My 3 y/o is on a PB&J kick and it has come to a drastic halt since starting preschool. He attends a peanut-free school. I am looking for a good replacement to peanut butter. I love Nutella, but I'm not sure if I want to introduce it to him yet.
I have heard of sunflower, soy and almond butter. Which one do you prefer and which brand?
EDIT - The school is definitely only peanut free, other nuts are okay. We had an extensive lists of acceptable and unacceptable foods. They lists the different alternative "butters" but I don't know where to start.
We use almond, cashew and sunflower in a rotation. I get mine at Trader Joes, because I've found it to be the cheapest. Do they have TJ in Florida? My son is also a big fan of cream cheese and jelly sandwiches if you are looking for another alternative.
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We prefer almond butter the best. If it's too expensive, you can just send almonds through your food processor. It takes a while but it is just the same as what you buy. I didn't know you could do that until I saw the directions in my Cuisinart manual.
You may want to see if the school is all nut free.... some of the other nuts may be a problem for some kids...just depends on whether they are allergic to tree nuts, too.
Costco sells almond butter as well as most grocery stores.
I love almond butter. I get it at Walmart. Not sure of the brand name, but it's the only almond butter and it's in the peanut butter section. It seems like it would be hard to spread, though. I eat it on apple slices.
i second sunflower butter. Lots of those come with labels that specify ''peanut free'' and ''made in a facility that does not process it''... You might want to check out cashew butter too or Nutella(which is cocoa powder mixed with hazlenut butter) but having tried them all sunflower is the closest to taste and texture but my kids would fly to the moon for Nutella.(dont hold me to Nutella being processed in a peanut free facility though, even though most things arent and im sure they just want you to eliminate peanuts directly and not that)
Almond butter , although very good, is a very different creature altogether.
Almond butter - it tastes just like peanut butter, although it's very oily, and expensive.
You know nutella and almond butter both have nuts in them lol. I would take him to a deli / Subway and let him try different sandwhiches and see what he will take.
Sunflower butter tastes very close to peanut butter....if you close your eyes and taste it you won't be able to taste the difference. The oil separates some so you have to make sure you mix it first.
I second the homemade almond butter. Yummy! Send some almonds through a good food processor and voila! Enjoy!
Almond butter is sooo good. I get it fresh from mill in my local grocery store. I know plenty of health food stores have mills too.
Sunbutter.
Before you purchase almond butter, make sure your school is only peanut free and not tree nut free, as well.
I like the Maranatha brand almond butter at Wal-Mart. (It might be in other stores too. We just don't have any here.) They have a no-stir kind that doesn't separate too much, and it is available in creamy or crunchy. I like the creamy. Yummy with jelly, apple butter, syrup, honey, or just plain.
Good luck!
Sunbutter (brand of sunflower seed butter) and almond butter are much better, imo, than soy nut butter. However, while I used to eat PB straight (no jam/jelly), I can't handle either Sunbutter or almond butter straight like I could PB. (I loved, loved, loved PB, but it's banned from our house bec. has a severe peanut allergy).
I like humus a lot. It's obviously not the same thing or even a substitute for PB, but it definitely has some of that "specialness" that PB does (I think they call it umame?). Humus & triangles of whole wheat pita are super yummy.
There are other nut butters out there, too, like cashew, but I haven't tried them.
My son's school served soybutter sandwiches last year and switched to sunbutter this year. I haven't tried either of those, but I did like the cashew butter we tried once.
