I have a slight obsession with almond butter since I've gone off peanut butter. It's been about 6 months since I've actually indulged in peanut butter on the spoon or even in a Reese's. I find that I haven't missed it all that much. Not only that, but I feel like I'm not drawn to eating as much of the almond butter. Switching to almond butter has been one of the healthy moves I've made over the past few months. I love peanuts and peanut butter, but the type of fat and levels I ingest from peanuts far out way those of almonds. I could have switched over to cashew or any other nut butter, but have found that personally, almond butter is where my taste-buds prefer to roam. There are tons of different kinds to look into, but I keep coming back to Once Again's Traditional Almond Butter.
It is a little more textured than what you'd expect of a smooth nut butter. But it layers on thick like peanut butter if you are looking to make a sandwich. If you want something good to use in smoothies, this is certainly it. I will use it in place of my protein powder if I need something to hold me over for a long period of time.
One that I'd seen noted in Hungry Girl's daily email was Justin's Almond Butter. Holy hell, if you want something that tastes like being pampered, this would be it. It's a but higher up there on the price range scale, but it certainly is something that I would consider to be more for snacking than using on a daily basis.
I make a number of smoothies during the week when I have to coach a swim team after work. My schedule basically will leave me away from the house for about 4-5 hours, thus I need something that is either ready and delicious at room temperature and doesn't need refrigerator or I need to have something that will hold me over for the long period of time. I've lately been making a smoothie with banana, cocoa, almond milk, and almond butter and drinking it on the way to practice. It's great! It fills me up and keeps me going for a long time. I used my stock of Justin's a few times in this, but the chocolate flavor was sort of lost with the protein powder and other ingredients. It ultimately ended up becoming the snack butter. Indulge with caution... two tablespoons is really enough for anyone to have; it's very tempting to have more than that because it isn't overly sweet or as thick/heavy on the tongue as peanut butter in my option. Seriously though, this stuff is good. I like to keep it in the fridge just to have something to snack on every once in awhile when I know that I'm craving something sweet but really don't need anything unhealthy in my body.
One other major find that came my way via my Love of Food package this past month was Barney Almond Butter. If you know that you want to switch over to almond butter but can't stand the idea of having something that doesn't taste or look very much like peanut butter, this is the choice for you.
I received two small sample packets, one which I used in a smoothie and the other which I sucked on like a fruit-by-the-foot to see if I liked the taste and texture in comparison to the other ones I'd tried. I really couldn't tell much of a difference between Barney's and plain Jane Jiffy peanut butter other than the aftertaste of almond. It didn't leave me wanting either. I was pleasantly surprised by how creamy and smooth it was. Absolutely loved it. However, it doesn't look like it's available in stores just yet, at least not by me, so eventually I may have to order some online.
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