National Peanut Butter Day

January 24 is National Peanut Butter Day! Peanut butter has long been looked upon negatively as a high-fat, high calorie option -- but it's actually a healthy fat and good source of protein when eaten in moderation. So in celebration of the wonderful invention that is peanut butter, I have compiled the following tidbits of information:

• It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.
• By law, any product labeled "peanut butter" in the United States must be at least 90 percent peanuts
• Two peanut farmers have been elected president of the USA - Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter
• Astronaut Allen B. Sheppard brought a peanut with him to the moon
• Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth
• The average American consumes more than six pounds of peanuts and peanut butter products each year
• Peanut butter is consumed in 90 percent of USA households
• Women and children prefer creamy, while most men opt for chunky
• People living on the East Coast prefer creamy peanut butter, while those on the West Coast prefer the crunchy style
• Americans spend almost $800 million a year on peanut butter
• Peanuts have more protein, niacin, folate and phytosterols than any nut
• Peanuts are naturally cholesterol-free

Demon Butternut Squash Soup

I had a horrifying kitchen experience last night. I've dubbed it the "Demon Soup Story".

My dear readers, if anyone EVER makes you butternut squash soup, know that they care about you IMMENSELY. Why, you ask?

Because butternut squashes are asshole vegetables. 

To make creamy butternut squash soup in a relatively short amount of time, one needs to cut the squash into small-ish chunks that cook quickly. THIS IS AN INSANELY LABOR INTENSIVE PROCESS THAT WILL RESULT IN PAIN AND HAND CRAMPS FOR THE CHEF. I'm talking about sawing through this LOG of a vegetable. Oh, and then you've gotta peel it, bulges and all, and then seed it. 

Then, once all the veggies have softened, the chef has to blend batches of the mixture until it is smooth. Now, this seems simple. But, when 100% of the soup is in the pot, and 60% is blended, and 40% is still chunky...... finding the chunky parts to blend ain't. easy. 

FINALLY, at this point in the cooking process, your chef will have to reheat the now fully blended butternut squash soup so that it is the perfect temperature when their loved ones eat it. So he or she will heat the soup on the stove, adjusting seasoning if need be ----- until the asshole butternut squash will refuse to die a culinary death and instead "SPIT" at the poor chef as it starts to boil. 

Now, one might say, why not reheat the soup in the microwave at this point to save some time and aggravation? 

NO. Just. NO. After this poor, downtrodden chef has spent HOURS sawing through squash and no-doubt dealing with blender difficulties, there is NO DAMN WAY that he or she will do something as sacrilegious as putting the soup in the microwave. 

So, long story short, having someone make you butternut squash from scratch (and I mean, cutting up the vegetable and not cheating and using that pre-cut nonsense) is truly the culinary equivalent of someone buying you diamonds, a car, or a yacht and needs to be appreciated. 

The end.

P.S. Mom: You are a butternut squash soup making warrior. I have succumbed to defeat, but your recipe is amazing. I will simply wait til you make it from now on.

Recipe: Creamy Tomato Goat Cheese Pasta with Green Peppers and Mushrooms

This was one of those "on the fly" recipes which turned out surprisingly good. For those who aren't tomato fans, I'll let you in on a secret: I'm actually not a fan of them, either. However, I've found that if I buy cherry or grape tomatoes and quarter them, they cook down and become more of a sauce than actually pieces of tomato.  When the goat cheese mixes in, the resulting sauce is reminiscent in texture and color to a vodka sauce, but its much lighter and has a delightful "tangy" flavor that's absolutely addictive.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz dry pasta
• 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, washed and quartered
• 1/2 green pepper, sliced into thin strips (or color of your preference)
• 1 cup white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 oz creamy goat cheese (I'm using Vermont Creamery)
• salt/pepper/garlic powder -- to taste

To Make:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Spray a pan with non-stick spray, and saute pepper, mushrooms and tomatoes until tender. The tomatoes should break down. Season with salt/pepper/garlic.
3. Add pasta to pan with sauteed vegetables. Add goat cheese and mix to fully incorporate. 
4. Remove from heat and serve.

Servings: 1

Per Serving: 333 Calories, 60 g carbs, 6 g fat, 15 g protein, 9 g fiber; 9 WW Pts

I Dreamed a Dream.... of Chopped?!

A few nights ago, I had a dream I was a contestant on Chopped. I honestly don't remember what ingredients were in my appetizer and entree baskets, but my dessert needed to include:

• Chocolate
• Mango
• Orange
• Celery

Honestly, if I'd been given these ingredients in real life and told to create in 30 minutes, I don't know what I would do. But in the dream, I decided to make "Dessert Nachos".

First, I went to the pantry for flour tortillas, which I cut up, salted, and threw in the oven to crisp up into chips. Then I chopped up the chocolate and put it on a double boiler to melt. Finally, I chopped up the mango, orange, and celery and marinaded them with fresh mint, tequila, and a bit of rum -- so that the end result was a salsa of sorts. Finally, I took my tortilla chips out of the oven, and drizzled my melted chocolate over the chips. 

