Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 07:08 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday! Every Tuesday, I blog about a trade-up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. Today’s trade-up is really all about my son.
He loves peanut butter! He eats it every single day.
You don’t see my son as much here on A Better Bag of Groceries these days. You see my daughter all the time. The reason for that is she loves to cook. She may even be a future food blogger. She cooks, she takes pictures. It’s like having a Mini Me right next to me in the kitchen.
My son, on the other hand, could take or leave the cooking. When he does cook, we really praise him – probably even a little too much. He made Cooking Light’s Roasted Green Beans for Thanksgiving. “Wow, what a great job you are doing leveling the spices in the measuring spoon,” we swooned. I swear I could see his younger sister rolling her eyes a little bit. She must have been thinking, “Really? Clapping for leveling the measuring spoons? I’ve been doing that since I was three years old!”
You see my son knows what he likes. And when he likes something, he sticks with it.
He likes sports – a lot! He is constantly playing them – baseball, basketball, football, street hockey, tennis.
He wears holes into the knees of every pair of pants he owns.
And what does he want to eat for lunch every day to fuel up for all these sports? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Now, I switched over from “traditional” peanut butters to Teddie soon after I joined NuVal. When I saw that Teddie Smooth Unsalted scored a 49 on the NuVal scale, I just had to. Most conventional peanut butters score in the 20′s. Fortunately, my son accepted this change, no problem!
With all these sports going on this fall, we often found ourselves eating lunch at one of the fields. I would pack a picnic lunch because we didn’t have time to go home after my daughter’s soccer game and my son’s baseball game. Peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches were perfect. And much better than the offering at the Baseball Complex’s Snack Bar. I also love that my son takes PB&J to school just about every day. I don’t have to worry if the turkey has been kept cold enough by the ice packs in his lunch box.
The other thing I love about Teddie is the price. I found these jars for under $3 each.
Teddie Super Chunky also scores high. It gets a 38. That’s my husband’s favorite.
Yes, my son’s love of Teddie Smooth Unsalted is one of those things that I’m proud of as a Mom. He likes a nutritious peanut butter. Now, if only I could get him to cook more often!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky reader will win both jars of Teddie Peanut Butter. Just leave a comment below telling me something in your life that you’ve always loved, so you’ve “stuck” with it. I’ll randomly choose one winner at 8 am Eastern on Wednesday November 30th. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: peanut butter, Trade-Up Tuesday
Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 07:32 AM
This week, my kids started a new Summer Camp. It is Peanut Free. That is no big deal to my daughter who is no fan of peanut butter anyway. But for my son, who could eat PB&J morning, noon & night, this was not good news.
I have to say, at first I was surprised that camp was Peanut-Free. Our elementary school has Peanut-Free tables in the cafeteria for children with peanut allergies. So, you can bring peanut butter for lunch, but you have to sit at a peanut-allowed table. No peanut products are allowed in the classroom. Then, I thought about it some more and it made a lot of sense to me. I have to remember that while a “No Peanut” rule can seem inconvenient to a family without food allergies (like mine), it can make a world of difference to a child with severe food allergies.
I would say that during the school year, my son eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich four out of five days a week. Like me, he is not a big meat-eater. His favorite sources of protein tend to be legumes, cheeses, fish. I have to coax him to eat chicken. So, sending him off with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is my way of knowing that he will eat the protein and not toss a half-eaten sandwich in the trash.
I thought about how we could get around this pesky little peanut problem. And then I remembered Sunbutter!
After all, they serve it in our elementary school cafeteria as an alternative to peanut butter. It’s made from sunflower seeds instead of peanuts. And it scores a 41 on the NuVal scale! That’s pretty close to the NuVal score of 49 that my son usually gets from his Teddie Smooth Unsalted Natural Peanut Butter.
I wasn’t sure if my son would like it, so we tried it out the weekend before camp.
The first day of Camp is rough enough for Moms (and Dads!) All day you wonder if your kids are having fun, if they are too hot, if they like their counselor, if there are any bullies there. You don’t need to worry if they like their lunch too. So, we tested it out the weekend before. He loved Sunbutter. Yay!
I put a note in my son’s lunchbox explaining that he had a Sunbutter sandwich and that was indeed Peanut Free. I did not want him to get in trouble for sneaking in contraband peanut butter!
