peanut butter

Mini Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter & Jelly Cups

July 18, 2014 by Erica

Sometimes I think back to the bag lunch days, when I totally took my parents making my lunch for granted. Silly kid!

First of all, I hated leftovers. I don’t think we had microwaves in our school cafeteria to heat anything up, so I guess that makes it a bit more understandable. Or maybe we did and it was just uncool to use them? I do remember in high school that it was very uncool to bring lunch in any container that wasn’t disposable. And that was obviously super important. Tupperwares were OUT, brown paper bags were IN.

Second of all, I was really upset by the lack of variety in my school lunches. It was basically either a PB&J or a turkey, cheese and lettuce roll-up. Never mind the fact that my dad woke up early to make those lunches for years and was probably not feeling too creative at 6 am. Or that making only things that can travel in plastic wrap or a Ziploc bag is pretty restrictive. I think he just made whatever we complained about the least. Come to think of it, it’s amazing I had two options!

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Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Ice Cream (Vegan)

June 30, 2014 by Erica

Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Ice Cream (Vegan) |coffeeandquinoa.com

We need to talk.

We need to talk about vegan ice cream. And we need to talk about the chocolate-peanut butter-pretzel combo.

Do we need to talk about the fact that I abandoned you for the past week, after promising something chocolaty and peanut buttery in your future? I’m sorry. That was cruel. But let’s focus on the glorious amount of peanut butter ~~in your system after you make this recipe~~ in this recipe instead.

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Crunchy Flaxseed Peanut Butter

June 16, 2014 by Erica

Happy Monday from me and my tummy full o’ PB!

Some weekends call for a couple peanut buttery snacks, and this was definitely such a weekend in our household. More so for Nate than for me – he ran his seventh marathon on Saturday! But he prefers almond butter, so I had this peanut butter all to myself. I love it when things work out that way.

Spectating a marathon is a hard job, too, guys. Let’s be real. I had to wake up early, stress about how Nate’s race was going, drive around to see him, try to think of encouraging things to say, hold my bladder so I didn’t miss him go by… tough job! At least as tough as running 26.2 miles! OK, not really… not by a long shot.

In fact, Nate makes race spectating pretty darn easy because there are no other runners around him… just a Kenyan a minute ahead of him and the next pack of guys more than half a mile behind. No crush of runners blocking traffic or anything like that, so I was able to drive along the course and see him at 7 different spots. I almost feel like I’m annoying him when I keep popping up! Too bad I can’t hop in and run with him like he did for me during my last half… his pace is so smoking fast that I could probably sprint along for a quarter mile max. He is a speedy one!

It was a beautiful morning, both for running and spectating, and Nate took second place with a time of 2:27. So proud of him! The guy works so hard, and though I appreciate his effort and dedication every day of the week, it’s nice to see him be recognized for it by others. As for whether it makes those 100-mile weeks worth it or not… well, you’ll have to ask him.

I didn’t want to miss out on the running fun, so I woke up early, too, and got my long run in before the start of the race. Yep, I am that crazy girl who ran 10 miles at 3:45 AM. When did I get like that?! I don’t know, but I can tell you I was plenty glad to get my long run over so early in the weekend and to put the early wake-up to good use. That’s how I earned my peanut butter, guys! And you better believe I took advantage.

Speaking of which, let’s switch over to peanut butter. Food talk is always better than running talk.

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Thai Pineapple Pizza

May 5, 2014 by Erica

Hello hello, and happy Cinco de Mayo! We are celebrating with Thai food. Obviously.

I mean, I already did the tequila thing, because I figure everyone celebrated Cinco de Mayo this weekend. Right? Now it’s Monday, and tequila on a Monday is probably a bad idea. Unless you’re in college, in which case you might not care what’s a good or bad idea when it comes to tequila. But if you’re not in college, Monday is the time to get back to healthy eating and all that jazz after a weekend that maybe involved a bit of tequila, but probably involved a lot more adult stuff like waking up early and running errands. So, Cinco de Mayo, adult-Monday-Thai-style. That’s what we’re doing today.

Have I lost you yet? Just follow along… you won’t be sorry.

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Crispy Tofu Rice Bowls with the Best Thai Peanut Sauce

March 17, 2014 by Erica

Crispy Tofu Rice Bowls with the Best Thai Peanut Sauce

I’m about to be one of those people that is way too excited for a Monday.

You know… the ones who are bouncing around at 8 AM and draw a dark look from you because… Monday. Monday morning. Why so cheerful?

Well, thanks for asking. It’s actually because of this peanut sauce. {Insert ear-to-ear grin here.}

Crispy Tofu Rice Bowls with the Best Thai Peanut Sauce

I recently found myself on a quest to master a Thai peanut sauce recipe.

It started, as these things often do for me, with a restaurant dish. Specifically the peanut sauce at our go-to Thai takeout place. I am head over heels in love with that peanut sauce. They serve it as a salad dressing, as a dipping sauce for spring rolls, and as a sauce over steamed vegetables and rice. It is incredible and I bet you I’ve dreamed about it before. It’s not stretching the truth to say that I go there just for the peanut sauce.

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