Posts Tagged ‘SunButter tips and tricks’

Picnic food ideas for the first day of summer

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Remember that picnic food game, “I’m going on a picnic, and I’m bringing _______”? If the first letter of your item matches the first letter of your name, you get to go.

On the official first day of summer, here are SunButter’s suggestions for what to bring on your picnic, whether your name is Anna, Michael or Xavier.

Ants on a log – Put cream cheese or SunButter on celery and sprinkle with raisins, dried cranberries or paprika (red ants!).

Basket – No fancy picnic basket? Fill up a laundry basket!

Carrots in the Cooler – These healthy little treats keep well and who doesn’t like the crunch?

Drinks – We recommend good old refreshing, replenishing water, unless it’s a romantic picnic (see W).

Extra clothes, especially for kids

Friends – Meet someone at your fav picnic spot, from your own backyard to a park you’ve never visited before.

Games – Pack in a frisbee, beach ball, croquet set or just a deck of cards.

Heavenly brownie batter dip from Claire Berman of This Gluten Free Life.

Ice cream buckets – Perfect for scooping sand and water, collecting rocks, bugs and special sticks.

Jug of drinking water to enjoy, or mix up into lemonade

Kites to fly

Lots of napkins and hand wipes

Muffins – Try these Chocolaty SunButter Cup Muffinsfrom Esther’s Paleo on Main Street blog

New treats – How about these easy-to-make and quick-to-eat granola balls?

Opener that works on cans and bottles (this is the #1 forgotten item for picnics)

Portable grill if you’re planning to cook out

Quick flavoring with salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard or your other favorite condiments

Repellent to keep insects from bugging you

 

SunButter on-the-go packs (of course)

Tortillas to spread with SunButter and roll up with sliced kiwi, bananas, apples or a few berries.

UV and UVB protection sunscreen – Even if it’s cloudy, slather a layer on everyone at least every two hours.

Wine – How about a romantic picnic to sip in summer with your sweetie?

eXtras – Pack a few more crackers, water bottles and other goodies in case you want to stay and play longer

Yummy cold pasta dish– check out this deliciously easy recipe

Zero worries so you simply enjoy the day!

If you have picnic must-haves, recipes and other tips, we’d love to hear from you.

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Peanut free snacks for your sweeties

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Sweeten up peanut free snacks and meals this Valentine’s Day with these ideas:

1. Say it on a sandwich
Inspired by Michelle at The Adventures of Supermom, send love on your SunButter sandwich

Just use food coloring, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, letter stamps and napkins to create a “stamp pad” for your sentiments

2. Keep the cookie cutter handy
Use it to cut heart-shaped French toast and top with raspberries, strawberries and/or SunButter.  Cut out the center of a bread slice with the heart-shaped cookie cutter, place it on a griddle and crack an egg inside. Cook and flip.

Look what Jessica at Jessica’s Jabber created:

Get inspired from Kimmi at Project BENTO:

3.    Pinkalicious breakfast
Add red food coloring to pancake batter. Better batter: Add pureed beets. Use a metal heart-shaped cookie cutter (spray it with nonstick spray) on a griddle and pour batter inside. Top with SunButter.

 

4. Romantic dinner…at home
Use heart-shaped noodles in this dinner recipe for Chicken Pasta with SunButter Dressing

5. Sweetness
Make any of these cookies or bars into heart shapes and top with berries or conversation candy hearts:

If you make Valentine’s Day peanut free snacks for your sweeties, we’d love to hear about it.

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Nut-free snacks for holidays

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Like you, we’re in the kitchen these days, and we’re making nut-free snacks. Watch us create two easy, no-bake, no-cook snacks for holiday parties, get-togethers—and to feed the kids home on holiday break from school:

Chocolate SunButter Cracker Bites
Make them with truly allergy-friendly Enjoy Life chocolate and ensure your box of Ritz crackers doesn’t have an allergy warning for a batch of completely nut-free snacks.

Chocolate SunButter Cheese Ball
This is a dessert snack. Again, for 100% nut-free, opt for allergy-friendly ingredients.

 

Read and print recipes (both are listed in Snacks)

 

What’s your favorite SunButter snack recipe? We’d love to have you share it.

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‘Tis the Season…SunButter Truffles!

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Hey SunButter® fans! With the holiday season upon us, it’s especially fitting that SunButter® has been featured again on the Simply…Gluten-free website. Take a peek at the finished product and read the recipe for SunButter Truffles here. They’re gluten-free and dairy-free…and delicious!

Enjoy!

(To find other recipes featuring SunButter® on the Simply…Gluten-free website, simply enter “SunButter” in the “Search Carol’s Blog” search window.)

