One morning not too long ago I reached into the silverware drawer for a large spoon with which to eat my healthy breakfast. But there were none. “What happened to all the big spoons?” I asked myself. Then I remembered. The peanut butter binge.
For some reason over the previous couple of days, I had been engaged in a rampant love affair with my newly opened jar of natural peanut butter. This was not my usual dalliance of a smear on an apple. This was a full-blown co-dependent relationship. Spoon in jar; peanut butter on spoon; spoon and peanut butter in mouth. And my former portion control with the delectable spread seemingly had vanished and I gave in to the craving for more. And more. Which required a clean spoon over and over again. Because even though I am the only one who eats the natural PB in our house, I am still not a double (or triple or quadruple) dipper!
So there you have it – mystery of the vanishing spoons solved. Someone, who shall remain nameless, used them for repeated forages into the peanut butter jar. And somehow over the course of a couple of days, the jar became empty. Now I wonder how that happened?
So it seems that my previously healthy love affair with peanut butter has evolved into something unsavory (which is a bit of an oxymoron since the offending food item is quite savory indeed). There is an as-yet unopened jar in my pantry. I think I will let it stay that way for a while. Until I am quite sure that the PB has loss some of its grip on me. Until I believe that it can once again hold a special place in my heart without holding hostage to my cravings. Until then, I will abstain from all nut butters, because I have a suspicion the the spoons would have also vanished if the jar contents had said “almond.”
Have you ever experienced anything similar? Mysterious disappearances? Seemingly self-emptying food containers? Food love affairs gone amuck?
Waisting Time 
Yep! Food love affairs gone amuck……Oreo’s
I am going to admit it here… I ate two Oreos at the lake this weekend. Shouldn’t have eaten them. And don’t give me credit for not eating more – there were hardly any in the bag decimated by teen boys.
I cannot be trusted around chips…
Well that old Lays add was correct for most of us but I think the reality is that we can’t eat just one of ANY kind of chip!
Oops. “Ad.”
Oh gosh, yes. Oreos. I can demolish half a package, or 2/3rds of a package–KNOWINGLY, mind you, and just plain decide not to stop. Yeah.
Mac and cheese-Worse than oreos.
When I am doing really well, I can have Oreos here for my boys and not touch them. When I am not doing well… you can guess. Mac and cheese is a staple for my son who is in college; when he is home soon he will eat it most days. I try to stay far away!
Too funny. Loved it… I think you are so darn funny! Go buy you some more spoons girlfriend!
My husband told me he found this very interesting since he wondered where all the spoons had gone that day! He says it is okay for me to double dip in my own jar:)
Um, yes. I’ve had that problem with peanut butter. I had a stint where I was sprinkling a few (or more) chocolate chips on top of the peanut butter spoon(s). Not cool.
Oh there are NO chocolate chips in this house. I learned that lesson the hard way long ago.
I have a secret love affair with all nuts in any form and fashion. Your blog wants me to get my secret stash of almonds and munch. Or how about some fruit with peanut butter. Or… OK, I better go for a run or this will end badly.
Here is the funny thing – I would be much more likely to overeat the peanut butter than just peanuts themselves. I guess I like it more. Or maybe it is something with the texture. Don’t know. But sorry to get your mind going toward food.
LOL! Nut butters can be a real problem for me. They are so good but they make me want more! I pretty much steer clear of them too!
I have in the past eaten entire jars of this or that or a bag of something in one day! I don’t ever want to visit those kind of eating frenzies again. No,never!
I think those days for you are a thing of the past:) I tried almond butter again before this last vanishing PB jar. I don’t like it quite as much so thought it would be safer. It was, mostly, but darn I just want the peanut butter.
I am so happy I am not the only one. I made the switch to almond butter last week to avoid my forbidden peanut butter love. Almond butter was a good move – I don’t like it near as much – yet like it enough. Unfortunately, I tried another brand today that is tastier..the cycle continues.
