When you think of peanut butter what ingredient first comes to mind?  Peanuts?  Good.  What else needs to be added to make it peanut butter?  Was your answer nothing?  You’re right!  Nothing!  But many of the nationally recognized brands of peanut butter contain other ingredients like hydrogenated oil and sugar.  I grew up on Skippy Peanut Butter so I automatically bought what I knew (or thought I knew) for my kids.  But now that I am looking at labels before buying products, I am steering clear of many of my good ol’ standbys.  This week’s comparison is between Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter, Trader Joe’s Unsalted Peanut Butter and Out of the Box Peanut Butter.  Yes, you can make your own peanut butter easily with a high power blender, but you can also find a good, simple peanut butter in the market if you just check the labels.

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THE COMPARISON: Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter vs. Trader Joe’s Unsalted Peanut Butter vs. Out of the Box Peanut Butter

(All ingredients followed by an * can be referenced at www.wikipedia.org by clicking on the ingredient)

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Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

• roasted peanuts
• sugar
• hydrogenated vegetable oils* (cottonseed, soybean, rapeseed) to prevent separation
• salt

**All listed product ingredients are taken from product’s package label.  Though Out of the Box Food makes every effort to provide complete ingredient information, please check the package for the most current information.

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Trader Joe’s Unsalted Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

• dry roasted peanuts

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Out of the Box Food^SM Homemade Peanut Butter

Special Equipment: Glass jar with lid, high power blender

Makes: 8 oz peanut butter

Ingredients:

• 2 C roasted unsalted peanuts

Directions:

• Pour peanuts into blender and puree until creamy.

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Nothing beats warm, fresh peanut butter straight from your blender, but if you don’t want to make it at home some specialty super markets such as Whole Foods have machines that will grind the peanuts for you, allowing you to take home fresh peanut butter to your family.  What to top it with? Fresh jam of course!  Check back next week…