And I also put this note:
In the afternoon, when I worry wonder what my kids are up to, I can look at their summer camp schedule that the Camp Director has emailed to me and it gives me comfort. And it is nice to know that the Moms of kids with peanut allergies can feel that their kids are safe.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: peanut butter
Tags: Summer, Summer Camp, Sunbutter
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 07:03 AM
Welcome to Trade Up Tuesday, a high-traffic day here at A Better Bag of Groceries because every Tuesday I blog about a trade-up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free.
One item that is now banished from my cupboard since I began my career working for NuVal is regular old peanut butter. Namely Jif. Namely Reduced Fat Jif. Which is what I was buying at the time I began working for NuVal in the fall of 2008. One of the very first things I learned when I came to NuVal is this interesting factoid:
- Regular Jif Creamy Peanut Butter gets a score of 20
- Jif Reduced Fat Peanut Butter gets a score of 7
Why is that? Well, if you think about it, when you take out the fat, you have to replace it with something else to make it taste good, right? So, while the reduced fat version has less fat, it has more sodium, more sugar, more carbs and less fiber. Thus, it gets a lower NuVal score. So, you’re really better off buying the full-fat version.
That Jif example was a huge eye-opener to me. But even more compelling was to see how natural peanut butters compared to the traditional brands that we grew up with. When I saw the scores of Teddie brand, I started switching my family over.
Check out these high scores:
- Teddie Super Chunky: NuVal score of 38
- Teddie Unsalted Smooth: NuVal score of 49
The Unsalted Smooth (NuVal score of 49) is the Go To peanut butter in our house. My son probably eats it just about every day. He is a huge PB&J fan. And while I do love my almond butters, I love the price of Teddie much better. Most of my favorite almond butters retail for about $10 a jar, but Teddie Smooth is only $2.49 at my local grocer, and yet they have a similar NuVal score. So, nutritionally, it’s a great deal.
I think the key with natural peanut butter is to get your family used to the taste early on. My mom has been trying to convert my dad from traditional supermarket brands (Jif, Skippy) to natural brands and she is not having success. He hijacks her shopping list and scrawls “real peanut butter” on it. “Real” to my dad is the kind he grew up with. He also has a few choice words to say about 100% whole wheat bread, but that’s another post for another time. My point is, it is easier to get your family used to the taste if you do it earlier in their lives.
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky commenter will win both jars of Teddie Peanut Butter. All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me one of the following:
- How you enjoy your peanut butter (spread on an English muffin, PBJ, stirred in oatmeal…)
or
- How you successfully (or unsuccessfully) got someone in your life to switch from a less nutritious food to a more nutritious food
I’ll select one winner at random at 8 am on Wednesday May 18th at 8 am Eastern time, so don’t delay. Good luck everyone!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: peanut butter, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: peanut butter, Trade-Up Tuesday
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 08:44 AM
Hello Blog Friends! Welcome to ABBG Readers Ask, I Answer, an occasional feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries. Readers can send me any question (just about) and I will do my best to find you an answer. Today’s question comes from Gretchen, a nurse and mother of two school-age kids in southern Rhode Island. Gretchen asks, “Melissa, my husband and I recently noticed on the label of our Teddie Smooth peanut butter that it does not explicitly say that you need to refrigerate the product once you open it. We always thought that you needed to. So, help us out, if you could. Must we refrigerate or is it safe to store our natural peanut butter in the cupboard?”
Wow! Great Question, Gretchen.
First, I had to check out the label on my own jar of Teddie Unsalted, which was, of course, in the refrigerator!
As you can see from the scape marks on the bottom of the jar, it is also, almost empty.
Hmmmmm. Gretchen was right.
It says “stir well before using.”
It says “oil separation is natural.”
It even lists the ingredients. Look at that – just one ingredient. Roasted peanuts. How refreshing!
But no where does it say that you need to refrigerate.
Well, in this feature, I promise to search high and low to get my readers the answer, right? So, I went right to the source. Luckily, the nice folks at Teddie read A Better Bag of Groceries, so I easily found an email address for Judy who works at The Leavitt Corporation, which makes Teddie in nearby Everett, Massachusetts.
