Peanut butter cream cheese pie – super-low fat, and freakin’ delicious

This is an adaptation of a recipe from the fine folks at Bell Plantation, who sell the always great powdered peanut butter. I changed the amounts quite a bit, so it tastes completely different – but what goes in is the same. I also had to try it twice to get the preparation right (there were no directions on how to prepare it, so I really screwed up the first time).

Anyway, here goes.  This is my favorite dessert, and is very low fat (around 3.5 grams for 1/8 of the pie).

Ingredients:

• 1 keebler ready crust, reduced fat
• 1 cup of PB2 (powdered peanut butter (review) , order it here))
• 16 oz of fat free cream cheese (2 blocks)
• 8 oz of fat free cool whip (1 small tub)
• 1/8 cup splenda

 To prepare:

•  Warm the cream cheese up in the microwave until it’s soft. I think I put it in for a minute or two at medium heat. (check it after a minute, and continue if needed)
• Once soft, use a hand mixer to start whipping up the cream cheese.
• Slowly integrate the PB2 while whipping the cream cheese.
• Once fully integrated, add the cool whip.
• Blend until fully mixed.
• Dump into the crust.
• Chill in the fridge.

Nature Valley 100 calorie granola bites – get them from Amazon for cheap

My favorite, ever, are these granola bites from the folks at Nature Valley. I put them on my cereal on a daily basis, and they’re fabulous. They finally became available at places such as Safeway and Target (before I had to drive 50 miles to get them, and yes, they were delicious enough to make the drive!) I can’t recommend these things enough – six months going, and I love them just as much.

However, they’re now available from Amazon. And even better than the fact they can come to ME at the office and I don’t have to drive anywhere, I can get them on subscription, save money that way, and don’t even have to remember to order them. How freakin’ awesome is that?

Note that you can cancel a subscription any time, so if you just want to get these once to try them out, you can cancel the subscription right away and just save 15% on the single purchase (why not, eh?)

100 calorie granola bites from Amazon

Spotted: Nature Valley 100 Calorie Granola Bites at Target!!!!!

One of my favorite foods – in the world – are Nature Valley Granola Bites on top of my cereal. For serious. I am addicted and have a pack a day on my cereal (typically a small bit of oat bran, a small bit of grape nuts, some berries, and these granola bites. ).

My review is here: 100 Calorie Nature Valley Granola Bites — on your cereal

So, until now, the only place I could buy them was at Sams Club, which is about 50 miles away. I’d stock up on each visit. So I was within 20 packs of running out, so we headed out to Sams Club to get them. They were out. I nearly cried. So we headed out to the next Sams Club – another 20 miles further away from our house – (after calling, they weren’t sure if they had them… they only had the lame Quaker Oat ones). Yeah, so both Sams Clubs didn’t have them any more. I cried. Then I came home and googled online grocery retailers and everyone was “out”. I thought they were discontinued or something.

So I’ve been sulking for the last couple weeks. But I **just** found them at Target, which is a mere 20 minutes away. And they just got them in too, because they didn’t have them yesterday. So I guess Nature Valley was really in the process of rolling them out in a major way – because these things are SO FREAKING AWESOME!

Please give these things a try – without cereal they’re good, with cereal and some milk soaked in they’re AWESOME. Target is starting to carry them, and they’re cheap. YAY for Nature Valley 100 Calorie Granola Bites!!!

UPDATE: You can now buy them from Amazon, even on subscription to save money!

Promise Activ Supershots

I’ve never been a fan of the “watery” yogurt – the kind that comes in drink form. I’ve always been a fan of the thick yogurts that are… not runny. However, I decided to give these Promise SuperShots a try when I saw them arrive at Safeway – we use the Promise fat-free spread as a margarine substitute for some time now (sometimes – we do prefer Benecol but it’s so expensive so we usually get both…), and I like to get as many plant sterols into my diet to try and reduce cholesterol.

I was shocked to find out how great these things taste – they are very flavorful. We’ve tried Raspberry, Peach, and Strawberry. Raspberry and Peach were great, Strawberry wasn’t nearly as good. The flavor is the main thing – it’s a nice strong flavor, and the drink is very nice and smooth (a milky consistency), so it’s not offputting. If it was thicker I think I might not enjoy it – but because the consistency is nice and thin it’s more of a drink than a “drinkable yogurt”.

They are a bit pricey (almost $5 for 4 of them), but that could be Safeway.

Info/nutritionals: Promise web site