Through the blogosphere, I’ve come across quite a few people using peanut butter powder. These are powdered peanut products that you mix with water to achieve a “peanut butter” that has less fat and calories than regular peanut butter. I used to be really into “substitutes” for fattening or high-cal treats, so this seemed like something I’d love. Then I read a recipe where it was mixed with Greek yogurt. This, to me, seemed too amazing not to try. Peanut butter Greek yogurt? Yes please.
There are two main suppliers of this stuff, PB2 and FitNutz. I went with FitNutz because I like the arbitrary use of the letter “z.” With shipping it was around $7. It came much sooner than I thought it would, so that was impressive.
Here are the nutrition facts.
Pretty decent, and, if it tastes good, could really slash the calories in a PB & J.
I was so, so excited to mix up my Fage-FitNutz concoction. I put one tablespoon in my yogurt. It certainly smelled like real peanut butter. I mixed. It didn’t seem like my cup of yogurt could handle a second tablespooon. I mixed and mixed but it still tasted a little sour, so I added honey and another half tablespoon to FitNutz. And it was still…not good.
I can’t really explain how it wasn’t good. It just tasted like Fage, but it was brown. It wasn’t bad, but I think the fact I had such high hopes made it worse. It tasted like disappointment.
I decided to give it another try, because maybe it was just the yogurt thing that didn’t work for me. I added it to a smoothie along with coconut milk, a banana, and protein powder. It definitely gave the smoothie a really peanutty taste, which was good! So in terms of adding flavor to a smoothie, I’d say it does the trick, and it contains protein so it’s not a bad addition. However, adding a half tablespoon of actual peanut butter would also flavor your smoothie for the same amount calories.
The “peanut powder” tastes like peanuts, but not peanut butter. But peanut butter is infinitely better than peanuts. By taking out the fat, they are taking away what makes PB so craveworthy–and removing thehealthy fat that makes nut butter good for you.
While some people swear by this stuff, I think I can safely say I won’t order FitNutz again (unless there’s still some trick I’m missing out on). I’d give PB2 a try, because it’s the original and might be better, but as of right now, I’m sticking with the real deal.
