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Hands Occupied

Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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Review & Giveaway: PB2 Peanut Butter & PB Thins

June 12, 2012 17 Comments

Welcome to the newest section of Hands Occupied, Snack Reviews! After attending the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago this spring, I met all sorts of interesting food companies that cater to my tastes and needs. As a lactose intolerant, hypoglycemic vegetarian (I know, boring/lame), I have to balance my love of potato chips, candy, and baked goods with a diet rich in protein and not overly saturated with sugar or dairy. The vendors at the Candy Expo were really excited to send me snacks, candy, and other food to try considering my special needs. Today’s inaugural snack review is of a product called PB2.

Bell Plantation is the company responsible for PB2, which is basically powdered peanut butter. As I understand it, powdering powdering peanut butter removes a lot of the fat that makes traditional peanut butter so calorie-dense. From the Bell Plantation website:

It’s what’s not in PB2 that makes it so good for you. For starters, our special process removes 85% of the fat calories without the chemicals typically used in producing reduced fat foods. Something else you won’t find in PB2 is preservatives. What you will find is natural roasted peanut flavor that’s also available in a rich chocolate variety.

The pluses for me with PB2 are the ability to get a bunch of protein from PB2, without all of the calories. In Weight Watchers points, it’s just one point per serving, unlike traditional peanut butters.

// Skip to the giveaway //

This giveaway has closed.

Bell Plantation sent me a box of a TON of samples of PB2, PB thins, their peanut oil, and their chocolate PB2 option. For this review, my panel of reviewers tried the PB thins, regular PB2, and chocolate PB2. My panel for this review consisted of myself (with all of my lovely dietary needs), my cousin Dan, and my husband Ed. Dan is a run-of-the-mill American omnivore, and Ed is a 12-year vegetarian veteran.

The 3 of us mixed up the powdered PB2’s with water (milk is also an option that people seem to like). As you can see from the photos, the regular PB2 has a granier, thicker texture than the chocolate flavor. All 3 of us agreed that the texture of the chocolate PB2 was a little nicer on the tongue than the regular. Both were tasty, but we felt that some richness of flavor was indeed lost in favor of fewer calories. However! We instantly talked at length about how many things we could make with the PB2 powder. I’ve found a few cool recipe ideas online:

banana peanut butter oatmeal

yogurt fruit dip

yogurt + PB2 (PB2 mousse)

Next, we busted open a pack of the PB thins, which were pretty good for being healthy ;) , and seem like they’d be a great option for me to keep in my car or purse for when my blood sugar tanks on-the-go. All 3 of us liked making little sandwiches with both PB2 flavors and the thins.

The Verdict, on a scale of Don’t Try It to You HAVE to Try It…

All in all, I’d rank PB brand foods a “try it!”, particularly if you’re veggie, into health food, dieting, or are looking for a healthy snack option for kids. PB’s branding is super chic, and their thins have an adorable peanut motif on them:

Giveaway

Enough about what I think! Since Bell Plantation so generously sent me tons of PB2, I need to give some away, so you guys can try it on your own. You can enter this giveaway in a number of ways:

-leave a comment sharing what you would do with PB2 if you won (hopefully more than just “eat it!”)
-like Hands Occupied on Facebook
-share this giveaway on Facebook
-follow Hands Occupied on Twitter
-tweet this giveaway
-follow Hands Occupied on Pinterest
-pin this giveaway post on Pinterest

Best of luck! I’ll have this giveaway up through Sunday, July 1.

PS: I have another giveaway going on through June 19. Click here to check it out and leave a comment on that post to enter to win some adorable Chinese lanterns!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews & Sponsored Tagged With: bell plantation, givewaway, healthy, low fat, pb2, peanut butter, powdered peanut butter, Reviews, vegan

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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Craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. / #latchhookbook out now!
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knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s c Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s coincidentally International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day today, so I’d be remiss not to share a first look at this project finished JUST in time to wear while I watch some rasslin’ on a pirate ship in a football stadium in Tampa! 💪🏻 I’m excited to watch tonight’s women’s matches the most. Eee!
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Pictured: A blond woman in a denim dress and glasses wearing a giant belt made with punch needle. The belt is made with wool in primary colors and was inspired by the WWE Universal Championship title belt. 
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This is just a preview - after jab 2.0 tomorrow (feeling grateful 🙏🏼), I’ll be editing together a vlog about the design process for this wooly waist cover. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to make some of your wilder craft ideas come to life. Stuff you’ll never find a pattern for, you know? I’ll finish editing that ASAP, but I might take a few days to edit if I feel like trash from 💉 and only want to watch wrestling and wrestling YouTube for a day or two. 😂
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#ipnrhd #punchneedle #wwe #wrestling #championshipbelt #wool #yarn #handmade #universalchampionship #universalchampion #rugmaking #wrestlingfan #wrestlemania37 #wrestlemania
A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-ins A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-inspired punch needle project! It’s interesting to see how fuzzy the handspun beige yarn is compared with the primary color sections of @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky. ❤️💛💙🤎 
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Pictured: The back of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool sits on the work.
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#punchneedle #woolrug #rugmaking  #kpambassadorsapr21 #sponsored #griefproject #handsoccupied #wrestlingfan #universalchampion #yarn #yarncraft #wool #needlepunch
Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishin Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishing up the punch needling part of this crazy @wwe inspired project by tonight. 💪🏻🧶 Anybody else have crafty plans for this fine spring day? 
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Pictured: A blond woman sits, smiling and holding an in-progress punch needle project inspired by the Universal Championship belt. Houseplants are in the background and there’s lots of sun. 
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I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back from the past few weeks, and as I dip my toe back into production mode, the long-promised seamed sweater knitting YouTube series is at the top of my list. I've got FOUR versions of a simple sweater I've been playing with since last JULY to feature as a free pattern for folks who want to knit along during the series. Pictured is the first prototype for the series, knit in 2 colors of @knit_picks Mighty Stitch yarn. I imagine this soon-to-be short sleeved number will come in handy as an emergency Waldo costume or Christmas sweater. 🌲 
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I've got my own list of topics I think folks would like to see in a series like this: things like tips for construction, working with vintage patterns, how to seam as invisibly as possible, and more, but as always, I'd love to hear from you: What scares you about knitting seamed sweaters? What would be helpful to cover, especially since we'll be doing more long form video content. I get so much positive feedback on my series of 20 minute+ intarsia tutorials, so I'm using those as a starting point as I produce this series. Seamed sweaters using vintage or self-improvised patterns are one of my favorite things on the planet, so I'm eager to share some seamed sweater skills with y'all super sweet folks. 😉 
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Pictured: A red and white striped, short sleeved sweater knit in pieces that have yet to be seamed. They are laid out on a yellow and orange colorblock background and one sleeve is yet to be bound off. 
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#handsoccupied #seamedsweater #kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #waldo #waldosweater #wip #yarncraft #yarn #knitting #knittersofinstagram #heidigustad #vintageknitting #sweaterknitting
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Pictured: The front of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool with navy yarn running through it rests on top of the work. 
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#kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #punchneedle #rugmaking #primarycolors #punchneedlerughooking #punchneedlelove #wool #wip #yarncraft #yarn #yarnaddict
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