Barney Butter
The big deal: A lot of CrossFitters follow the Paleo diet. I guess I’m a rebel because I haven’t gotten sucked into the Paleo cult yet. While there are several flavors of Paleo, they all share a common disdain for legumes. Legumes apparently spike your insulin levels which is not really a good thing. This is one type of food that isn’t unhealthy compared to a lot of things you could be eating. I mean really green beans = bad for you?!? I guess that legumes can be taken as a YMMV type food – sort of like dairy. If it doesn’t bother with you or affect your weight loss go with it but you might be better off without it.
The Precision Nutrition plan doesn’t instruct banish legumes from your diet, but encourages you to place them in the appropriate context based on your carb tolerance. So beans and such are generally not eaten at every meal.
I said all of that to say that since peanuts are a legume and not a nut, I decided to try out almond butter. I can take or leave peanut butter, so trying something new for the sake of my insulin levels was not a problem.
The verdict: I really like it! I ordered a 3-pack of the crunchy style from Amazon.com and thank goodness it is so tasty! Barney Butter tastes a lot like peanut butter to me, but it is a little richer in flavor. I love the chunky bits of whole almonds. Yum.
Barney Butter is not made from almonds alone. The addition of palm fruit oil (not the same as palm kernel oil) and a little evaporated cane sugar might bug some super healthy people. Overall, Barney Butter only contains 3g of sugar so we aren’t talking about a huge issue here.
MaraNatha Almond Butter
The big deal: See looong description for Barney Butter above!
The verdict: I don’t like it at all. This tasted really bitter to me and it was a weird consistency…sort of runny. MaraNatha almond butter contains only almonds and nothing else so it is definitely the purer product. However, I’ll take the cane sugar if it makes the product taste 100x better.
This stuff can be pricey too! Pub.lix sells a tiny jar for $11.99 and I’m so glad I didn’t buy it there. I was roaming the aisles of Costco one day for free samples and noticed a huge jar for only $5.75 so I decided to try it. I doubt I will dip my knife in it again. I don’t like wasting large amounts of calories on stuff that doesn’t taste good.
Kale Chips
The big deal: Duh! Leafy green vegetables are good for you!
The verdict: I’ve read about kale chips on numerous blogs but only tried them out last week. They are freakin’ delicious! Comparisons to real potato chips are sort of laughable because come on…this is kale. I do see a slight similarity in that both are salty and a little oily though. These chips come out really light and crispy and sort of melt in your mouth. Once I started eating these I couldn’t stop. As I type this, I have a big bunch of kale in my office refrigerator and all I can think about is getting back home to make some more kale chips.
Cooking was tricky to me as some chips came out soggy. I’ll have to play around with the baking a bit but I’m about to work that situation out so that I can increase my yield of yummy chips. I can’t wait to experiment with different seasonings although a simple olive oil and sea salt combination was excellent.
Note: No one sends me anything free to try (how I wish they would!) so my opinions not influenced in any way by the need to please sponsors.
I am a rebel when it comes to trying things that have been hyped…like Barney Butter. I got so sick of reading about it that I refused. And the price of almond butter is cuh-ray-zee to me. But after reading this I’m heading to amazon to order.
LOL! Sometimes I want to see what the hype is about if it doesn’t put me out too much!