peanut butter was actually one of my go-to snacks before I went sugar free, but once I cut out sugar and started reading labels, I noticed all the mainstream PB brands had sugar in them. Argh. I went to Whole Foods and checked out natural peanut butter, made of nothing but ground up peanuts. I knew it would be oily and I'd have to stir it, but I didn't know it would be more like peanut sauce than peanut butter. I was actually putting the peanut butter into a little dish and dipping my apple slices in it, it was that saucy. It was like really pathetic fondue. I realized then that to get that thick peanut butter consistency, you need to add in some other stuff. But where to find a peanut butter with added thickeners that doesn't contain sugar? I'll tell you:
Earth Balance is a great brand that makes a wonderful peanut butter with NO SUGAR (They use agave instead). No peanut sauce here! In fact, it's the thickest peanut butter I've ever seen. There's really no need to stir, ever (even natural PBs that say they don't need stirring always need a quick stir - who are they trying to kid?). It tastes a little different, but in a good way. I'm no foodie, so I don't really know how to say this, but it's almost a richer, more intense flavor. Basically, it has all the great things you'd expect from a natural peanut butter, but without all the nasty aspects you'd expect from a natural peanut butter.
So we've got a truly no-stir, natural, flavorful peanut butter, AND it's sugar free? That's great! And that's not all! It's vegan, and gluten free too. Even Skippy "Natural," my old brand of choice, can't live up to that. I've only tried the creamy, but they have chunky too if that's how you roll. And if you want to get really wild, there are other kinds of nut butters from Earth Balance too. If you're looking for a great peanut butter that is seriously thicker than anything and packed with rich flavor, look no further than Earth Balance.