Before everyone gets too excited, I woke up before I finished the dream -- so I don't even know if my plates were done by the time the buzzer sounded. I like to think I won, though.

To be honest, I almost want to try to make my dish in real life, just to see how it would've tasted. Any willing guinea pigs out there?

Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin Soup

One thing I love about being on Weight Watchers -- the recipes!!! This one my meeting leader shared on her Facebook, and I'm sharing it with all of you!

Fall is pumpkin season, but before you reach for a pumpkin spiced latte (5 WW Points for a tall!) -- try this soup to warm you up.

Spiced Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 TBS canola oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp salt [or salt substitute]
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 cups reduced sodium, fat free broth (chicken or vegetable)
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated fat free milk
• 6 TBS plain fat free Greek yogurt

To Make:

1. In a large pot, heat oil. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes, or until soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the rest of the spices, salt and pepper.
2. Whisk in broth and pumpkin. Bring to just a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add milk and simmer for 2 minutes.
3. Using an immersion blender, puree soup until smooth. For thinner texture, add more broth. 
4. Ladle into bowls and garnish with yogurt.

Servings: 6

Each Serving: 104 calories, 14 g carbs, 3 g fat, 7 g protein, 3 g fiber, 3 WW Points Plus

Recipe: Roasted Asparagus & Ricotta Pasta with Red Pepper Flakes

This is a simple vegetarian meal, with -- added bonus -- just a few ingredients.

Ingredients:

• Bundle fresh asparagus
• 4 oz dry pasta (any variety)
• 1/2 cup fat free ricotta
• 1 TBS olive oil
• Red pepper Flakes
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

To Make:

• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Clean and prep asparagus on a sheet pan, coated with non-stick spray. Season asparagus with salt, pepper and 2 tsp olive oil. When oven is preheated, roast asparagus for 20 minutes, or until tender.
• Cook pasta according to directions on box
• Serve roasted asparagus on top of cooked pasta. Flake ricotta cheese onto pasta/asparagus mixture. Drizzle remaining olive oil over pasta, ricotta and asparagus. Top with red pepper flakes and serve.

Servings: 2

Per Serving: 325 calories, 50 g carbs, 8 g fat, 15 g protein, 8 WW Points Plus

Jenny Craig pivots away from celebs in ads

This article was originally featured in USA Today on August 13, 2013. I have reposted because I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts. Feel free to comment below.

JENNY CRAIG PIVOTS AWAY FROM CELEBS IN ADS

Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
 August 13, 2013

JENNY CRAIG WANTS TO ZIG WHERE OTHER WEIGHT-LOSS SPECIALISTS ZAG, BY CUTTING WAY BACK ON THE USE OF CELEBRITY ENDORSERS IN ITS ADS.

Quick: Which weight-loss company has featured actress Valerie Bertinelli in its ads?

Or Jennifer Hudson? Or Mariah Carey? Or, ugh, big, bad Charles Barkley?

If you're not sure, you've got plenty of company. That's one major reason why Jenny Craig, which uses Bertinelli, announced that it will feature far fewer celebs going forward and, instead, will roll out a new animated advertising campaign that comes without the big celebrity endorsement fees.

(If you're keeping score, Hudson and Barkley have starred for Weight Watchers and Carey for Jenny Craig.)

At issue: Can consumers remember which highly paid celebs hype which products? Or, even more central: Are celebrity endorsers worth all the dough? According to the folks at Ace Metrix, spokes-celebs may be doing a lot more to help their own bottom lines than the products they hype.

Overall, ads without celebrities rate slightly better with consumers than ads with celebrities, according to a recent study by Ace Metrix, a syndicated ad testing specialist. While the average Ace Metrix score of all celebrity spots in the study was 515, the average score for ads without celebs ranked slightly higher, at 529.

"Celebrities can be very polarizing," explains Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. So, if half the consumers love the celeb in a spot — and half hate the star, he says, "you're cutting off half of your potential audience."

Among the most polarizing celebs, he says: Tiger Woods, Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Sarah Jessica Parker.

When clients ask Daboll whether to use a celeb in a spot, he says he offers one word of advice: don't. "A good story always works better than just slapping a celebrity in an ad."

But celebrity broker Noreen Jenny Laffey, president of Celebrity Endorsement Network, says it's not that simple — particularly with weight-loss ad campaigns. "The problem isn't the celebrity," she says, but the fact that celebs in weight-loss ads all pretty much do and say the same thing: I used this product, and I lost weight.

That's not only boring — but also confusing. "It's hard when you have competitive products using celebrities to basically say the same thing," she says. The cola and sneaker giants face these same problems, she notes. "You need to do something totally different that stands out."

Not easy. So Jenny Craig's new marketing chief, Leesa Eichberger, turned to the ad agency Havas Worldwide New York for something different. The new, animated ads will focus on the company's food and its one-on-one support. Gone: all the bright lights, celebrity spokespeople and requisite "before and after" imagery, Eichberger says.

Daboll, the numbers-crunching CEO at Ace Metrix, says it has a decent shot at working — if only because it's not just another overweight celebrity bragging about losing some tonnage. "I'd suggest it's a smart move."