Dark Chocolate Dreams Tortilla-wiches

 

Peanut Butter and Co was kind enough to send me an assortment pack of their tasty tasty products. It's hard to pick a favorite, as they're all perfect in different situations. But for the girls, their favorite has to be the Dark Chocolate Dreams. I personally am not in love with the taste (except paired with strawberries, bananas, or marshmallows!) but I like they like it, and that it's easy - since it's already sweetened,* I don't need to add honey or jelly too. Makes for a much faster prep time! And unlike a certain popular hazelnut-based chocolate spread, Dark Chocolate Dreams doesn't have any artificial vanillin flavoring - a wood pulp manufacturing byproduct. Yum yum.
All natural, quick and easy for Mama, and the kids love it! Win-win-win!

*Before you get all "oh, well, can't be healthy with all that sugar," let's do some math. For a 2 Tbsp serving size, Dark Chocolate Dreams contains 7g sugar versus 21g in Nutella (sugar is listed as the first ingredient - above the nuts, even!!!) There's only around 3g per 2 Tbsp in peanut butter, but most kids don't eat their peanut butter plain... Honey has 17g per Tbsp, and there are around 12g per Tbsp in the popular brands of jams and jellies I looked up.
So... 3g sugar in the PB plus 12g in the jam = 15g sugar per sandwich. Versus 7g with my "plain" Dark Chocolate Dreams sandwich. Plus my kids are 60% more likely to actually eat their "chocolate" sandwiches, versus other PB combos. Works for me!

Big Sister Lunch

Dye-fee dark chocolate SunDrops, Dark Chocolate Dreams PB on GF corn tortilla, organic apples,
more chocolate PB for dipping, organic popcorn w/GF tamari sauce and nutritional yeast

 

Tuesday, 7/23/13 - Packed the girls some quick and easy lunches to take with us to pick up our weekly produce share at the farm. They have a picnic table out front when the weather is nice - and we had a very nice Summer this year!

I decided to see if the Dark Chocolate Dreams would taste good on corn tortillas. I still had a ton left from the package bought for my Chicken Soft Taco post for MOMables!

"Cheesy" Popcorn: Growing up, my dad's sister, Aunt Kathy, was kind of the hippie of the family. She made her own whole wheat pizza dough and noodles. And didn't own any breakfast cereal. When I'd visit, she'd make popcorn and pour milk and sprinkle raisins on top instead.
So there was no buttery popcorn. No. She drizzled on soy sauce instead of salt, and brewer's yeast instead of butter. I visited quite often, since my parents were thrilled to be down a kid or two every weekend I liked being away from my three younger siblings for some quality one-on-one adult time. Even though I wasn't really interested in the same stuff. Gardening, cooking, healthy eating, dogs, eco-friendliness, etc. [Yes. I totally see the irony now!] So since these two popcorn dishes were the only game in town, besides her veggie-laden cardboard pizzas and her cardboard spaghetti noodles, I ate them a lot. And got used to them. Until I started actually liking them!
Unlike me, my kids have been exposed to both soy sauce and nutritional yeast from a young age. So they love 'em! (They'll eat both foods plain! With nothing else!) So my dairy-free "cheesy" popcorn was a hit right from the start. And I don't even have to go through the hassle of melting butter! Scoooore!

(The dark chocolate Sun Drops only seem to be available in bulk. Luckily one of the natural markets near us carries them! Between these and the Unreal Candies (and Fred Meyer now has a house brand too,) I have a  gorgeous variety of natural colors to work with!)

Sloppy Lunch for the Toddler

Dark Chocolate Dreams PB on GF corn tortilla; organic apples, tomatoes, and peas;
organic popcorn w/GF tamari sauce and nutritional yeast

I tried to make a "sushi" roll to cut into little wheels for E, since with a sandwich-style, she'd probably just lick off the peanut butter and skip the whole grain tortilla. Fail. Tortillas hate me.

Tools of the Trade

   
Food for Thought