Maybe we should both try cashew butter? I wonder if the nutritional values are the same or not.
It happens frequently to everyone in my family. EVeryone but me. Because I’m the problem.
Well since no on eats this but me, no on can complain but me. But let me tell you that my teen has certainly been known to yell out “Who ate my…” Fill in the blank. He has such self-control and eats in moderation and only when he is hungry. Where does he get that?!
Peanut Butter Haiku for Karen
A spoon in a jar
Peanut butter on the spoon
Peanut butter binge.
LOVE the Haiku!!
creativity makes everything so much better.
I love that! Thank you. And I am still smiling and chuckling.
White oreos. Never again. Ever. Little crack cookies.
I can relate to the natural peanut butter – much more so than regular Skippy. Something about the gritty consistency makes it irresistable, so I can’t buy it. Just can’t. In WW decades ago, they had red light, green light and yellow light foods. Each person had to determine the yellow and red for themselves. Red = gauranteed binge. Yellow = Could very well lead to binge – not always. Yellow turned to red for me with NPB!
When I did WW they kept talking about red light foods and I finally had to ask about what it meant. Never heard the other lights though. The longer I do this diet thing the more red light foods I discover. I guess that will be a post topic someday. Have you ever written about the three colors?
that is Hilarious!!!
Every now and then… my husband will get a hankering for something and say, hey… what happened to the cheesy crackers, (or whatever)? I usually just give him a look to let him know he’s stepped into some dangerous territory. Duh! Don’t make me face it. How can I eat mindlessly when someone notices?
Luckily that doesn’t happen often anymore. (fingers crossed)
Oh that’s funny too! I wish having my husband notice was a big enough deterrent for me. He did appreciate this post today though because he had wondered what happened to all the big spoons:)
Although I know this love affair is not funny to you, I was laughing thru your post & thinking how many of us are nodding our heads!!!! I love PB!!!! I so have to be careful! Maybe when you start up again, only keep baby spoons in ahe house.. you know those tiny little ones for the jars of bay food, not the adult little spoons. Me, I use my finger since I eat the PB in this house! 😉
For a while, I fell in love with the Kashi Go Lean granola cereal that had all the good fiber & protein. Too yummy for me.. gone from the house!
I have those spoons! We kept them around for little nephews, etc. Hmmm. And I banned any kind of granola long ago:( It was too good just dry as a snack.
First off, sorry for the typos! I am getting so lazy about checking that!
OK, I don’t want to be the cause of your climbing out of PB hell again! 😉
oh my gosh – I can do the same thing with peanut butter. I also eat the natural kind. It’s just so unbelievably amazing – it can go on anything, apples, celery, graham crackers, saltines, and of course on a spoon. Yum. When I was a kid my dad used to cut the core out of an apple and fill it up with peanut butter – divine.
But the one thing I can’t stop myself with is white cheddar cheese-its. There’s nothing better – I try not to buy them.
I have never had those. My oldest son ate tons of the regular kind in his day so we had them in the house all the time. Then he went to college and I found out my younger son, who is a self-professed cheese hater, likes them too! I had gone ages and ages without eating them but actually reached into the box in the car on the long drive home from my major binge weekend a couple of weeks ago. Yum. Ugh
bananas. I’m sorry, I’m still thinking about things peanut butter can go with. mmmm…
That is yummy. But my favorite way is on an apple. Or off the spoon. Celery – blech!
We have to “hide” the peanut butter in our house. It’s the only think that DH (who has been at WW lifetime for almost 2 years w/o ever going over his goal weight) has any trouble. So I buy the pnb and “hide” in in the pull out drawer that has the blender. He knows it’s there, but, because it’s “hidden,” he doesn’t get into it. I like to dip a spoon (a virtuously sized teaspoon! lol) in the pnb every once in a while, but, really, because it’s mostly out of sight, I forget about it. Now if we’re talking about dark chocolate, I ALWAYS know, and remember, exactly where it is. I have to buy in very small portions to keep myself from main-lining it!
