Easter Excitement

I have always loved Easter. 

I love the family gatherings - reconnecting with family you have not seen for a few months.  I love the conversations, shared over a fancy dinner table, between bites of delicious delicacies. 

I love the fantasy of some anthropomorphic bunny placing eggs around yards during twilight.  The fact that some rabbit (aka a mammal) has millions of eggs to spare never passed by me as a child.  I was always curious of the location of this fictional chicken coop and why a rabbit had such free access to it.  I mean, Santa has the North Pole - the Easter Bunny must have somewhere that he calls home to harvest millions of plastic goodie-filled eggs.

My most favorite part of Easter, though, is the unlimited selection of candy.  Christmas candy is fun, but it is Easter where candy companies pull out all of the stops.  Reese eggs, Cadbury eggs, coated eggs, marshmallow eggs, jelly bean eggs, Peeps, oh my!  It is a veritable smorgasbord of candy delights, a fact my taste buds both revel and despise.



So Tempting

The problem is that 99% of the year I try to eat clean and as unprocessed as possible.  Even allowing myself two days of indulgence in the sugary and addicting processed candy gets me re-hooked.  For the past three days, all I can think of is chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, and sugar.  I want to forsake my apples for a row of Peeps.  This is not a sane or healthy option. 

My solution?

PB2 and PB2 Premium Chocolate:


PB2 Premium Chocolate

Two tablespoons can be mixed with water to create a peanut butter cream that you can dip fruits or popcorn into.  Or you can add the mixture to delicious smoothies. 

My favorite recipe right now is adding two tablespoons of PB2 Premium Chocolate to Oikos Greek Yogurt (Vanilla Flavor).  It creates a taste and consistency similar to chocolate pudding, but with 165 calories, 1 gram of fat, and a whopping 16g of protein per serving.  It is absolutely delicious.

I have been relying on this delicious snack the past two days to try and snap myself out of my sugar addiction.  While it is not a perfect switch for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, it is as close as you can get without all the excess added sugar and saturated fat!

My initial draw to PB2 was the fact that it had all the taste and consistency of peanut butter, without all the fat.  I do know that the fat found in nut butters is considered 'healthy' fats, and I do appreciate healthy fats, but sometimes I want to eat my PB without the guilt of 12+ grams of fat per serving.  I make sure to get my healthy fats through Olive oil, olives, avocados, almonds, etc.  I just wanted something yummy that was relatively guilt-free.  I can add it to almost anything to give it a kick of peanut butter, too!

P.S.  If you want to make the guilt-free chocolate pudding, make sure to add it to Oikos or Yoplait Vanilla Greek Yogurt.  I love Chobani, but it is much more sour than the two previous brands.  I tried adding PB2 Chocolate once and could not stop puckering.  I ended up adding two packets of delicious Truvia to pump up the sweetness, and it worked, but I would have preferred for it to be sweet right off the bat.