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Puppy Chow, Chex Mix, Monkey Munch…made with SunButter®

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Whatever name you attach to this popular snack, it’s pure deliciousness. And in this case it’s allergy-free (please note that Toll House chocolate chips carry a warning about peanuts being processed on the same equipment).

A kid who doesn’t love puppy chow is likely a kid who’s never tasted it. But my heart goes out to those kids (and kids-at-heart) who have nut allergies and can’t enjoy a handful of the stuff now and then.  So I was thrilled when the light bulb went on an I realized you could substitute SunButter®.

My co-worker, Leah, made a batch to share with the office and another to send to her husband’s office. The reviews for SunButter® Puppy Chow (or Monkey Munch or Chex Mix) are below the pictures.

How could it not be good with these ingredients? Everything’s the same as traditional Puppy Chow except SunButter® instead of peanut butter.

Mouth watering yet?

The finished product!

The reviews:

Monica—“My son would love this!  He is a traditional seed spittin’ baseball player that loves sunflower seeds.  If I made this for the team it would be a hit.”

Amanda—“Tasted pretty similar to the peanut butter kind, not as sweet.”

Jesse—“I couldn’t really tell the difference (compared to the traditional recipe).”

Tara—“I’m a BIG fan! It’s a nice change of pace from the original puppy chow that I make way too often. I also enjoyed the added crunch from the seeds.  The SunButter® flavor really comes through – yum!”

Lisa —“Mmmmmm! I love peanut butter and can’t imagine being allergic. I have a cousin who is. I’ll be sharing the site with her family!”

Maureen—“My son and I were on a flight back from Florida on which they asked us to keep anything with peanuts unopened. We later understood why…a young college student was wearing a mask. How awful. Wouldn’t it be nice for everyone to have some SunButter® on hand, especially in restaurants?”

Carrie—“ It doesn’t taste identical to regular puppy chow, but is an excellent alternative. A great snack to share in a classroom.”

Eric (Leah’s husband)—“Two guys at work have food allergies—one to peanuts and one to gluten. They were hesitant to try it so went online to confirm that the Rice Chex and SunButter® were okay. The general consensus was that they tasted the difference but they really liked it.”

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Posted in Kids & Family, Peanut Allergy, Recipes | 2 Comments »

Finally, Thai Pasta

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Girls night out was all planned. Three friends, a good recipe and a bag full of groceries.  But then, a conflict for one, then another and eventually, girls night fell apart.

Fast forward to this week. My 18-year-old daughter actually had a free night, so we spent it together making the Thai Chicken Pasta with SunButter® Sauce recipe. Our observations follow:

Overall, let me just say we made a double batch so we could enjoy it again the next day. It went over so well with the family, there wasn’t much left over.

The recipe was easy to make, but like most Asian recipes, there were lots of interesting little spices and herbs.

Our chicken was cooked in sesame oil and flavored with cumin. Using the sesame oil here was our own little variation of the recipe.

Your noodles are cooking at the same time.

Once the chicken is done, you remove it and sauté all these fresh herbs and veggies. My mouth is watering just looking at it. The leaves are the cilantro—the green kind of disappears as it cooks, but the interesting flavor is loud and clear.

When that’s cooking, you make your sauce in the blender. This is where the SunButter® comes into the recipe.

Then it all goes together, onto the table and into happy mouths.

The reviews for SunButter® Pasta:

I thought it looked rather bland so I was totally surprised when I had a little carnival of flavors in my first bite. Yum.

Daughter #1– loved it. Suggested experimenting with grilling the chicken next time.

Daughter #2 (who typically eats only cereal)– was also surprised at the amount of flavor. Ate a small portion, gave it a thumbs-up then proceeded to eat a bowl of cereal.

Japanese exchange student (world’s pickiest eater and spicy food hater)—had three helpings.

Hubby (the meat and potato man)—didn’t die. In fact, ate seconds.

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Alissa’s SunButter® Granola Goodness

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

My co-workers are really shining in this SunButter® challenge I introduced a couple of weeks ago. Today’s challenger, Alissa, made up her own granola recipe! I tend to believe if Alissa was born a generation ago, she would have definitely been a flower child, so granola is very appropriate from her kitchen. She’s a SunButter® rookie—never tried it before, so let’s see how she did.

From Alissa:

“My mom always makes granola with ‘a little bit of this, a little bit of that.’ So going from memory, I tried to duplicate her granola using SunButter. My goal was to emulate the taste of peanut butter granola bars.”

Alissa SunButter Granola Goodness

1/2 cup of each:

  • Olive Oil
  • Sunflower Seeds

1 cup of each:

  • Coconut
  • Wheat Germ
  • Flax Seeds
  • Brown Sugar
  • SunButter®

2 cups: Raisins

6 cups: Old Fashion Oatmeal

Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Stir the SunButter® in the jar since separation naturally occurs. Place 1 cup of SunButter® in a microwave safe container. Microwave until melted.