Funny that is the only thing that tempts him. And yet he manages to resist with this little trick. My memory had gotten worse so I could actually forget something if I hid it well enough:) But not my PB which lives in the fridge.
As much as I’d love to say I’ve forgotten about one of my past binges after the fact I cannot 😦 I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten out of control with peanut butter! *sigh*
I seem to have a lot of binge foods in common with others. Triscuits certainly struck a chord with a lot of dieters too.
Oh, I can run through the whole supply of spoons in the drawer playing that game with ice cream. Then, I squeeze the carton and mush the ice cream upward so that it “looks” (to me) like I haven’t eaten so much.
You’re not talking to an amateur here.
Oh you are funny:) I don’t even keep ice cream in the house. I think the difference for me is that, in theory, peanut butter is a healthy food so I think I should be able to have it here. There is no fooling myself about ice cream and no moderation for me with sweets. Except I could have plain Jane vanilla around for ages and ages if there wasn’t any hot fudge or sprinkles to go on top:)
Oh yes, Natural pb is a problem for me. and I must be very cautious with the Bare Naked Granola, too.
I do like the pb and celery option, and to limit myself I measure it out and then put the jar away otherwise I am more likely to empty the jar – no spoons needed!
Oh I put the jar away. Each time! Maybe the celery should become the new dipping spoon:)
Yeah, I’ve done the same. Er, similar. My problem was the disappearing spoons due to a Nutella binge.
Visiting from the LBS Social Tea. Have a great Saturday!
I have not had Nutella since I went to Europe decades ago! But I see it on the shelf here right next to the peanut butter.
Hi!
Just stopped by from the Lady Bloggers! I’ve commented there too!
P.S. I loveeee peanut butter
Thanks for visiting and for you sweet comment there:)
hahahaa.. love it.
Dropping by from the LBS Tea Party
Nice to meet you:) Thanks for visiting.
Just last night we had a discussion at our dinner table about the suddenly empty ice cream container. Apparently someone is sneaking into our house a night eating ice cream. It must be the same person who leaves towels all over the floor in the bathroom everyday!
Oh that’s funny! We have not had ice cream in the house in ages. The best flavors disappeared the fastest; vanilla lasted forever.
too funny…i love peanut butter too!
Seems to be one of those “love it” or “don’t eat it at all” types of foods.
Oh yeah – I have a love affair with Girl Scout Thin Mints.
My hubby had to destroy the last box….*sig*
OMG – that is almost sacrilegious! I am very grateful that the girl scouts in our neighborhood have seemingly all grown up and no one came knocking this year.
Oh BTW I found you through LBS
A friend of mine calls peanut butter her ‘gateway drug’. She literally can not keep it in the house because she will eat it all – and then eat everything else in sight. Those darn trigger foods!
I get that whole terminology as relates to food, sadly. For me this past spring, I discovered Triscuits did the same thing. I don’t have them in the house anymore. Sigh.
I have the exact same issue with peanut butter! I had to stop buying it because, no matter what I told myself, I would binge on it every time. And then I’d have to lose half my life on the elliptical to make up for it.
It’s such magical stuff, peanut butter. Good spread on almost anything.
Getting the urge to go buy some now. Uh oh.
No – don’t do it!! I am usually fine with PB portion control and am really hoping that this little binge won’t be repeated because I would hate to banish peanut butter from my house like I have some other foods.
Oh yes! Things go missing in my house all the time. It usually happens when my husband “can’t sleep” and stays up all night like a giant raccoon going through our fridge and cupboards. When I wake up in the morning I don’t go the pantry or fridge. I go straight to the sink and counters. I find empty egg cartons, fruit trays, jars what ever he can access easily in the sink. I was going to write a post about this and now I don’t need to. Hope your unopened peanut butter jar stays that way for a while!
I find all sorts of things empty in the night here too. My husband is the one who waits up for our teen to come home and we both find the later we stay up the more we eat.