I asked Judy, “Do you need to refrigerate your Teddie Peanut Butter?”
And she said, “No! Natta! Nein! Nope! Non! Teddie All Natural Peanut Butter does NOT require refrigeration. Michigan State University in cooperation with U.S. Department of Agriculture published a paper quite some time ago confirming this. SO no need to refrigerate your All Natural Peanut Butter.
Judy added, “With that said, since there are no stabilizers or other additives included, your all natural peanut butters do have oils that separate, and as a result many folks elect to stir their peanut butter and then refrigerate in order to minimize the separation. And as always we urge that you adhere to the USE BY date.”
So, the bottom line: To refrigerate or not to refrigerate Teddie’s All Natural Peanut Butter is left up to the consumer!
Many thanks to Judy at the Leavitt Corporation for shedding some light on this perplexing question! And a huge thank you to Gretchen for asking! I hope that you all have fun stirring and refrigerating (or not) your all natural peanut butter. The Teddie Smooth Unsalted that I buy gets a smashing NuVal score of 49, which is well above the average score for peanut butter (a 22). I find that once you go All Natural, there is no turning back!
I love reader questions, so please keep sending them to me at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: peanut butter
Tags: peanut butter
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 06:53 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, everyone’s favorite day here at A Better Bag of Groceries. Every Tuesday, I blog about a Trade Up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. It doesn’t get any better than this. Two areas where I’ve traded up majorly (gosh that sounded so ’80s), is in the peanut butter category and in the hot cereal category. Not only that, but I now put the two together for a totally awesome energy boosting breakfast (not sure why this post is sounding like a Valley Girl today!)
So, let’s talk about the peanut butter first. In the days B.N. (Before NuVal), I used to buy Jif Reduced Fat Peanut Butter. Because, like, you know, I thought that reduced fat was better. Well, Jif Reduced Fat gets a wicked low NuVal score of 7. Even the regular Jif gets a better score (it gets a 20). But what I found by shopping the NuVal scores is that there are some peanut butters and other nut butters with totally awesome scores – and Teddie Smooth Unsalted is one of the best peanut butters you can buy – with a score of 49. So, I traded up. And my kids did too. No more Jif in our house. It’s All Natural, all the time!
As for hot cereal, I used to be an Instant Oatmeal Kind of Girl. I mostly dabbled in the Quaker varieties, since I grew up on them. Back in my crazy traveling days, I would always bring instant oatmeal and make it in a coffee cup because it was way better than the wicked bad croissants and danish they offered at the hotel buffets. But here’s the thing – instant oatmeal is like, omygod, kind of grody – at least when it comes to NuVal scores. Like Quaker Instant Oatmeal Maple and Brown Sugar only gets a 25. And even the Quaker 100% Whole Grain Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal only gets a 25 too. That’s right – same score – even though one says 100% Whole Grain on the Box! Isn’t that kind of lame? So, I quickly traded up to some better oatmeal, like the kind you make in a pan (Quaker Old Fashioned Oats score a 57). But I love these Hodgson Mill brands. They’re totally gnarly:
- Hodgson Mill Multi-Grain with Oats, Milled Flax Seed, and Soy: 82
- Hodgson Mill Oat Bran Hot Cereal: 58
Now, what’s really The Bomb is when you put the two of these together. You take your favorite hot cereal and mix in some delicious peanut butter (or any nut butter really) and it is totally awesome.
Today’s Totally Awesome Giveaway
You can win both boxes of Hodgson Mill Hot Cereal and the Teddie Smooth Unsalted Peanut Butter (which is wicked hard to find in some areas of the country, by the way) just by leaving a comment below. Since I somehow went all ’80s/Valley Girl today (seriously, I don’t know how that happened – I will blame it on the sleep I lost on Black Friday – I’m still catching up), we’ll make this fun. You can leave me two comments (and be entered twice).
- A trade up you’ve made since learning about NuVal (this is a NuVal blog, after all)
- One of your favorite things about the ’80s (a song, a saying, a group, a show, oh the possibilities are endless)
I’ll select one winner at random at 8 am on Wednesday December 1st Eastern Time, so don’t delay. And have a Totally Awesome Day!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Hot Cereal, peanut butter, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Hot Cereal, peanut butter, Trade-Up Tuesday