Add the SunButter and Olive Oil to the dry ingredients.

Spread mixture on a cookie sheet and broil (in a preheated oven) at 400ª until golden brown.

Flip the granola around occasionally to allow the under layers to also golden.

“I enjoyed this granola eaten as cereal with milk, I also mixed it into vanilla yogurt, and grabbed a handful to snack on here and there.”

“During the process my daughter, Mia enjoyed SunButter® spread on strawberry slices.”

Alissa reviews her own recipe…it made me chuckle:

“I have to give myself a hearty pat on the back. I’m not even going to act humble on this one – IT WAS GOOD. I say “was” because it’s already gone.

Using SunButter® instead of peanut butter added a much richer undertone in comparison to what peanut butter could offer.”

Alissa works at another location than I do, so I didn’t get to taste her concoction. However she reports that the office “raved” at her SunButter® Granola Goodness.”

Flax seed. Raisins. Oatmeal. Wheat germ… I am definitely making this for my little athletes at home.

What do you think. Would you try this? Should be add it SunButter® Recipe box?

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Posted in Kids & Family, Peanut Allergy, Recipes | 2 Comments »

The SunButter® challenge begins

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

A few weeks ago I introduced a SunButter® Challenge to my co-workers. Over time, the plan is for a bunch of self-admitted cooking novices to try some SunButter® recipes. So the first results are back.

I knew Sarah would be willing because she loves SunButter®. I often see her squeezing those little individual packets onto toast or apple slices, or straight into her mouth. She’s never cooked with it, however.

I sent her home with the recipe that I found at another site for SunButter Cookie Candy and she documented the process through pictures.

Pretty basic ingredients. Nothing you wouldn’t have on hand.

The antique hand mixer and the hand-me-down mixing bowl are proof that Sarah doesn’t cook much. (No offense Sarah, retro is in, right?) She said the mixture was pretty stiff and gave her old mixer a workout—definitely would be better to use a stand mixer.

Once the chocolate layer went on, the finished product went right into the fridge. Not the best idea, because, later, the chocolate wanted to crack rather than cut.  After the fact, we learned you should always cool melted chocolate at room temp before refrigerating.

Sarah said she’ll definitely make these again. Next time, though, she’ll make them in mini-muffin cups with a little chocolate layer on both the top and bottom. “It tastes just like a Reese’s peanut butter cup—it may as well look like one,” she says.

Best of all, our guest cook brought these to work and shared with others. Their thoughts:

  • “I enjoyed my piece with coffee this morning. It tasted very similarly to a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. The SunButter tasted like crunchy peanut butter to me. Yum!”
  • “wow!”
  • “That’s good stuff”
  • “Wow!  That’s good stuff.”
  • Yum! I loved that they have the whole seeds in as well.
  • And my favorite,
  • “These are flippin delicious.”

Do you think you would try these? What do you think of Sarah’s mini-muffin pan idea? If you’ve made these, or think you might, let me know.

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Are they ready for SunButter® recipes?

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

I discovered SunButter® a while ago and love it! Now I want to share the love. And how does one get people excited about something? Simple…feed them. That’s exactly what I intend to do.

I’ve devised a plan that starts with my co-workers. My strategy: each weekend I’m going to offer to send someone home with a SunButter® recipe and a jar of SunButter®, ask them to make the item and to document the process. I’ll also ask them to rate the recipe and SunButter® itself, then report back on Monday. Check back in early each week and I’ll post their results.

I’ll start by suggesting a recipe for SunButter Cookie Candy that I found on the Art of Dessert blog. The photo makes my mouth water and the recipe looks pretty simple to follow. I can just taste that salty-sweet combination. Yummmmm.

Do you think anyone will take me up on the offer? I’d love to hear your ideas on making this successful.  BTW, if you have a favorite SunButter recipe, lay it on me. I’ll see if I can get someone to bite (pun intended).

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Posted in Peanut Allergy, Recipes | 3 Comments »

Best job in the world

Friday, March 12th, 2010

SunButterThink of your dream job. You would likely choose to work with something you’re really passionate about. Then imagine being able to chat with others about your passion as often as you like. That’s what I get to do.

So what exactly does that mean? In this case, it means I get to introduce to you the SunButter® Lovers blog.

This is the place you can get—and give—tips and tricks for using this addicting food. You’ll find resources for SunButter® coupons and samples. You can try SunButter® recipes, find out who else is trying recipes and read and write reviews. Here you can share your stories about nutrition, allergies, cooking, or whatever.

This is a place where you can_________(you fill in the blank). Sky’s the limit. The SunButter® Lovers blog will become what you want it to be.  I just get to be the lucky one to facilitate it all. So tell me what you’d like to see and I’ll do my best to oblige.

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