I go through these all the time! And then I will hit a point where I do not want to look at the food, eat it, and wont think about it for a long time.. of course that is how it all ends up back at the beginning becoming an obsession food. Lately its been popcorn, who knows why, I dont!
*hopped over from lady bloggers :)* Great post!
I guess I do that too! One food for a while, then move on to another. Hadn’t thought about it. Popcorn is a great one though if it is not the buttery, oil-popped kind:)
The food in my house always disappears mysteriously and at a rapid rate. I guess having two boys at home might explain it…
Oddly enough my boys have never been the biggest culprits in our house. My husband and I are!
I spent so much time eating peanut butter out of jars with jelly out of jars (and no bread ever!) that these two foods are on my “red light” list – basically I haven’t had them for ten years! Crazy stuff!
Jelly doesn’t do it for me at all. Unless I was having a sandwich and needed it to cut the PB stickiness:) I am discovering way too many red light foods. Someday I may post about that concept.
It seems like nut butters are a common binge food for a lot of people, myself included. I definitely have experience with going back for spoonful after spoonful after spoonful. It’s great that you’re taking some time to ensure that you are controlling the peanut butter, rather than the other way around!
I don’t want to have to cut it out completely, as I have with a couple of other foods that I just could not control. Peanut butter is usually my friend:)
Hey at least it is only peanut butter and not cookie dough. I love peanut butter. Natural all the way. I was raised on it.
I have many red light foods but not healthy ones.
I used to have only unhealthy ones. Then I learned that I can overeat the good stuff too. Sigh. Bread is a big problem for me now – even the healthy kind.
Too funny. I’m glad your spoons didn’t all just get up and leave.
I only like my PB with some kind of bread or cracker … don’t even like it with apples. A childhood thing, I’m sure. 🙂
When I am not watching the “bad” carbs, I love it on Saltines. And I love it on a piece of whole grain bread. Actually, I feel like I could write a Dr. Suess book about it… I could eat it here or there. I could eat in anywhere!
I always eat more almonds than I plan to. I don’t know how, but they just disappear! Popcorn seems to go a lot faster than it should, too…
Thankfully, I’ve never really let myself eat peanut butter from a spoon, so I don’t know how amazingly delicious it might be. Nut butters are knife-only foods, meant to be scooped from the container and spread on something. I think that helps me keep a little more control. Allowing spoons to dip in would inevitably end in disaster, for both me and the nut butter!
That’s a good technique, limiting the utensil. Maybe I need to try that.
In past days I could have eaten a half jar of peanut butter in just one day. Sad, but true. I also loved Oreos, chips and chocolate in great quantities.
Oreos are killer! I actually ate two out of my son’s stash on my lake house binge. Bad:(
That is so funny! I was on a peanut butter kich last year. I agree! I am the only one that eats
the smooth peanut butter, but I can not double dip either!
Thank you sooooooooo much for your comment. Blogging makes me VERY happy. And I shall continue!
Thank you for commenting ,
Have a pretty day!
Kristin
My husband told me, after reading this, that it is okay to double dip in a jar only I use. But the bottom-line is I just need to keep a spoon out of that jar:)
sorry! kick
VITA TOPS.
they are no longer allowed in the domicile.
Miz.
I have, over the years, tried a variety of “healthy” muffin alternatives. There were some great high fiber, low-cal recipes from my Weight Watchers days. But for me, muffins are just toooo appealing. Tops, bottoms, the whole shebang.
I am this way with chips and stuff- and my husband will buy chips I LIKE then leave them around the house. Only until I told him he was cruel to do that did he get better about hiding them from me. Now he either takes them to work to eat or eats them in his office where he knows I rarely go to 🙂
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Beet pickled eggs… I know its weird, but every time I make a batch of 20 they are gone in 3 or 4 days… I LOVE them! I’ve stopped making them, because I just can’t control myself and while I’m sure they’re not THAT bad for you… to much of anything is never good.