Low-Fat Peanut Butter??

I eat peanut butter most days of the week. Hands down it makes one of the quickest and most nutritious and filling lunches when I need to fill up fast, packing in protein, B and E vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The fat content is up there but at least it’s a more heart-healthy unsaturated fat. Besides, reduced-fat peanut butters are sometimes hard to spread, too sweet, and really not worth the minus-5 fat grams off the regular that they offer. So I eat the real thing.

I couldn’t resist trying these low-fat peanut butters though: Better’n Peanut Butter (100 calories, 2 grams fat, 95 mg sodium per 2 tablespoons) and FitNutz (50 calories, 1.5 grams fat, 40 mg sodium). Regular peanut butter has about 190 calories, 18 grams fat, and 130 mg sodium. With food technology improving, I wondered if there was a small chance they could taste decent. But a spoonful straight up tasted odd, almost bizarre. I kept thinking “what am I eating?” The color was right, texture pretty close, but a big something was missing. If you remove a common ingredient from a food (i.e., fat from a usually high-fat food), it won't taste right. Reduced-fat peanut butters aren't too far off in taste because only a small amount of fat is removed and then extra sugar and salt is mixed in to help mask what’s lacking. Both of these low-fat peanut butters are low in sodium and sugar, so unfortunately nothing fills in the flavor gap.

I'm guessing that people who would eat low-fat peanut butter absolutely love the sticky spread but are desperate to cut calories. It's this love and desperation that helps create an illusion that they are actually enjoying it. I pass. My advice: eat the real thing in moderation. My favorite peanut butter is actually my Dad's: he stocks up on jars of roasted, unsalted peanuts on sale at CVS and blends them up. No added ingredients, yet nothing missing.

Warm Lemon Orzo and Spinach Salad

Melanie invented this easy Oldways award-winning salad recipe using fresh spinach from a local farm. She wanted to incorporate all the flavors of pesto without the usual fuss of blending up a traditional pesto. It’s versatile as an appetizer or paired nicely with grilled salmon as a main course. Her kids gave it a big thumbs-up!

Ingredients

1 pound orzo

1 T Kosher salt

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 t fresh ground black pepper

1/2 t Kosher salt

1/3 cup pine nuts

5 handfuls fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

1 handful fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

1/4 cup shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

1. Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add orzo and Kosher salt; boil vigorously for about 7 minutes until al dente. Drain and place in a large bowl.
2. To make lemon dressing, whisk together in a small bowl the lemon juice and zest, extra virgin olive oil, pepper, and Kosher salt.
3. To the cooked orzo, add the lemon dressing, pine nuts, spinach, basil and Parmigiano-Reggiano; toss to combine. Serve warm.

Copyright 2009 Melanie Plesko. All Rights Reserved.

Bella Luna: Stellar Atmosphere, Inconsistent Food

It’s one of those neighborhood favorites where, when changes happen, customers go with the flow. Bella Luna Restaurant and the attached Milky Way Lounge in eclectic Jamaica Plain has moved from its longtime corner location on Centre Street to Amory Street in The Brewery complex. It still has those charming cut-out lit stars and kid-painted plastic plates but now in a larger dining area; alas the Milky Way Lounge has deflated, with the DJ and dance area confined to a small corner off the dining room.

Bella Luna is easy and friendly. Although known for its pizza, the rest of the menu offers tempting creative twists on traditional food, like the Ginger and Brown Sugar Pork Chops or Hot Turkey and Avocado Flatbread sandwich. My sole gripe is the inconsistency of the food, even with mainstays like the Gypsy King pizza. The amount of toppings on pizzas may vary, hot food may be served lukewarm, and the entrees are sometimes perfectly cooked, sometimes dry.

Baja Tofu PizzaThe menu has been updated with more vegetarian choices like the Caprese Baguette, a mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwich, and three vegan pizzas made with “teese cheese mozzarella” (soy cheese). I sampled the Baja Tofu Pizza made with teese cheese, marinated tofu, black beans, jalapenos, and an assortment of vegetables. It was ok, not nearly as tantalizing as the menu suggested. The soy cheese looked and tasted like orange American cheese slices (and who puts that on their pizza?); the cubes of tofu were ordinary and undressed, like they were plucked from those square packages at the grocery store. The Flame Grilled Salmon my husband ordered was overcooked and tough (hard to do with such an oily fish) and the honey risotto was heavy, in texture and flavor, placed atop a pool of basil oil. I remember thinking last year that another promising new healthful entrée, the Vegetarian Nutloaf (a translation of classic meatloaf using brown rice, beans, and nuts) was also only ok. So bland that even the steamed broccoli sitting next to it tasted better.

Flame Grilled SalmonI appreciate that the chefs are adding healthful menu choices but am not sure they have the experience to pull them off. The potential is there as the menu descriptions sound innovative and instill high hopes of deliciousness. It’s this potential along with friendly, attentive staff and a comfortable kid-friendly atmosphere that keeps me coming back...hoping, wishing, longing for more consistency and flavor that better matches their inviting descriptions.

Copyright 2009 Nancy Oliveira, FitMamaEats. All Rights Reserved.